Painting a new external concrete window sill

paddy147

Whats the best way to paint a new/bare external concrete window sill?

I pressume that I need to apply some stabilizer solution 1st?

I want to paint the window cills grey,so should I apply a coat of Dulux Wethershield white 1st and then the Dulux grey,or do I just use the grey from the start?

Thanks.:)

irelandspurs

There is not many things you can do with smooth concrete,but what i do is make sure you dust it down then thin the first coat down a good bit so it soaks in and gets a good grip,then build it up with thicker coats,Don't put it on straight from tin as it will just sit on the sill and flake off.
Some people will put thinned oil based undercoat on first but i don't think this helps.Other people will have different ways though.

Alun

My concrete window sills were in a mess, flaking and peeling after having been repainted several times with god knows what, so I stripped them back to almost bare concrete and sanded them down.

I went to a place here in Bray and asked for recommendations and they suggested Sandtex Trade 365 All Weather Masonry paint http://www.sandtextrade.co.uk/Products/Pages/365AllWeatherMasonry.aspx. They also said I didn't really need the stabilizer but to do a thinned down first coat, and then apply at least two full coats.

So far it's looking good (about 2 years later) with no sign of any problems, but note this is a solvent based product and compared to water based masonry paints it's not the easiest stuff in the world to apply neatly as it dries very quickly.

wildlifeboy

is there a solution that you can buy to dissolve the existing paint or is it just a case of hard graft and a lot of sanding to get it back to the concrete.

Alun

I used a heat gun and lots (and lots!) of scraping and sanding afterwards It looked like there had been at least 3 attempts to repaint it in the past, with different types of paint, and it was peeling and flaking like crazy, so I thought it best to get back to as close as bare concrete as I could before starting again.

I thought about using paint stripper, but I don't really like using it if I can avoid it, it can get very messy.

cardwizzard

Clean, dust, stabilizer, two coats of the grey. Job done.

Stabilizer will give it a grip, thus letting the paint sitting on top of that stick to it. Let the stabilizer dry overnight.

paddy147

cardwizzard wrote: »

Clean, dust, stabilizer, two coats of the grey. Job done.

Stabilizer will give it a grip, thus letting the paint sitting on top of that stick to it. Let the stabilizer dry overnight.

Top man (as allways) for the painting advice.

Thanks.:)

Andy From Sligo

I have been painting my (weathered but never been painted) concrete sills today with weathercoat white masonry 15 year paint went on good, going to give it another 2 coats but what can you do when you have these tiny 'pinholes' , whats the best way to fill them, I have been poking the masonry paint right in with the brush but the pinholes are still there. fill with exterior pollyfiller with a wallpaper scraper maybe?