Paint or Stain?

[PJM20]

I have been making buildings for my garden railway. All of them are wood or mostly wood. Should I stain the wood and seal the wood or should I paint and seal the wood. My buildings are going to be in slight shade on the ground. The wood I'm using is plywood, redwood and SPF.

[ttrigg]

The answer depends on what you want the finished structure to look like.  Plywood needs a very good sealing otherwise it will peel apart.  You might consider something like Thompson Water Seal, and apply multiple coats.  Stain and sealing, for the most part, are mutually exclusive, both want to penetrate the wood, neither will last long when put on second as it cannot penetrate. Paint, whether house paint or rattle can, will adhere well to most any good/better quality sealants.  Other than “Marine grade”, plywood does not weather well unless properly sealed on ALL surfaces. On several occasions I have taken my project and dunk the whole thing into a 5-gallon pail of Thompsons.  I’ve kept it submerged for 3~4 minutes to ensure (over-kill) good penetration of all exterior and interior surfaces.  Some wood structures, like timber bridges, need to look like treated wood and I use a stains of the color I’m looking to achieve, I mix 50% turpentine so that I can get better penetration of the oils into the wood.

[mgilger]

I have been having good luck using deck paint. I tried deck stain and after 2 years, problems started to develop.  So far the deck paint has been holding up good after 3 years. I can usualy pick up mis match gallons at Home Depot for $5 a gallon. After painting the item with the deck paint, I can then apply another coat of house paint to what ever color is needed.  So the deck paint base color is not important, since the second coat, of a different color will be applied.

So far, so good.

Mark

[g. gage]

In addition to the previous comments, I always place my buildings on Hardy Backer Board rather than the ground. I’ve also been modeling concrete tilt-up buildings using Hardy Backer Board.

 Have fun, Rob