Natural paint - 10 times cheaper

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

I decided to paint the house, which is already 6 years old, and at the same time a workshop and a guest house. Until they turned gray. And how it began: jar by jar, that was not enough, it did not fit. As a result, paint is the second largest waste this season - 20 thousand rubles.

I think this is unwise. It's like if a woman buys a dress, if she sews beautifully herself, but is lazy to find a suitable pattern.

It is one thing to buy seedlings for 20,000 rubles, seeds, mycorrhiza - this is an investment for centuries! Or dig a pond for centuries. Or buy 20,000 boards and roofs in order to attach a veranda - it will definitely stand for 20 years.

And the paint? First, nothing in life changes significantly. Secondly, there is enough paint for 5-7 years, then it spoils the mood with its appearance.

I decided that it was unwise to invest in insignificant ones. Moreover, you can make the paint yourself. Better quality, in any quantity and very cheap!

For the first time I learned about homemade paint from friends in the Ark - they painted their house this way. Several years passed and I matured. Further information from them.

Hello Vadim!

Here is the Finnish recipe we used and the recipe for it. I don't remember where I copied it from.

Finnish paint recipe

Remember how Tom Sawyer toiled when Aunt Polly made him paint the fence? It turned out that in vain we all spend so much energy on painting wooden structures.

Practical Finns have found that oil paint does not contribute to the durability of timber houses. Studies have shown that moisture accumulates under the paint, creating an optimal environment for the development of microorganisms that destroy wood.

Better to use our Finnish composition, they say. Indeed, such houses, picket fence, stand for decades without being destroyed. I propose in Russia to promote the Finnish composition for painting houses, buildings, fences more widely. This will save billions, better preserve the housing stock, farm buildings. The Finnish composition, frankly, is a godsend for villagers and gardeners.

Finnish paint composition:

• rye or wheat flour - 720 g,
• iron vitriol - 1560 g,
• table salt - 360 g,
• dry lime pigment - 1560 g,
• water - 9 liters.

The zest, as they say, lies in the strict adherence to the preparation technology of the Finnish composition. First, prepare the paste. Take flour, gradually add cold water in order to bring the flour to the consistency of thick sour cream. The remainder of 6 liters of water is added hot. Now the paste is filtered and put on fire.

Stirring constantly, add salt, then iron vitriol, dry lime pigment. Now pour in the rest of the water (hot) to obtain a working paint composition.

Apply to the surface with a brush in two passes. Solution consumption - 300 g per square meter. If the house or the picket fence was previously painted with oil paint, it is completely cleaned off. No primer required. A picket fence treated with a Finnish staff can stand up to 20 years without repair.

It is known that houses painted with oil paint are poorly breathable. The composition is devoid of this disadvantage. It is advisable to organize the production of kits for the Finnish staff with instructions attached. Everyone will benefit.

Our experience:

We read this recipe, got inspired and decided to try it. Iron vitriol is no longer sold in stores (or you have to look hard), but it was at the "Bird Market" in Moscow. Surely, he is on some bases.

I believe that anyone with a telephone directory and telephone can easily cope with the search for vitriol even in a small town (especially if the answer: "We do not sell vitriol", ask: "Maybe you know where it is sold?" As a rule, people are willing to share this information).

The "lime pigment" was a bigger mystery to us. It took a little longer to find him. First, it was necessary to understand what it was, in order to be able to explain to the sellers (they all, as one, ask again: "Lime?" - "No" - "Chalk?" - "No, it's a pigment. Lime." it?")

As the name implies, a pigment is an additive that sets the color of the mixture. Apparently, pigment used to be a common commodity. Most often it is a finely ground colored clay. This is perhaps the best and most environmentally friendly option. I would, for example, avoid chromium oxide pigments (green) and so on. Moreover, they are much more expensive than ground clay.

As a result, we found some kind of base in the suburbs selling pigments. We made a joint purchase, collecting orders for the settlement.

When we had all the ingredients, we prepared the paint according to the indicated recipe. They wrapped the bucket with a blanket and painted the house with the hot mixture using ordinary paint brushes and cut plastic cans as temporary containers.

Notes

1. If there are wooden elements on the house, which you want to leave a natural wooden color, then do not touch them with paint: from iron vitriol, the wood immediately darkens. This is not visible under the paint, but if you wash it off, then there will be gray wood (the same as uncoated old boards).

2. Hats of galvanized nails will lose the zinc layer (iron is reduced from vitriol, oxidizing zinc. So you can not buy galvanized nails, but just simple iron ones, they are cheaper).

3. You need sunny weather during painting and a couple of days after it.

4. In the rain, the wet wall is slightly smeared. We reassure ourselves that the walls of the house were not built to rub against them in the rain (there is a composition with the addition of drying oil: they write that it is not smeared).

5. Went 7 years (for 2014), the paint holds. In places most heavily watered by rain, the effect of transparency appeared and the color was slightly lost. But the texture of the wood is visible and it still creates a pleasant look. In any case - by no means sloppy (in dry weather the wall looks more beautiful than in wet).

6. Painting a two-story house, measuring 6x6 m in two layers, cost 260r (two hundred and sixty rubles, and most of the price is pigment).

Summary. In general, the result is good. The house looks good. In the summer of 2014. I want to repaint with linseed oil.

A few words about drying oil. Natural linseed oil is most often natural linseed oil. It is also called technical linseed oil.

Linseed oil has one effect that is why it is used for coating wood: when heated and applied to wood, it is absorbed and dries up, forming a durable protective layer. Drying out occurs because flaxseed oil contains unsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 and others). Not all oils dry out over time, some form a non-drying and sticky film to the touch.

All "ordinary" drying oils sold in stores contain a mixture of vegetable and synthetic oils. By themselves, they dry out worse than heated linseed oil (or do not dry out at all). In order for the painters to feel comfortable (so as not to heat up and then not wait until it dries), manufacturers add special substances (desiccants) to the mixture of oils, which accelerate the drying process of the oil.

Unfortunately, the most common and simplest (cheapest) additive is lead compounds. Therefore, drying oil is not recommended for indoor use.

Technical flaxseed oil is not so easy to get, but almost every supermarket has ordinary edible flaxseed oil, which costs about 100 rubles per half a liter (there is also more expensive, but why?). Maybe you will be lucky to buy the expired one, if you ask the merchant.

Floor covering

There is also an interesting experience of covering the floor with linseed oil and wax.

He warmed up linseed oil in a saucepan, put a piece of natural beeswax there (for 0.5 liters of oil - a piece the size of half a finger). The oil temperature was determined by dipping a match into the oil. If she starts to "squirt", then it's time to paint. It is better to use a brush with natural bristles, the plastic will melt. If the oil is overheated, then it is better to wait for it to cool down, because otherwise the natural brush will “curl up”.

The oil is applied to the surface, not like when painting, but rubbed in in small quantities: you slightly moisten the brush and then rub it with effort over as large a surface as possible. Naturally, the boards should not only be dry and planed, but also sanded, this reduces oil consumption and makes the surface more pleasant to the touch, almost glossy.

Rubbing in oil is good physical activity. But the better you rub, the better the coating will be. Don't forget about the oil temperature. If it has cooled down, it is necessary to reheat it (hot oil penetrates deeper into the wood).

Thus, I covered half of the floor on the second floor with one layer. Three years later, the coating not only did not wipe off, but became even smoother and more matte-glossy (intermediate between gloss and a simple matte board). The color of the wood has not changed at all.

Since I covered only half of the floor (then I did not have time, and then there was no time), now you can see the difference between covered and uncovered floors. The coated one looks as good as it did 3 years ago, perhaps even better due to the extra polishing with the feet. The uncovered floor has acquired a slightly grayish faded tint (compared to the covered one) and has dried out more.

It has something to compare with: with nothing covered with a floor on the veranda and the floor on the ground floor, covered with "yacht varnish". An uncoated floor turns a little gray, and the varnish cracks, scratches and wipes over time (partly due to the softness of the spruce), and cracks, scratches and wipes darken. And this happens already for 2-3 years of operation.

Summary:

If I had known in advance, I would have immediately covered the entire floor with heated linseed oil and wax (however, there is no experience in observing the coating in places of the most intense abrasive wear, on the veranda, in the hallway). But so far - this is the best and most stable option, and very inexpensive.

Yacht varnishes seem to be more suitable for hardwoods. But nevertheless it - cracks, gets dirty, wipes off. After 3 years, the view is already sloppy.

In those places of the house where a person's foot rarely steps, you can leave just a wooden floor. Over time, it fades a little, but this is not a problem.

Vadim Karabinsky