Derek said:

> Any paint man knows that the performance of a
> coating is fundamentally dependant upon the adhesion of the coating to the
> substrate.Whats the good of a perfect coating which has poor adhesion,
> especially wet adhesion?

Sand first or use roughsawn, coat with 100% acrylic latex and you won't get
poor adhesion - in fact, it sticks to just about anything.  Don't use cheap
paint.

> Here they use semi-transparent long-oil alkyd based
> coatings of low viscosity and lower solids content than common oil paints.

All high quality exterior alkyd paints use long oils.  If they didn't, they
would peel within a year.  Stains are naturally "low viscosity" - that
happens when you thin paint.

> Water-based coatings
> raise the surface fibres giving rise to " wicks "

Yes, water based paints raise grain:  a non-issue on exterior finishes,
unless you're into hand rubbed Japanese lacqer finishes on your hives :)

> unless you sand between
> coats.

 Nonsense.  No sane person sands between coats of exterior latex paint.


> Latex paints give flexible films but some can also " block " or stick
> when they touch - a real pain on the interfaces of hive bodies.

Why would you paint there?  Hive tools just chew the hell out of it anyway.

> How long do
> you expect the coating to last?

Premium 100% acrylic latex paints now often come with 20 year warranties.
You won't find this in alkyd/oil base.  Show me a can of alkyd/oil base
paint with such a warranty, and I'll send you $20 American.

> Isn4t it more important to avoid repainting
> woodwork because the coating has blistered or chipped?

We covered this already.  Good adhesion/primer to start, breathable paint
film on top.  Won't peel.

> Problems like
> chalking are really irrelevant to hive painting,

Not true.  Try putting a fresh coat of paint over chalk dust... Tell me how
long you think it will last?

> Eventually I
> suspect that all solvent-based paints will disappear largely for reasons
of
> convenience - a great pity.

Not convenience, rather VOC emissions limitations.  I'm sure the EU will
soon be stomping over the same ground the U.S. is now - limiting VOC
emissions from solvent based paints.

> As I wrote earlier, I use Bondex a Scandinavian
> product ( I have no commercial interest )

I'll have to try it.

> Sorry if this doesn4t fit the
> current vogue for wood treatment but you wanted my comment.
> Regards Derek Steed
>

No "vogue" here, just 15 years experience and research, and feeling the need
to warranty my work.

Todd
Signs Of Distinction
www.distinctsigns.com

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