RainStain vs. regular exterior paint

November 4, 2007 9:49 AM

Does anybody out there have any firsthand experience with ZAR's "Rain Stain" vs. regular exterior paint?

I have a 1920's craftsman cottage and it is getting ready to be painted. A contractor friend pointed out ZAR's "Rain Stain" and said he swears by it and intends to paint his house with it the next time painting is required. He even indicated a house in the neighborhood that was painted (stained) with it (allegedly) 15 years ago, and it still looks freshly painted.

My house painter says it will cost probably 25% more to prep/treat the surface with RainStain and might add an additional 3-5 years of wear before a repaint is required. His recommendation is to not use it.

My big hope is that the gigantic acrylic content of RainStain will help seal and protect the wood more than regular paint (we have a lot of simple wood damage due to cracks/rot/weathering and I'd like to forestall any carpentry repairs next time...although if RainStain lasts as long as they claim we will likely not be the owners when this is required!)

Any MeFi DIY gurus out there have any advice?

posted by monkeybutt to Home & Garden (1 answer total)

I don't know much about house maintenance, but I can tell you that my father is a religious believer in the superiority of stain over paint. The first house I lived in was a shingle style house built in 1906. It had been stained instead of painted, and looked great after 20 years without maintenance. When the house was sold, many of the buyers could hardly believe a house that had not been painted in so long could look so good. Also, after nearly a century of harsh Buffalo winters, none of the wooden shingles had ever been replaced for any sort of rot or leakage.

The house we moved into after that one was painted with gray paint (latex, I believe) and _needs_ to be repainted every 10 years, and the exposure of the house that catches the weather needs to be repainted 2-3 times as often as that.

From what I understand, though, the only houses that can be stained are those that have never been painted. And, that was what made the first house so unusual-- that in over 100 years, no one had ever painted it. One of our former next door neighbors, after watching us go for two decades without painting the house, rented a resurfacing machine for his house that could completely strip the paint off.
posted by Maxwell_Smart at 11:20 AM on November 5, 2007