July 28th: Half the shed painted!
July 2010 – the original frontage
I moved into the house in 1996 and until 2010 the river frontage of the end-of-jetty “shed” was how it had originally been constructed. But facing the river it is very exposed to the elements so in the summer of 2010, with the help of friends Zoe and Jon, I replaced the frontage with some new doors and windows.
October 2010 – the new shed frontage
The woodwork was painted before it was installed, and therefore before the glass was installed, with wood preservative and then Sadolin “Wood Stain”. However I was surprised at the time that the coloured wood stain was really more like paint than what I had imagined. It claimed to last six years, and I hoped for more!
June 5th, 2020: time to start!
So, after about 8 years the “wood stain” was really needing renewal but I baulked at the effort of painting around all those small window panes. Come 2020, and in lockdown due to the covid virus, it desperately needed repainting and it seemed a good time to do it. However I wanted to use “Barn Paint” as recommended by a neighbour and during the initial lockdown it was not possible to obtain it.
3rd July – Most of the old paint stripped.
Anyway, by June I had managed to buy the paint together with Nitromors and sanding pads for the oscillating sander and for the multitool so it was time to start. The Nitromors did not work well on the “wood stain” with refused to bubble and was particularly hard to scrape off where it had weathered.
However eventually I got most of it back to bare wood. Some bits I simply rubbed done because they were hard to get at but, fortunately, were also more sheltered and hence less weathered.
28th July – finished!
I masked the window panes and for the knots (which had seeped resin) I applied a thinned coat of Bedec “Stain Block” followed by two full strength coats. I then applied a thinned coat of Bedec Eucalyptus “Barn Paint” followed by two full strength coats. This all stretched over about two weeks due to the varying weather. I didn’t want to paint in full sunshine when it was impossible to maintain a wet edge, but at other times the air was either too humid or it was raining. There was no overcast but dry weather!
The result of taking so long was that the masking tape was hard to remove and I resorted to white spirit to remove the residual glue. Fortunately the woodwork on the left side of the shed is under a canopy and the paint work looks sound enough to simply rub down and paint over it.
