# Anyone on here ever actually done a linseed oil repaint job? red sox fans?



## jordanski (Feb 5, 2009)

I've got all the catalogs but never been able to find the right match with homeowners. I know you'd have to bid higher as both coats go on light with a brush, no sprayer, no oversized roller.. 

Certainly one of you red sox fans has done this? all the linseed oil is grown up around there as far as I know. I can't get anyone to bite on a 50 year paintjob yet myself... Everyone wants it cheap and toxic.

I am gonna build a raw fir/cedar fence next to my vegetable garden this year with the cedar boards, 2x4s, and 4x4s sealed with linseed oil/pine tar mix. All natural nontoxic and last forever! will post pics.

so somebody must be doin it or it wouldn't be for sale, no?
jordan

papi and big unit get comeback player of the year awards this year... you heard it here first.


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## NEPS.US (Feb 6, 2008)

There are a ton of us here ....Sox fans!!!! :thumbup: 
The only thing I've used linseed oil for has been the inside of old cedar gutters.


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## daArch (Mar 15, 2008)

'scuse me jordanski, did you just have three double expresso's. 

I mean I thought I was A.D.D. , but jeeepers man, that was like .... well, impressive.

Yes I have worked with linseed oil paints. 

Pine tar not toxic ? Linseed oil not toxic? I think you need to stop trying to prove that.


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## jordanski (Feb 5, 2009)

*nah*



daArch said:


> 'scuse me jordanski, did you just have three double expresso's.
> 
> I mean I thought I was A.D.D. , but jeeepers man, that was like .... well, impressive.
> 
> ...


I was referring to the region, everything I've read about old linseed paint jobs that are still existing is in the mass. area... and I'm a baseball man, so that's sox nation country... and I respect that organization, and being from the nw is rough, no real baseball teams out here... it's a pretty obscure subject for most painters... I've stripped one but never had a chance to do a re-paint...

I'd rather not have a pressure-treated fence disintegrating around my garden, nor color stain... so no I'm not trying to prove anything or sell anyone on it, to each his own... you right though, shoulda said less toxic.

thanks for your thoughtful insight...
J


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## plainpainter (Nov 6, 2007)

All the linseed oil paint jobs around here are lead based as well. And true the paint jobs do last fairly well - lumber/siding was more dimensionally stable a hundred years ago - but after a hundred years of 'recoats' - 'new' New Englanders just don't understand that sometimes you just have to start back with new siding. And the fact that the last 'true' oil exterior paint jobs were done in the 60's - the modern latexes that go on top of them haven't 'nourished' the older layers of paint with a dousing of oil.

But in this day in age with the marshmallow spongy cedar siding and pine trim we get these days - I wouldn't bother with oil based paints. I did an exterior paint of a new addition two years ago - I used cabot's oil solid stain on the factory primed clapboards - I reprimed the trim boards and put a coat of exterior high gloss oil paint - the job is looking still great after two years. But it's dinosaur technology. And even as a die-hard fan I am of oil based primers - the products that XIM and Maddog have been putting out have seriously made me reconsider my position on this.


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## Quaid? (Mar 13, 2009)

me and my father still paint the house with Olymic linseed oil paint. it holds nice, a messy bitch to work with, but the paint lasts a while. the barn my grandpa did probably 20 years ago with red still looks like new


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## jordanski (Feb 5, 2009)

*yup*

plainpainter...

I've used some of that XIM super primer stuff and gotta be the nastiest fume this side of boatbuilding... 

I agree with what you're saying, though you can still get pretty good wood up here if you know where to look... I use a few choice lumber yards and work with a couple of guys who mill their own stuff straight from indy tree farms. I just retainered a guy yesterday for 350 lin. ft. of 1x8 clear fir TNG floorboards for a covered porch on one of my projects and it's not old growth but man it is golden. I agree that what I see the spec builders using is flim flam, especially that rough cedar pre-primed trim, I just hate that, all mixed up with hardie and fake brick and shingles that cup after one rainy season.:no: I rarely see anything but big crews of illegals painting those throw-up-quick townhomes and such.

From what I understand linseed oil needs a refresher coat of clear oil on a repaint schedule (prob 5-7 years in our rough climate) to really last the way it's supposed to... I've also heard you need to get the purified oil or mildew will feed on the other stuff in it (fatty deposits or simple sugars or something).

I've got a supplier for earth pigment linseed oil paints, but it's never came up...

I guess I'd like to once in my career do an old school job, you know, just to honor my ancestors, so to speak.

I've done a couple of alkyd oil re-paints, no thanks!!!
J


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## jordanski (Feb 5, 2009)

*speaking of lousy oil jobs...*

Best oil story ever:

Before I went into business for myself I worked for a dude who stuck me with painting this house for this lesbian couple (no problem there, read on...)

It was in the heart of the old blue collar black neighborhood in town. Two shades of LOUD pink with fuchsia colored oil on all the security bars for the windows!!! For two weeks the whole hood just ripped me a new ass.

I had old brothas comin' up to me like "cot damm boy! what you doin? that ain't no man's house!" and packs of little kids on bmx bikes like "hey mister, why you paintin' your house pink?" and the teenagers.... "gay ass crackah!" all day every day! 

and this is the hood I grew up in...went to high school there....

BRUTAL! my whites looked so ridiculous I had to throw them out in a load to the local Goodwill thrift store after that job... but, god's truth, about six months later I see this 20 yr. old gay hipster kid walking down broadway rockin' a tank top and my fuchsia & pink paint-spattered painter's pants! 

I still crack up everytime I drive past that job.


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## plainpainter (Nov 6, 2007)

jordandski - oil everything is just so nasty these days. Folks ask about the oil interior trim repaints - and I flat let them know between $6/gallon of thinner nasty brush cleanup - fumes - it's double the price, I can't stand the stuff anymore. They tell me - but I don't want to see the brush marks - I tell them that I don't care, if they want that 'brushless' look - then they can pay extra. Not to mention - oil paints dry a lot quicker than they use to - they aren't as 'brushless' in appearance as they use to be.


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## jordanski (Feb 5, 2009)

*plastic looking trim*



plainpainter said:


> jordandski - oil everything is just so nasty these days. Folks ask about the oil interior trim repaints - and I flat let them know between $6/gallon of thinner nasty brush cleanup - fumes - it's double the price, I can't stand the stuff anymore. They tell me - but I don't want to see the brush marks - I tell them that I don't care, if they want that 'brushless' look - then they can pay extra. Not to mention - oil paints dry a lot quicker than they use to - they aren't as 'brushless' in appearance as they use to be.


why not tell them that they won't be able to do any touch-ups on a brushless looking trim? I think it makes wood look like mdf that way anyway... you see that look more on the new suburban houses here... if they've got a plaster classic I would think they are trippin' and just have no class if they want that look...

I have a friend who swears he can get that look with the right tip and an airless turned way down, with no brush-back and a little floetrol and latex... and I think he's a great painter, maybe you can sell them on something like that...personally I have no interest in that kind of work, too hair-raising and all preparation, masking, drops, primer coat, moving their stuff, zipwalls, etc. boring... and I agree, oil is not the same price or same job as latex, and generally I just pass on it...

I've seen him do doors with water-based enamel that way and they came out perfect, no tailing marks, two coats on both sides in a day...

J


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## mwmcelhinney (Apr 28, 2008)

*Fence won't look good.*

Jordanski.

I see that you would like your fence to be non-toxic given that it is next to a vegetable garden. Linseed oil is the standard for wood preservation. As far as the pine tar, it is not exactly in use any longer. If you are going to soak all your fencing in this mixture it will take weeks to cure. And it will repel water as would be your primary concern if you didn't care what the fence looked like. Given that you are in Seattle the fence will probably turn black with all the mold growth. The linseed oil and pine tar are both organic compounds that algae just love. To be honest with you, the fence will probably not look the best. You should also be concerned that you will probably take the approach that once its treated, its always treated. The treatment will only last for so long. If you are treating the fence with a standard stain you would do it every 3 years, roughly. For the most part, look at the wood and pay attention to what it is doing. Your approach to treating the fence is actually going backwards, you want non- toxic treatment. Don't treat it. I guess if you really want non- toxic dont build a fence, when you cut the cedar you release toxic dust into the air that is harmful to the lungs. If you just get a good stain and make sure it just gets on the wood, you're going to be ok with the veggies. If you want an aged fence, then you might want to explore other options of waterproofing. As far as your mixture, you are just doing it because it eases your mind. It is not the most effective way to treat your fence.


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## tsunamicontract (May 3, 2008)

wait . . . . what? Whats going on here?


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