Advice about painting garden fence

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Advice about painting garden fence

xyeovillian

400 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 23

ID Verified

#233524 19-Apr-2018 17:05

I am half way cleaning my garden fence using a water blaster. We have been in the property for 15 years and the fence is about 20 years old.
I intend to paint the fence after cleaning and was thinking of spraying the fence, advice needed on which paint to use and how to spray it. Buy a cheap electric spray gun to be used probably once if adequate or hire an industrial spray gun.

timmmay

20858 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5350

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1999429 19-Apr-2018 17:16

Spray will probably make a lot more mess than a brush or roller. The primer depends on the wood, but I find Dulux and Resene make good products. On my house I only use oil based primer as it's a very oily wood, but in many cases water based is fine and it dries a lot faster.

eracode

Smpl Mnmlst
9332 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6198

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1999434 19-Apr-2018 17:22

What material is the fence made of - timber (rough-sawn or dressed), fibre-cement panels ... ? How long and high (sq metres involved)? Has it been painted previously or is it bare material?

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

sdav

846 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 193

#1999450 19-Apr-2018 18:33

I assume it's wood? I would buy a proper fence paint and brush it on. I can't imagine spraying paint on to a fence would get enough paint on. I've always brushed mine on nice and thick!

MileHighKiwi

782 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 581

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#1999456 19-Apr-2018 18:55

We recently painted our fence with Wattyl Accent fence paint, about $90 at Mitre 10 for 10L. It's middle of the road paint and looks good on our rough sawn timber fence. Don't buy a the cheapest stuff, it'll need repainting in 12 months.

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10018

#1999510 19-Apr-2018 20:38

xyeovillian:

Buy a cheap electric spray gun to be used probably once if adequate or hire an industrial spray gun.

I sprayed a mates paling fence a couple of years ago, that was about 150m x 2m high, both sides. That took about 2 1/2 hours per coat (2 of us working on it - a serious spray gun delivers 2-3 litres of paint a minute, you need one on the gun, one getting pails of paint opened, stirred etc if you want to do it quick), plus perhaps an hour setup and cleanup of my airless spray gun, so 6 hours. By brush, it would have probably taken 3 days a coat / 6 days. Roller would have been hopeless (rough sawn and plenty of posts etc).

Don't bother buying a cheap electric spray gun if you mean the ones in hardware stores for a couple of hundred $ or less. Start price is about $500 for a chinese unit from Bunnings.

Or you can hire a Graco airless spray gun for maybe $100 / day, catch is there's usually a fairly hefty deposit to forfeit if you don't return it thoroughly clean - which includes removing all the filters and cleaning them, stripping the handset etc.

scuwp

3927 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2510

#1999597 19-Apr-2018 21:53

I would avoid the spray. Makes a huge mess with over-spray on everything. I also don't think it put as thick a coat on as hand brushing does (i.e. doesn't last as long). If you do spray, make sure you throw a blanket or sheet over the back on the fence so the spray doesn't go onto the neighbours place.

We sprayed our fence with Wattyl Forrestwood. Lasted less than 12 months before it began to fade and get patchy. Hand painted the following year with the same paint and it's been fine ever since.

A bit of extra time with a brush now saves an early re-coat later.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

New World

Shop on-line at New World now for your groceries (affiliate link).

Wash

57 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 16

#1999717 20-Apr-2018 10:50

We used a Wagner spray gun to paint a lot of fence and trellis at our place. They're available at Mitre10 amongst other places. Overspray can be controlled with some drop sheets on the ground below the fence and behind the fence (if there are gaps).

The spray gun resulted in a good finish and was much much faster than painting with a brush or roller. Highly recommended!

SepticSceptic

2263 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 779

Trusted

#1999794 20-Apr-2018 13:08

I'd try for the Tom Sawyer approach:

http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings_tom.html

So much easier, and profitable too !

eracode

Smpl Mnmlst
9332 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6198

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2001058 23-Apr-2018 12:53

Strange how someone will ask for advice here on gz - and when people ask for more info so as to be able to give more accurate advice, you never hear from the OP again.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

xyeovillian

400 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 23

ID Verified

#2006061 1-May-2018 15:20

I'm halfway water blasting my fence and was thinking of trying this http://www.biosymph.co.nz/category-s/1853.htm

Still undecided whether to paint or spray, I quite like their spray bottle, as it looks like it might easier to spray with the small nozzle bit more control or would it take ages with having to pump it up to keep pressurised or hand paint?

Hammerer

2480 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 802

Lifetime subscriber

#2006113 1-May-2018 16:11

That Bitpost product appears to be a penetrating stain. Is that what you want? See http://www.nzwood.co.nz/learning-centre/exterior-timber-finish-types-paints/ for discussion of the difference between finishes that are penetrating (many stains) or film forming (paints and many stains).

I would question any examples where the specific product or type of product is not provided. That's why you've already got radically different advice because the desired outcome will depend upon the condition of the wood surface, the characteristics of the wood, the construction of the fence, the type of finish and the specific characteristics of each product.

The most important consideration is what do you want the fence to look like?

My experience is that spraying will give a better finish - it gets into gaps/trellis and handles rough surfaces better - and be more efficient the greater the area to be painted. Once you're going, you can do several coats in the same time that it would take to paint once with a brush.

Then I'd ask do you want your neighbour to be happy with what the impact on their side of the fence?

Spraying has greater risks because better coverage will more easily impinge on the neighbours side. Trellis is the biggest issue because it will not look good on both sides unless they are painted the same. I'd prefer to replace or cover trellis on one side rather than sort this out if the colours on each side are different.

P.S. When I say spraying, I mean electric spraying rather than hand pumping which will take a lot longer. If you've ever weed sprayed with a hand pump then you'll know how hard it is to keep the pressure up to give a consistent even flow which is more important for painting. I'd still prefer to hand spray over hand paint a penetrating stain. But I doubt that you would be able to hand spray a filming stain or paint because it will be more viscous.