I hate to paint.

[Cryss]

I'm gathering bits of wood here n there to repurpose into a larger coop. Its taking longer to gather than I want.
So I want to paint befire I drill, cut, nail anything. I've seen people mention kilz. Why kilz? And mostly, must I prime it before paint? Isn't there an interior/exterior paint I can just use?
Lazy me.

 

[True Patriot]

For a coop, you can get away with 2 coats of exterior latex. Kilz is a stain, mildew, and mold blocking primer. It does work, personally I think it's pricey for a coop. I used valspar stormcoat from Lowe's (?) on mine. $24(ish) dollars a gallon and it was enough for 2 coats on the exterior of a 4x8 coop. Higher quality paints will last longer. I plan on moving in the next couple of years so longevity wasn't a huge factor for me. Though I believe that it has a 5 year warranty.
When time comes to make your cuts and holes make sure you save some of the paint to cover the freshly exposed wood.

 

[cholland]

For the interior I just use the primer and leave it. Just trying to preserve the wood and lighten thing up a bit. I'm not interior decorating. If the exterior is bare wood, then a primer coat first, will help the final coat last longer.
Two coats of a good latex will work but my experience is using primer results in a better finish.

 

[Cryss]

When time comes to make your cuts and holes make sure you save some of the paint to cover the freshly exposed wood.

Yes, I do plan on that.

 

[Birdsong 82]

I use barn and fence paint $15 a gallon at Lowe’s / Home Depot. It’s worked well for me over the years. Gives a nice thick coat and as long as I cover all freshly exposed wood has kept well.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Must you prime? No you don't absolutely have to. Do you have to even paint? Not really. But there are benefits to both.

A good primer, and I consider Kilz best on wood, seals the surface. That not only protects the wood, it helps reduce bleed-through. Say you paint over raw wood. You can usually see knots and the grain of the wood showing through the first coat of your top coat so you need a second topcoat. Or maybe even a third if you want a more uniform look. Some of that depends on how dark your final color is.

Properly applied a good primer should smooth out a lot of the roughness or raw wood so you get a smoother finish.

Primer should give you a surface that the other paint will stick to. Have you ever seen pain flaking off in chunks? That's partly because the paint didn't stick to the wood to start with or with the wood surface not sealed moisture or something leaked through the wood on the underside of the paint and flaked the paint off.

I've heard people claim as a benefit that paint soaks into the wood so if you use Primer not as much topcoat will soak in, thus you don't have to use as much topcoat. Primer is not cheap, I'm not sure there is any real economic benefit to having primer soak in instead on the topcoat paint. Besides you have to buy paint in certain sizes, so you will have leftovers. You may wind up with more leftover if you buy two different kinds of paint.

Kilz has an ingredient that helps reduce the chance of mildew. It does not totally absolutely forever prevent mildew but it helps.

A good primer should seal the wood to reduce bleed through which might or might not reduce the total number of coats you need, should provide a smoother surface, helps the topcoat to stick better so the paint job should last longer, and could help fight mildew. It probably will not save you any money initially because of the leftover paints. It will not stop you from having to repaint sometime in the future but it could give you extra years before you have to repaint.

 

[aart]

I hate to paint too....so I don't.

 

[Cryss]

So if I use only use kilz on the interior can I tint it?

 

[archeryrob]

I hate to paint too....so I don't.

Me neither. My coops are built with plain wood. 1st 1" rough cut 1x8 and 2nd with pallet boards. Both are sealed with waterproofing stain like a deck and done in redwood color. A couple years later they will get re-oiled with clear only. Then no scraping and sanding is required.

I have 5 posts on a gabled roof over my patio. I told the contractor I wanted vinyl posted with the aluminum insert. They talked the wife into wood while I was gone. Needless to say I have to scrape and paint them every year in some spot. Eventually they will get jacked up and replaced. Sealing wood is less maintenance it's just not a pretty, if that is what you are going for. I'm going for less for me to do, as i have plenty to do.

 

[ZooAtHome]

I hate painting, too, and ended up having to do it twice because I tried to shortcut. Better to do it right the first time.

I'm gathering bits of wood here n there to repurpose into a larger coop. Its taking longer to gather than I want.
So I want to paint befire I drill, cut, nail anything. I've seen people mention kilz. Why kilz? And mostly, must I prime it before paint? Isn't there an interior/exterior paint I can just use?
Lazy me.

I built and painted my coop a year before I actually got chickens (life happens), so it sat unused through a winter. I used one of those exterior paints that is supposed to double as a primer and top coat on the plywood, some leftover Kilz I had for the trim. I only painted the outside, left the inside bare wood.

By the following spring, the inside of the coop was covered in mildew and I had spots of mildew growing through the painted plywood on the outside, but the wood covered in Kilz was fine. I'm not sure if it was the paint I used or the glue in the plywood that caused the problem, but I ended up having to repaint almost everything.

So if I use only use kilz on the interior can I tint it?

When I repainted, I bought Kilz and had them tint it close to the color I wanted. (For some reason they could not get it as dark as I wanted, said there wasn't enough room in the can to mix in that much tint.) I sanded off as much mildew as I could and painted over with the Kilz. I then put an exterior top coat over the outside of the coop to get the exact color I wanted. I suspect the topcoat wasn't necessary, but I was trying to match my house and that is what worked.

I did Kilz only on the inside, as I didn't care as much about the exact color there, but definitely needed to cover the plywood surface. I am hoping the Kilz will seal the wood and prevent the return of the mildew. It also made the interior look a lot brighter and cleaner. Even now, with the chickens in there making messes, it still looks really good.

One last note: It was DEFINITELY easier to paint all the trim the first time, before I put it on the coop. Repainting after everything was in place was a lot more work. In the future, I will always prime with Kilz before I paint anything. In the end, it is less work and less expensive. Live and learn, right?