Darkroom Wall paint

[jp]

Fortunately it is not asbestos It is a tile composite of cement and wood shavings. And you are absolutely right about drainage around the house….Will be done.

/gth

In the 60's asbestos was used in many products without saying "asbestos" such as vinyl tiles and composite wall boards. It was sort of a miracle building product to increase fire resistance, last a long time, insulate well, etc... In our area, schools containing any asbestos must have a fancy mitigation plan, with detailed tests and documentation of many unknown construction materials throughout the building. It's public record if you're ever curious to see how a local school live with asbestos.

[Drew Wiley]

There is nothing particularly hazardous or even illegal about either asphalt-asbestos roofing, floor tile, or fiber-cement-asbestos siding. In fact, it's still legal to sell and apply these kinds of materials. But it's not legal to still make them. Free asbestos is very hazardous. But it's damn difficult to get asbestos free from siding or pliant tiles. Maybe if you grind and inhale the dust; but simply breaking a tile won't free it. Our former manager here died relatively young from asbestosis. As a young man he had worked only two years in a Certainteed roof shinge plant where asbestos was a raw ingredient. Nobody thought twice about it back then. The sister-in-law of one of our salesmen died from it. Her husband wore an asbestos fire suit at local powder-coating plant, and she routinely laundered it. Things like asbestos duct wrap is another subject. Get rid of that, or encapsulate it, before it decomposes. And any government or public remodel requires special abatement licensing. Otherwise, asbestos is a big fiber and easy to capture with HEPA gear. Other than ducting and old car brake pads, the average guy is not likely to encounter free asbestos in an older residence. The more common risk comes from lead or mercury in old paint.

[Jmarmck]

I worked at a university where many of the old buildings had asbestos. It was in the floor tile and some sort of ceiling coating like a spackle. The ceiling material had to be removed by a safe means because it would occasionally drop material. The floors were said to be ok as long as there was a coat of wax which is strange given all the precautions we had to take when dealing with chems in the research labs. I believe the rule is that if it is not airborne it is allowable. They waxed the floors in my lab at least twice a year. But that did nothing about the manometer filled with mercury. In an older home your biggest problem is lead.

[IanG]

I've just painted my new darkroom, all water based I'd guess acrylic paints, black behind the enlargers the rest white. Nothing fancy there's no need the paint is so cheap it's easier to add a fresh coat in a few years to freshen up. Having said that previous darkrooms lasted year without needing repainting 15-20 years

Ian

[gth]

As an aside, a friend of mine used white factory painted corrugated sheet metal siding inside his garage-shop and it created a very nice clean wall surface.

The reason I am asking about linseed oil paint is that I would like to stay away from modern chemistry in refinishing this old house. This house is in Sweden and there is a lot of interest here in going back to older but improved (no "leadwhite") linseed oil paints for restoration work. One small company is particular markets linseed oil paints with no solvent. Also the oil has been boiled, pre oxidized and "sludge removed" to be "protein free". NO solvent at all. 100% dry matter. Only treated linseed oil and pigments. Apparently this is how the original linseed oil paints were made back in the 1700s.

This may sound hooky but this company got the contract to deliver the paint and their restoration techniques to the Versailles, where they had some 1000 windows falling apart, so it can't be just some fad.

I am not set on using it in the darkroom but still interested in what compatibility issues there might be.

Drew, if you are interested here's a link to the Allbäck paint company in Sweden. Might be interesting to hear your opinions about their claims.

http://linoljeprodukter.se/startsida

The website is in Swedish but here is a english pdf brochure of there products and claims.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...oken%20ENG.pdf