Michael Dresdner

Q: I’m planning on building a rabbit cage to keep outside using 3/4″ particleboard, because of its price. I’ve got some Zinsser SealCoat and was wondering if I could use that as a primer, then use an exterior grade latex or oil based paint on top.
A: Yes, you can use Zinsser SealCoat under any common paint, but there are two larger issues here you must be aware of. First, shellac is not recommended as an exterior sealer, and that is what SealCoat is. I would suggest an acrylic waterbased exterior formulated primer instead. Second, you should know that you can not make interior plywood or particleboard into exterior simply by coating it, no matter what you coat it with. What makes it exterior is the type of glue or resin used in its manufacture, and painting atop it won’t change that. Interior construction board will degrade outdoors, painted or not. Of course, you may in fact be using exterior particleboard; if so, no worries, but since you did not mention that, I figured I should warn you.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under compatibility, durability, exterior finish, shellac. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.