Johnstone UK - Exterior coatings - the first line of defence
With an estimated £1 billion per annum being spent on
the maintenance and repair of the exterior of buildings
in the UK, Johnstone’s Technical Team examines how
social landlords can make the most of their budgets by
using coatings to extend maintenance life cycles.
In the past housing stock owners have carried out
maintenance painting cycles approximately every four to
five years. But with continued financial pressures and
the requirement for ever higher standards of maintenance
and decoration, owners are now looking to extend their
maintenance painting cycles to six or seven years.
According to BRE (Building Research Establishment) Paper
IP7/03 Planned Maintenance Painting: Improving value for
money in the medium to long term, simply extending a
standard maintenance painting and repair interval by
just one year could give savings of up to 20 per cent of
the yearly maintenance spend.
The majority of maintenance painting projects are
concerned with wooden substrates such as windows, doors,
soffits, fascias and barge boards.
Conventional gloss systems have been around for many
years and have proved invaluable in the protection and
decoration of timber. However, over time these may crack
and allow moisture to penetrate beneath the coatings
causing further deterioration of the timber and
subsequent detachment of the paint film.
It is not possible to stop the dimensional changes that
occur in timber due to weathering, therefore flexible
resin systems have been developed which when formulated
into a coating allow it to move further than one based
on conventional resins. This flexibility puts less
stress on the paint coating therefore cracking does not
occur as quickly due to the coating’s ability to expand
and contract with the timber.
Flexible gloss systems have been around for a number of
years now and have been tried and tested on numerous
redecoration projects around the country. Tests and on
going monitoring by the BBA (British Board Agrément) for
example have confirmed significantly longer periods
between redecoration have been achieved through the use
of flexible systems.
After woodwork, masonry surfaces are the second largest
area of maintenance painting housing stock owners will
be involved with. Masonry is an all embracing term and
covers a host of substrates including render, rough
coat, brickwork and pebbledash.
All of these substrates can of course be left unpainted,
however over a period of time they will begin to appear
dirty and in some instances can lose their water
proofing properties.
Breakdown of applied masonry coatings can occur for a
number of reasons such as excessive weathering, due to
air borne pollutants such as carbon dioxide, mould or
algeanous growth or moisture penetrating the surface
through cracks due to structural or surface defects.
Water based coatings have been at the forefront of
masonry painting for years. These are popular with
decorators for their ease of application, wide colour
choice and the fact that equipment can be washed out in
water. However drying of water based materials is
reliant on the evaporation of water from the coating,
therefore good drying days are required for these
materials to dry correctly.
The good news for contractors is that there are
solvent-based alternatives which can be applied in
temperatures of minus and are shower proof in
approximately 20 to 30 minutes. This gives us the
opportunity to apply masonry coatings all year round.
Providing extended life cycles is not all about paint
coatings; preparation, the quality of work and the
expertise of contractors all play a part. However the
choice of product can make the crucial difference in
terms of timings and on-going cost.
As a leading manufacturer of paints and coatings,
Johnstone’s is able to provide advice and information to
landlords and contractors about the properties of a full
range of products and their suitability for individual
jobs.
Johnstone’s latest RIBA approved CPD seminar Extending
Maintenance Cycles Through Paint provides a bespoke
package of support for housing stock owners seeking to
enhance their knowledge of coatings technology.
Improvements can only come about through education; from
understanding how buildings and paint coatings react to
movement and extremes of weathering to the most
appropriate type of product and by increasing their
knowledge in these areas, housing stock owners will be
able to achieve a reasonable period between cyclical
redecoration programmes.
Email:
markh@connect-group.com
Arundel Jones Associates Ltd
Hill Farm, Linton Hill, Maidstone, Kent ME17 4AL
Tel : 01622 745333
news@buildingdesign.co.uk
Registered in England and Wales No. 07334149
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