Bedec Superflex, is a flexible high build water based elastomeric seamless waterproof membrane. It is also available in a silver Solar Reflective finish.
How to Paint a Barn for Wow-Worthy Results
This project can take a few weeks to complete, depending on the extent of repairs and the number of coats. You’ll spend most of that time waiting for the paint to dry.
Cost
$600–$3,000
You’ll spend a lot on supplies, but you may still save money by DIYing.
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What you’ll need:
TOOLS
- Paint brushes
- Hand scraper
- Rollers
- Paint trays
- Power washer (optional)
- Sprayer (optional)
SUPPLIES
- Exterior latex paint
- Caulk
- Wood plugs (optional)
- New boards (optional)
- Nails (optional)
Although a weathered barn with its faded red siding and flaking trim looks breathtakingly charming, you’ll be amazed at how great it looks with a fresh coat of paint. When you know how to paint a barn properly, you’ll add at least 10 years to its life span, all while protecting it from weather damage, sun damage, and rot. Painting a barn involves more than just slapping a fresh coat of paint over the old one, however—it’s a big undertaking. If you’re confident in your DIY capabilities and you’ve decided to paint your barn yourself, here’s how to do it right.
Paint your way to a bold and beautiful barndominium
Evaluate the Barn’s Condition
Have Significant Structural and Foundational Repairs Fixed
Make Minor Repairs
Prep and Clean the Exterior
Photo: iStock / Getty Images Plus / Getty Images
Remove Loose Paint
Apply Primer
Paint the Barn
DIY Painting a Barn vs. Hiring a Pro
If you’ve done all the prep work right and you choose a good quality paint, your hard work should pay off with a beautiful exterior paint that lasts around 10 years on average before it needs another repaint.
Hiring a Painter
If all of this sounds like too big of an undertaking, you can always hire a local exterior painting specialist and free up some of your time. Search Angi for highly rated exterior painting companies with experience painting barns. Once you’ve narrowed down your list, call at least three contractors for an on-site estimate.
Expect to pay anywhere from
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of paint should I use to paint my barn?
The best kind of paint for barns is latex paint because it’s less likely to fade, lasts for a decade, and is flexible. You can also use latex exterior paint mixed with linseed oil in your primer to make it extra durable.
What is the best way to paint a barn?
Renting a sprayer is the easiest way to paint a barn, but for detailed areas, you’ll want to use a hand brush to get the job done. If you don’t wish to rent a sprayer, you can also use a roller to hand-paint your barn, but this will add time to your project.
How much does it cost to repaint a barn?
The cost to paint a barn is $3,000 on average, though you might pay as little as $600 or as much as $6,000 to have the barn of your dreams, depending on the size of your barn, the paint you choose, and whether or not you DIY the job or hire a professional.
Do you need a primer for barn paint?
Some exterior paints for barns don’t need a primer because they are self-priming. In this case, you’ll need to apply at least two coats of paint.
.50 and $3.50 per square foot extra when you hire a professional painter to do the job. Professional exterior painting contractors offer free estimates and often won’t request any money down. Speak directly to at least three of their references and find out if the contractor kept the site clean and whether there was any overspray on the windows or other objects.
What to Watch Out For
Be extremely wary of anyone who shows up at your door offering to paint your barn. Door-to-door scam artists often target farms and homes with barns. These disreputable operators may ask for payment upfront and disappear. If they do the job, they’ll use watered-down whitewash paint that doesn’t last or do the job as quickly as possible, and they’ll overspray windows, bushes, trees, and grass.
How To Paint A Wooden Barn
Looking for instructions on how to paint a wooden barn? Due to many different construction styles you may find online guides rather confusing. Whether your barn construction is shiplap, feather edge, tongue and grove or even OSB board, we have the right product for you. Promain’s technical department have many years experience advising customers and understand what a huge undertaking this task can be. In this article, we have attempted to produce a simple handy guide to help you understand the processes and a few of the pit falls in painting a wooden or metal barn with our extensive range of Barn Paints.
Below, we will go over how to paint your wooden barn. Before we get to the nitty gritty of how to begin the project, we would like to introduce you to a selection of Promain’s most popular barn paint products.
Barn Paints: Introducing Bedec Barn Paint
Bedec Barn Paint is a perfect solution for the protection of exterior buildings such as barns and stables. It is also suitable for outbuildings, sheds, silos, windmills, and factory units (including correctly prepared corrugated and metal box cladding). Bedec Barn Paint is highly recommended for coating wooden fencing, gates, farm equipment, tanks, drainpipes, doors and windows. This versatile product can be used on substrates that may be found in gardens, farms and factories.
Bedec Barn Paint can be applied to previously painted surfaces, even those coated with weathered bitumen, tar, creosote and varnish. Varnish however will need to be sanded to provide a key before applying the Barn Paint. If you want to apply Bedec Barn Paint to new tantalised timber, it is advised that the surface is “keyed” with a medium grit sandpaper. Again, when applying to unpainted timber it is advised that the first coat of Barn Paint is thinned up to 30% with clean water as a primer followed by 2 undiluted coats.
Can You Tint Bedec Barn Paint?
Yes, Bedec Barn Paint is tintable to most popular colours including RAL and BS shades. If you have a particular colour in mind, our Sales and Technical teams will be happy to provide you with further information.
Barn Paints: Introducing Solignum Architectural
Solignum is available is a solvent as well as water based wood stain. Solignum Architectural Solvent Based Opaque Woodstain is BBA certified, this means that it will last for a minimum of 5 years when applied correctly. It is easy to apply by brush or roller. This product offers a low-maintenance, microporous, flexible opaque low sheen finish. This product also has water-shedding properties allowing the timber to breathe. Solignum is ideal for window and doors, conservatories, sheds, gates and fences, clapboard, lap siding or weatherboard.
We are able to tint Solignum Architectural to most RAL and BS 4800 colours so you are able to match most colours used around the home or garden.
Products: Can I Use Barn Paint On Metal?
Yes you can, however, there are better products available specifically for use on metal such as Rustoleum Mathys Peganox. If you do wish to use barn paint on non rusted metal or weathered (old) galvanised corrugated metal sheeting you can, but it must only be on vertical surfaces. For horizontal surfaces that water pools on more specialised products are required. Roofs that have a slope can be painted but an anti corrosive primer will need to be applied to any rusted areas. It is also worth remembering that Barn Paint has a thicker coating which may influence your decision to paint on metal.
If Bedec Barn Paint is being applied to steel, any surface rust must be removed and a suitable primer such as Rustoleum 769 or Zinga Galvanising Paint.
How Long Does Barn Paint Last?
If applied correctly, your barn would not need maintaining for many years providing the surface has been prepared and primed sufficiently. We always recommend that at least 2 coats of Barn Paint is applied.
Advice On Barn Paint vs Stain
You may be asking yourself “why choose Barn Paint over stain?”. Well there are a number of reasons why barn paint may be a better choice for how to paint a wooden barn:
- Barn paint will provide a thicker longer lasting protective coating on the wood than stain will
- Paint will last last longer than a stain
- Barn Paint is flexible
- Barn Paint will prevent moisture ingress
- Proper protection will retard growth of algae and fungus in the wood
Another huge benefit to using barn paint is that whilst wood stains can be very limited in colour choice, Bedec Barn Paint can be tinted to most BS 4800 and RAL colours, giving you many more options. Bedec Barn Paint will still allow you to see the texture of the wood, but the colour would be changed. Having said that we offer a range of semi translucent wood stains that enable you to see the grain of the timber but still provide protection from weathering.
Now that we have explained a bit about barn paint products and why we recommend them, please read on for instructions on how to paint your wooden barn or structure.
How To Paint A Wooden Barn
The first thing you should do is to ensure that your barn is foundationally sound. Any structural or repair issues should be completed before you begin painting. It is also worth checking when your barn was last painted, just in case lead paint was used. Lead Paint was banned in the UK in 1978, and therefore any barns that were painted prior to this were likely to have used lead based paint. If that is the case – or if you are unsure, it is worth getting a professional in to remove the paint and dispose of the debris safely. Finally, you will need to check the weather reports and ensure that the weather will be dry and at least 10°C and rising.
How To Paint A Wooden Barn: Preparation
Once you have ascertained that the structure is sound and lead free you are ready to start work. If the barn is already painted with a lead free paint, you will need to treat any green growth with a fungicidal wash. We would recommend Centrecoat Fungicidal Wash GS36 . After the fungicidal wash has been applied and allowed to work for 24 hours, the surface must be cleaned. Promain would recommend a product such as Rustoleum EpoxyShield Cleaner Degreaser 2901. This process will remove any dirt, grease of airborne pollutants such as carbon deposits from exhaust fumes.
As a note, please do not use washing up liquid to clean your external wood! If you do, it will leave a film that any following paint will not stick to.
Power washing can help remove dirt and lose and flaking paint. Sand all lose or flaking paint back to a sound edge. Spot prime any areas of bare timber with a dilution coat of the Barn Paint.
It is particularly important to clean north facing walls where you are likely to find higher incidents of algae and moss growth.
Using a jet wash and Centrecoat GS36, you should thoroughly saturate the wood and clean the entire structure. Do not rinse off the solution, instead leave it to fully dry. This allows the treatment to continue working over time. Drying time should be a minimum of 24 hours before applying any paint.
How To Paint A Wooden Barn: Applying The Paint
Barn paint is designed to be applied directly to the wood without the need of a primer. It can be applied by brush, paint roller or airless spray. As previously advised, you should not attempt to apply the paint at temperatures below 10°C and you should always make sure that the product is stirred thoroughly before use.
Dilute the first coat with 30% water to aid with absorption and adhesion. You will find this will create a good bond. This coat should be touch dry after 2 hours and re-coatable after 4 hours at 20°C. Once dry, apply the second coat neat – this will provide a good weathering layer. In most cases 2 coats of the Bedec Barn Paint should be sufficient. For new timber, a diluted coat and 2 undiluted coats are recommended.
How To Paint Barn Doors
Paint the barn doors in exactly the same way as the main barn!
Following these guidelines your barn will look rejuvenated and will be protected for many years to come. Next we will discuss how to paint a wooden barn’s roof.
How To Paint A Wooden Barn’s Roof
Now we have covered the walls and the doors we can concentrate on the barn’s roof. There are many products available from Promain that would be perfect for sprucing up a tired roof. To help you get started we have listed some of the most popular products below.
Rustoleum Mathys Noxyde Peganox
Rustoleum Mathys Noxyde Peganox is a heavy duty, waterborne paint. This product is excellent on all metal substrates including metal roofs and plastisol cladding. Peganox forms an elastomeric flexible anti-rust membrane. This makes Peganox extremely good in harsh environmental areas such as coastlines.
you can generally use Peganox on Metal Cladding and Roofs for the prevention of rusting and protection against weathering, chemicals and impact.
Available in a range of different colours, not only does Peganox offer you excellent protection, you also get a fantastic aesthetically pleasing finish.
Teamac Farm Oxide Barn Paint
This product is a general purpose, versatile solvent based paint offering economical protection and decoration for the maintenance of structural steel, metal cladding and more. This is the cheapest Barn Paint roofing product that Promain provide, whilst still maintaining the high quality that both we and our customers expect.
Teamac Farm Oxide Barn Paint is best used to provide decoration and protection against rust and corrosion to a wide range of different surfaces and buildings. Areas that show signs of rust we recommend are treated with Teamac Zinc Phosphate Metal Primer.
Available in 4 different high quality colours and either 5 or 20 litre drums, Oxide Barn Paint offers you a great, cost effective way of rejuvenating your barn, metal roof, cladding or outbuilding.
- Available in 4 different colours
- Heavy duty paint coating for metal, wood and many other surfaces
- Apply coat on coat to surfaces after proper preparation
- Economical protection and decoration for the maintenance of structural steel, cladding etc.
- Dries to a durable gloss finish.
- It is surface dry in 5 hours and thoroughly dry in 24 hours
- Apply via paint brush, roller or spray
- Theoretical coverage rate of 11m2 per litre
- Available in 5 and 20 litres
Bedec Superflex
Bedec Superflex, is a flexible high build water based elastomeric seamless waterproof membrane. It is also available in a silver Solar Reflective finish.
Superflex Elastomeric Coating is designed for roof tiles, corrugated asbestos roofing sheets, wood, felt, concrete, lead, zinc and copper. You can use Super-Flex to aid the protection of walls also. Superflex is an easy to apply product that provides surfaces with a seamless, high build film that works excellently to resist water damage.
Where To Buy Barn Paint
Promain are pleased to be the number one supplier of Bedec Barn Paint in the UK. As well as Bedec barn paints, we also supply Teamac, Solignum, Owatrol and Rustoleum amongst others. This makes Promain ideal for giving advice on how to paint a wooden barn!
Please visit our online barn paint shop category for more information on the barn paint products that we have for sale.
Barn Paint Reviews
We hope that you have found this guide on how to paint a wooden barn useful. If you still need a little more convincing listed below are just some of the great reviews that we have received on the Bedec Barn Paint:
Does what it says on the tin two coats and looks fantastic. 5 stars – Peter S
Covers well looks good nice to paint with. The wife enjoyed using it! 5 stars – Pat W
Brilliant Company and so pleasant to deal with. Fast Efficient and this paint is just brilliant. Love working with it. Really happy, 5 stars – Susan N
An additional impartial view can also be found here: www.gsdecorating.com/bedec-barn-paint-review.
Interested in finding out more about how to paint a wooden barn? See more articles on our Knowledge Hub here. Alternatively, contact our technical team to discuss requirements on 01462 421333.
