Pole barn garage needs painting - What do I use?

[JWK]

Hey All, we're fixing up our place to sell so we can get off this bowling alley five acres and buy us a decent farm.

I really need to paint the pole barn garage. We've been here 10 years and never painted it. I'm sure the faded red stuff on it is some kind of oil based stain of some sort. There's no peeling of any kind, just weathered down to wood in some areas and very faded in the best.

I looked at the Behr fence and barn paint. Some kind of oil/latex stuff. The Behr directions seem to say I need to prepare my previously stained and weathered siding with an awful lot of pain-in-the-neck work and priming. Also, the paint person at Home Depot said to prime with an oil based primer and then paint with the fence and barn stuff. That's also a lot of work and gets more than twice as expensive.

At another place, they want to sell Cabot solid color stain for just a hair under $50 a gallon. They say one coat will be fine. It should be for $50 a gallon. I must be getting old. The Behr fence and barn paint is $15 a gallon and $20 for the primer (if I really do need the primer) at Home Depot. I'm going to need at least 5 gallons and one gallon for the trim.

Anyone have experience with this kind of scenario? Any advice? Wow, I'm really frustrated. I don't want a big, expensive project for a garage that I'm selling, but at the same time I don't want to stick the people that end up buying our place with a badly done job that's peeling and looking bad after a year or two.

Thanks for any help.

[jwal10]

Wash with a strong water jet from a nozzle or lightly with a pressure washer and stain again, not paint. The stain soaks into the wood. You can use semi transparent or solid stain. I would use solid.

Just went to the paint store where DS got stain for his cabin, last fall. Solid stain, oil base. The paint man says he can no longer mix oil based stain, something about the pigments off gas. The goobermutt has shut it down, water base only for custom mixed stain....James

[Kasota]

There used to be really nice oil based barn paints but the EPA changed some rules and the new stuff is just not near as good.

[slingshot]

Definitely use the cheaper solid color...

Your selling it anyway, so the paint doesn't make a difference. What does is how it looks. Do a quality job and you will be rewarded at the sale. Byers want buildings to look nice and not need any maintenance right away.

Do a test spot and make sure what ever you get covers completely.

[Batt]

I can recommend these guys: http://grab-empaint.com/ Really good paint, their chemist will work with you.

[Glacialtill]

It comes down to that old saying: "Fast, cheap, or good. Pick two."

I paint for a living. Ideally, you'd scrape and wash the building. Then I'd go with a high quality (expensive) solid latex stain. 50 bucks a gallon does seem crazy. But you get what you pay for. And it will last. Most of the cost of painting is the labor.

In this case, maybe just hose the pole barn down and slap on a coat of cheap stain. It'll look good and you'll recoup your cost in the sale price. Probably won't last, but that won't be your problem. Look into mini-rollers at the paint shop. They can save a lot of time. You'll need a brush too for corners and whatnot and can also back brush the roller stain to smooth it out.

[BlackFeather]

My wife says just hose off the walls, let dry and the Behr paint you mentioned is fine, you don't have to do all that prep work, They just tell you that so they can sell you a power washer or other stuff. She said gliddon if its on sale is ok but her first choice is behr. (she worked in the paint dept of Home Depot.) She said the same as the previous post, once sold it's not your problem.