Silin Paint for Facade?
I know there are plenty of strong opinions about painting a brownstone facade here. I’m not looking for a debate on whether to paint or not. I understand all the problems that paint can introduce, etc. I’m trying to find out if anyone here has used Silin paint on their facade and how well it…
I know there are plenty of strong opinions about painting a brownstone facade here. I’m not looking for a debate on whether to paint or not. I understand all the problems that paint can introduce, etc. I’m trying to find out if anyone here has used Silin paint on their facade and how well it has held up over time–also if they have any contractors they’d recommend to apply it. This is supposed to be a breathable coating that is designed to work with stone and does not lead to the kind of deterioration usually associated with other paints.
According to the company, “These coatings have been in use in Europe for over 160 years. Silin® AZ Coatings are mineral paints, made with liquid silicate, a mineral found in stone, brick, terra cotta, mortars and plaster. Unlike latex and acrylic paints, they form a molecular bond with the masonry substrate. The coatings are 97% vapor permeable, which allows the masonry to respond naturally to water vapor and salts.”
Anyway this seems like a great low-cost solution but I’d like to get a better sense of how this has held up over time from someone who has used it.
Thanks.
I’ve also read about silin paint. Sorry I can’t add anything more substantive but I’d be very interested to hear from anyone with experience of these masonry paints. The whole idea of removing real stone (even deteriorated brownstone) only to replace it with tinted stucco — and being charged approx $50k for the privilege — has always stuck in my craw. But as the prospect of refacing our house gets closer and closer, I’d love to know if this is a viable option. Come to think of it, since I was involved in the campaign to landmark Prospect Heights, I do know some folks at LPC so maybe I should just ask them.
Thanks Drew. It does look like a similar product.
Can you recommend any painters that are familiar with this Keim? We’re hoping to be able to just repair our facade and then paint with Silin or a similar product rather than re-brownstone the entire thing. So we’d need a pigment that is deep enough to cover over the shading differences you get when you repair only the damaged parts of the brownstone.
We’ve never used Silin but from what I can find it sounds somewhat like another product we have used frequently called Keim. Keim is is fairly renowned in the restoration world. We were introduced to it when doing some work in Germany, thankfully they now are selling it in the US.
Kiem was approved by Landmarks in a limestone restoration project we did in the UES and another project in TriBeCa when a terrible GC mistakenly used red brick when it was supposed to be a cast concrete dark grey ‘brick’ in a crown course.
It’s a terrific masonry paint product and they were really great at matching our exact colors. Interestingly, where we corrected the brick problem the cast pieces have bleached out over time and the Keim has remained closer to the original gray (which won’t be a problem if you are painting the entire surface of a building).
http://www.keim.com/
I’ve been wondering if anyone has tried to ‘paint’ a brownstone with a product like this. As long as the brownstone coat is in good condition I think it’s a viable option, your neighbors and Landmarks may be the biggest hurdle.
Hope this helps.
Drew Stuart
Incorporated Architecture & Design
http://www.incorporatedny.com
Wonderful! Glad you seem to have researched it as well.
Hope you are planning to select a non-drab, non-brown, non-hidebound color. I have been hoping for people to paint their houses bright colors before the LPC police stop ’em! If I had the money handy I’d gladly do mine.
There are several houses on Carroll between 6th & 7th in PS which have lovely colors…yellow, blue, white. Not it great shape, but I don’t know how long it’s been.