Painting outdoor wood furniture

[deke]

Hello - we have two wood Adirondack chairs that were painted white. The paint is peeling. I would like to paint them, but what is the best paint for outdoor furniture? Something I could get locally please.

Thanks!

[marksr]

Your local paint store [not dept] is the best place to find quality coatings.

Unless the chairs are in bad enough shape to require complete priming [use an exterior oil base primer] you need to know what type of paint is currently on them. Latex should be recoated with latex, oil with oil. Oil base primer can be top coated with either latex or oil. The folks at the paint store should be able to help you choose the best product [s] for your needs.

[Just Bill]

Paint on outside furniture is a bad idea. Should be stain, in whatever color you prefer. But you would need to strip the paint first. Paint puts a crust on the wood, and wood expands and contracts with weather changes, so the crust breaks open. Stains actually soak into the wood, and gradually wear away, no cracking, chiping.

[painter guy]

"painting wood outside is bad idea?" huh? Have a look around at the amount of wood that is on a lot of structures outside and it is all painted. The problem is that lots of people including contractors dont know how to do it correctly. Mark is correct with his mention of exterior oil primer. The chairs in question are peeling because someone probaly painted them with straight latex. Wood needs to be sealed in oil primer, scuffed again and then usually two topcoats of quality exterior acrylic. This procedure done correctly will
keep those chairs looking new for many years.

[XSleeper]

Correct me if I'm wrong, Painter_guy and marksr, but isn't it also true that you will get more life out of a paint job (on things such as exterior furniture) if you are able to disassemble, prime and paint all six sides of the lumber, and then reassemble? The idea being that you prevent the wood from soaking in moisture from the unpainted areas, which is often what causes some paint jobs to crack and peel prematurely?

[bclacquer]

xsleeper, you are correct. you will get longer life if you coat all six sides of the board. after assembly you should then put another coat over the screw heads. unfortunitly, very few people do this. Some companies, such as Sikkens, will not warenty some application locations (decks) if you do not do all six sides.

[Just Bill]

Quality stains are a fairly new developement in wood finishes, and they work better than paint. I said it and I am glad, so there.

[marksr]

The only problem with using stain on exterior furniture is it doesn't adequately seal the wood as far as keeping it as clean as some would like when they sit on it.

[bclacquer]

I think stains are great on these chairs, but Deke's are already painted. therefore he would have to strip them in order to stain them. he would have to get all of the paint out of the pores. that is a lot of work.

[AxlMyk]

Taking the chairs apart, then staining or painting all 6 sides won't do much good if they have to be glued back together.. The glue won't hold..

[XSleeper]

...and if the chairs are currently glued together, I doubt you will get them apart, so that's kind of a mute point.

[kegy]

Hi,
I found this forum & topic via Google. I just received some adirondack chairs from someone for free...they are in decent shape but need a little work. They are painted but the wood is a bit weathered & rough. The original poster is wanting to paint the chairs. I am wondering...before I paint them, what do I need to do to make the chairs smoother? Sand them? If so, do I need to remove the paint first?

I searched the forum and couldn't find an answer; sorry if this is redundant. I have never used this forum before.

Thanks for your help!

[AxlMyk]

If any of the glue joints are loose, and need to be reglued, staining or painting them won't help any..

[marksr]

Welcome to the forums kegy

Sanding to make the wood smooth may or may not require removal of all the paint. Just sand it until smooth, prime as necessary and paint.

[kegy]

thanks! don't want to go through all the work of stripping if we're just going to paint it. now we'll see if this works...

[nanlgan]

I also just recieved some unfinished adirondack chairs, I saw some in a catalogue that were painted and made to look rustic...how would I go about painting them and scuffing to look rustic...would I also have to apply some kind of sealer after the paint?