Painting Southern Yellow Pine?

[PeteM]

Any issues painting SYP?
I'm a bit concerned as it's a lot more resinous (sp?) than common pine.
I'm thinking a thin coat of shellac as a sealer and exterior gloss oil base enamel topcoat.
It's for some deck chairs that will be outside year round.

TIA - pete

[Joe Scharle]

Due to it's liquid content SYP will move a lot. The nearest I've come to success is with barn paint. But even then, it hasn't been great. Sorry to waste your time, but I want to be on the notification list for your thread in case someone does have the answer.
Joe

[PeteM]

Hey Joe - Don't be sorry!

After posting this I did some googling and the result was that painting SYP is a no win deal. Like you said, between the movement and moisture/resin content paint just ain't gonna stick to it.

Most places say use cedar instead.

pete

[Travis Porter]

Painted it, does ok. Sealing the knots is key. Trim on my shop is SYP and put two coats of Sherwin Williams best paint and has held up pretty well. I wouldn't say great, but pretty well.

[Gillie]

Behr opaque stain might be an option, but it's meant for exterior and might stink for a while.

[4yanks]

I have painted a few SYP projects and so far no issues (several years later). I did seal them with de-waxed shellac first. For an outdoor project you may wish to consider an oil-based paint.

[Ozzie-x]

I fought the yellow pine german siding on my first house for years and never really found a good solution. I tried various brands of oil base paints, the best grades by various manufacturer's and still the paint would start going to crap after only a couple of years. I tried priming, sanding, pressure washing, hot rod expensive paint additives, all to no avail. A lot of it has to do with the environment here, we have a lot of moisture here in the mountains and I think that is one of the biggest factors. Combine that with 40+ degree temperature swings during the day and it's a real test for paint, especially on yellow pine. So I don't really have any good advice for you to solve your problem, just some more experiences to underscore the dilema. Like someone ,entioned, some of the new exterior stain products might be worth a try and contact the stain mfgr for any tips or advice they may have for using their product on YP. Most mfgrs are usually helpful with such things.

[Gofor]

I moved here from Fla last Oct. My house there was built in 1982 with R B& B siding, which is mainly a SYP Pine plywood. It was stained originally. That lasted about a year. After paying professionals to paint it every four years with the $21 gal lifetime paint, and having it peel badly, I finally took a sidewinder sander and took it down to bare wood. (84 eight" 35 grit sanding discs later) I primed it with waterbased primer, and topcoated with two coats of Lowe's Signature series semi-gloss. That was in 1999. Before I sold the house in 2005, I pressure cleaned it and put one more coat of paint on it, no chipping or peeling. In the areas under the eaves and where the sun didn't hit it, it still looked as good as the fresh coat I put on it (I didn't paint under the eaves because I didn't need to).
Lessons I think I learned:
1. Don't use oil-based paint. The moisture will get under it and it will peel.
2. Semi-gloss lasts better than flat, and high gloss is best
3. For out door use, use latex on wood, because it "breathes", letting the moisture out after the wood absorbs it.
3. If the furniture will be in the shade most of the time, a quality semi- or high gloss latex will probably meet your needs, altho you probably will need to pressure clean it occasionally.
4. The lighter the color, the better the UV resistance (I had painted the trim white, while the rest of the house was gray. The white trim, even tho it was in the sun, did not require repainting).
My $.02

P.S> The paint may have needed pressure cleaning earlier, but we had several hurricanes that took care of that for me!!

[PeteM]

After much debate and procrastination I ended up going with the '"Gripper" primer sealer by Glidden (it says it holds on SYP on the label) topcoated with a white semi-gloss latex. Looks good for now. We'll have to wait to see how it looks in a year or two.

[NCPete]

Pete, that is a great looking chair!

[D L Ames]

Great looking chair Pete. Hopefully your finish will hold up for you on the SYP. There was a lot of good input to this thread and I look forward to you providing us with some feed back on how your finish holds up through the seasons.

D L

[PeteM]

Thanks for the kind words
It was supposed to be a prototype but it came out pretty good so I painted it and put it on the porch. Based on a plan from American Woodworker. It has sliding dovetails connecting the front legs to the arms and the back legs to the stretcher. The arms, back rail and back slats are joined by mortise and tenons. It's pretty solid. It might need paint in a year but it ain't fallin' apart
Now I'm working on a loveseat based on the same design out of cypress.

pete

[ncpeter6368]

Hi their Pete

Gripper has always been a great tool in my arsenal, if I'am unsure about what someone else did prior to me coming along and painting it, i'll use gripper to be asured that my coat of paint is going to stick. Bye the way, it really turned out good. NICE JOB!!

[Gofor]

Looks great. I'll bet the cypress ones will really stand out!