|
If we can find a material that has all the desirable
properties of wood, yet none of the maintenance headaches,
we'll be RICH!!!
Ahhhh, the elusive Nevr-Paint
EternalWood.
The response of about 80% of
North Americans has been to reduce their expectations of the
quality of the outside of their homes, and focus on making the
inside more luxurious. Thus, many modern neighborhoods (and I
use the term loosely, as there often isn't much
neighborliness) look like parking lots with shrubs. All you
see is garage doors and vinyl siding. <Sigh>... I won't
get up on my soap box.
What are the options for
exterior materials? Traditionally, it's been wood, metal and
brick. Brick shutters? How 'bout that? Maybe this new
fiber-cement material (used extensively for siding) could be
made into shutters?
Steel rusts, aluminum
corrodes... maybe stainless steel would work. After all,
stainless steel is all the rage in kitchen appliances.
Introducing... ShinyShutter... better wear your
sunglasses.
How about brass? That could
look nautical.
Given all the hassles,
plastic looks appealing. It never rots, it's color goes all
the way through so it never needs painting. But it fades in
sun, and given the limitations of the molding processes, the
products, whether siding or shutters, lack the crispness of
detail that comes with wood.
There are a LOT of expensive
waterfront homes around here (Northern Michigan's
"vacation-paradise", so they say) and I notice a lot
of higher-end materials. We don't get quite the intense
weather exposure that ocean coastal areas get, but the point
is: it seems that people generally accept that nice looking
houses have lots of natural materials (like wood shutters) and
they accept the high price of maintenance.
But that doesn't mean you
have to spend a fortune on maintenance, either. Some grades of
wood are more rot-resistant than others, redwood for example.
In the south they use a lot of cypress for exterior trim. I
don't know why somebody doesn't make pressure-treated wood in
species other than Southern Yellow Pine, which is also known
as "Banana Wood" because it warps terribly.
My approach to this limited
availability has been to build things from good
straight-grained woods like Western Red Cedar and dip them in
my home-made water repellent preservative. I thought I wrote
an article about that? Ah yes, here
it is. The material is simple: One cup of shaved parafin
dissolved into one quart of exterior spar varnish, which is
then dissolved into 3 quarts of mineral spirits. The wood is
soaked in this liquid for a few minutes and then drip-dried
for a day. After that I cover ALL SIDES of the each piece of
wood with a good oil-based primer, then I apply a good quality
exterior paint. I like Sikkens Rubbol deck "stain",
which is more like a heavy oil-based paint. At $40 a gallon
it's not cheap, but neither is my work.
Given the detail in shutters,
I'd be tempted to try spray painting them. Of course, this
requires a compressor and spray gun, because a couple of cans
of Rust-Oleum aren't likely to satisfy. (Actually, Rust-Oleum
isn't that bad, as long as the wood is primed properly.) But
I'd prefer the premium product like Sikkens Rubbol, it's thick
and takes a full day to dry, which is a good trait.
There really isn't an easy
answer, but I do see a market opportunity for anybody in the
shutter business to pressure-treat their products, which is
not exactly an expensive extra. Then if the paint flaked off
it would take years before the wood began to rot.
Bruce W. Maki, Editor.
|
