paint vs stain for the coop?

[gale65]

I want to get our coop painted soon. My husband thinks stain would be better. Is there any advantage to one over the other? I really want to paint the outside of it a bright cheery color, not boring brown wood stain. I don't care about how the inside looks. lol. Should we paint both inside and outside? Stain inside and paint outside?

also the trim on the outside is vinyl or plastic or something. Will spray paint be safe for these parts?

 

[emys]

I believe, if your exterior is an oily wood, like cedar (or redwood), stain will last longer. If your coop is made of standard non-oily wood like pine, paint will last longer.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The advantage of stain is there is no primer needed, less work and easy future aplications. Paint will last longer.
There are water based solid body stains that can be made any color.

Your vinyl trim can be painted with acrylic latex paint. Primer not needed if surface is'nt glossy.

 

[gale65]

The outside is probably painted, I have a feeling. Sad to say, I can't remember! lol. DH bought it a couple of months ago at a farm sale and I haven't looked at it in a while. But now that I look at this picture of it, it looks like it's been painted and it looks like it's probably T-111 which is usually pine?

 

[KazAnder Farms]

If you paint that make sure you use a decent quality product. If you stain it same deal or you'll just be at it again in 2-3 years. Since it's a "previously painted" surface just make sure you have scraped any loose paint. Find yourself some Exterior grade Duration by Sherwin-Williams on CL if you can or buy it on sale during the summer. self-priming lifetime warranty very nice.

 

[elmo]

If painting your coop a bright color will make you happy, I'd say go for that. I don't think there's going to be a really significant difference performance wise between a good paint job and a good stain job.

Inside is a different matter, though. A gloss or semi gloss paint, one of the scrubbable ones, will be more functional than stain. It will be much easier if you need to scrub poo splatters off a slick painted surface than stained wood.

 

[gale65]

ok thanks. Hopefully there isn't any peeling paint. He bought it around October and it's new-there is a guy that makes them and sells them at the farm sales. My husband can fix a tractor in a minute but he is not a fan of woodworking, so he was happy to buy one. We have to figure out the fencing still but the biggest part is done. It's a tiny little coop but it should be fine for us. We are going to get a dozen hens and if it turns out to be too small, we have a friend that will take any we need to rehome.

I'll be sure to sand it a little before I paint. It will be before summer though-I want it done and ready for the chicks to move in this spring. We don't have craigslist out here in the sticks.

So I'll shop around and see what good quality paint I can score.

 

[patandchickens]

You can't stain over paint, only on bare nekkid wood. (Well I mean you CAN put stain on over paint, for an Artistic Effect if that's what you're going for, but it is just that, an art project, not actually gonna give you anything looking like stained wood)

Also I would strongly recommend against staining any sort of plywood and thinking it's protected. (You can stain and then apply nonpenetrating deck sealer every year, but, why). Plywood is more vulnerable to deterioration than real wood, so to my way of thinking it needs a proper prime-and-paint job.

Paint protects better and lasts way longer. The main downside is just that when it *does* come time to repaint, it's more of a nuisance because you really need to get off ALL the even-remotely-loose-ish paint before you recoat.

Clean well, prime thinly, then apply several THIN (never thick!!) coats of good paint, and you're good.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Cargo]

A proper paint job, with good paint, will last a lifetime.

Stain is fine for the outside of a coop built with real wood. But, you will have to re-apply it every 1-3 years.

 

[McSaize]

I used a red coop stain a year ago but forgot what brand it was.
Can anyone recommend a red coop stain?