question about painting my coop

[hollymh]

Im in the process of building my coop and I was wondering if there are any particular paints or stains that I need to steer clear of. I got it free off craigslist but it needs a lot of refinishing and a REALLY good deep cleaning, I have a bit of OCD

and want it to be as pretty as possible but want my chickens to be safe as well. Craigslist is AWESOME!!! Thanks!!!

I should mention there will be a good 30-60 days before my chicks move in so there will be plenty of time for it to air out!

 

[Judy]

I wouldn't use a stain. You want the waterproofing of a good coat (or three) of paint. Outdoor gloss or semi gloss wil stand up to repeated cleanings best. Other than that, once the paint has dried, anything is fine. If I used indoor paint I'd still only use gloss or semi gloss, for the durability.

 

[hollymh]

THANK YOU!

 

[nascarjunkie1]

We painted ours with semi gloss

 

[MyLittleRedCoop]

For our first coop, I went to a popular home/hardware type store and bought "exterior" paint, that I had tinted to the color I wanted, which was barn red. I got the expensive brand - I wanted good quality, so it would last! I primed it with an expensive exterior primer. Then it took 4-5 coats of paint to get good coverage. And I was disgusted the following spring (6-8 months later) to see it pulling away on a number of edges, and peeling off in others.

The second coop, I took my husband's advice and went to Fleet Farm. I bought the pre-tinted latex paint that was made for barns. (Remarkably, I still had several shades of "barn red" to pick from!) It was a self-priming paint - I added a cup of water to the first can and used that as the primer, as per directions. Not only did this get good coverage in only 3 coats, it didn't peel or fade. It didn't have a terribly strong scent, either.


Good luck in building your coop and with your chickens! So much fun!

 

[hollymh]

Love the color! I'm trying to decide what color Im going to do the outside, I'm thinking a light blue

 

[sn0wwhite]

JVeith, can you tell me more about that latex paint from Fleet Farm? I'm getting ready to build a new coop, but first we have to strip and re-stain our deck which we also stained 2 years ago with a product that is peeling and just horrible. I never want to have to redo this again. I'd rather use something that sinks into the wood and just needs an added coat of stain for future touch ups.

 

[MyLittleRedCoop]

JVeith, can you tell me more about that latex paint from Fleet Farm? I'm getting ready to build a new coop, but first we have to strip and re-stain our deck which we also stained 2 years ago with a product that is peeling and just horrible. I never want to have to redo this again. I'd rather use something that sinks into the wood and just needs an added coat of stain for future touch ups.

Sure! It's the Legend brand latex.

The side of the can says that it is oil fortified, self priming, non-toxic when dry and is water clean-up. It says it's good for new or previously painted wood surfaces, barns, out buildings, fences and cribs, for masonry or metal trim.

I just followed the directions for making the first coat into a primer. My coop is 12 x 10. 1 gallon made just enough primer to give it all one coat. 3 gallons covered it. I trimmed in white. But rather than mix up a full gallon of white to be used as primer, I just made up a separate smaller batch and sort of guessed at the amount of water to use. I just kind of eye-balled it and when it looked to be a similar consistency, I called it good. I only needed one gallon of the white to do the trim around 5 windows, the main door, the pop-door and the clean-out door.

I planned to use the white inside the coop, too, but haven't done that yet. The kiln-dried plywood warped after we got it up and we (lol, "we" meaning my DH) need to take that down, trim it and re-hang it. So I cant tell you how it does INSIDE... But outside, it's been a year and no sign of wear.

Here are a couple images of the front and back of the can:

 

[sn0wwhite]

Thank you! I saw that exact paint in the store yesterday!