Looking for Exterior Waterbase Recommendations

[Bob McBreen]

I am making a small batch of kids picnic tables and need r4ecommendations for paint. They each need to be a different color and I like to spray instead of brushing. My requirements: waterbased, OK for exterior, not latex & can being tinted in quarts. I have good luck spraying SW Emerald Urethane trim enamel, but my local SW will only tint gallons. I have a decent HLVP setup, with lots of tips so I can spray a wide range of materials.

Thanks - Bob

[Jason Roehl]

Bob, I hate to say it, but you have a bunch of conflicting requirements there. “Waterbased” and “Latex” are really generic terms that are typically the same thing when talking about paint. “Waterborne acrylic” is really what you’re after. The quart requirement will likely limit your options severely to an accent-type paint (i.e., for doors), which may or may not be adequate for exterior wood or your specific application.

An HVLP is far from ideal for spraying exterior waterborne acrylics. They tend to be quite thick, so you would have to thin them to such a great extent that the final product is compromised—many thin coats is not good for these products, they need to be applied typically in two heavy, wet coats. This allows the acrylic polymers to become highly entangled as the liquids and solvents (water, and maybe a few other chemicals) evaporate.

When it comes to painting exterior wood, spraying should not be the final step. Immediately back-brushing or back-rolling is essential to ensuring good contact between the wet film and the substrate, filling in tiny cracks, pores, and holes that spraying alone won’t. HVLP is especially bad at this.

[Bob McBreen]

Thanks for the response. I have great luck with spraying SW Emerald urethane without thinning for exterior projects. In Maine weather it looks great for years. I would use this again if i wasn't making four picnic tables, each a different color.

Purchasing four gallons of paint that I could put in my will doesn't make sense. The reason I excluded latex is that I get lots of suggestions to use latex house paints on exterior projects.

[Tom M King]

Probably cheaper somewhere else, but I didn't spend any time looking. Get SW to color each quart after dividing a gallon.

https://www.amazon.com/Blysk-Empty-Metal-Quart-Cans/dp/B08G9LVVMT/ref=sr_1_7?