Darkroom Wall paint

[gth]

Are there any issues with what type of paint to use on walls and cabinets in a darkroom. in terms of outgassing and chemical problems with papers and processes?

It's an old house where I am using linseed oil paint….. any issues?

Indeed, what is the preferred wall treatment in a darkroom?

It's located in a cement wall basement. I want to cover the cement with paneling and paint. On a budget.

/gth

[John Kasaian]

Old house? Any lead paint? That's Drew's territory.
If the walls are cement block, I wouldn't bother with paneling if I were on a budget, just a good washable paint to make the place sanitary.
Are you building your own cabinets, buying stock cabinetry, or repurposing cabinets from an old renovation?

[Mark Woods]

I've painted my darkrooms white since the 60's. I use a good latex paint. I wouldn't use oil based paint because of the out gassing and the lack of ventilation.

[gth]

The house was built in 1859, solid timber with standing siding, 1 1/2 inch by 8-10 inch planks. Rebuilt in the 60 's insulated and horizontal siding on top of old siding. So no lead paint problem.

Darkroom will be in 60's cellar/garage addition built with cement block walls with some kind of cement composite insulation, cement finish.

I might need additional insulation, vapour barrier and panelling inside to make it operational in winter at decent temperature without condensation etc.

Probably stick with open stainless shelves above work area as much as possible. Under counter cabinets I'll use standard kitchen gear where I can.

I am using traditional linseed oil paint in the house so i'd like to use that in the darkroom as well if there are no issues.

[ROL]

I used washable semi matte latex wall paints in mine (http://www.rangeoflightphotography.com/pages/a-darkroom-portrait), to make rare cleanups easier. I'm not quite getting why you're using oil based paints.

[John Kasaian]

That sounds like a neat house!

[Jmarmck]

I would use some sort of water sealer on the cinder block before anything else.

[jp]

The house was built in 1859, solid timber with standing siding, 1 1/2 inch by 8-10 inch planks. Rebuilt in the 60 's insulated and horizontal siding on top of old siding. So no lead paint problem.

Darkroom will be in 60's cellar/garage addition built with cement block walls with some kind of cement composite insulation, cement finish.


Could be asbestos. Covering it / painting it would be a good solution to major alteration. If you need to mess with it, get a pro's opinion on what you're dealing with.

Linseed oil would be fine; it's not a museum archive, and other chemicals and powder with be more of a risk to your negatives than the paint choice. If you are getting a ton of moisture in the basement, invest in drainage around the house rather than fighting the moisture inside if possible.

[gth]

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

[Drew Wiley]

I prefer true oil enamels in a darkroom because they don't develop a static charge like water-based paints, and also are more moisture resistant and scrub well. But
they do take a long time to outgas, sometimes months. Linseed oil varieties would hypothetically be the worst in this respect, but I was unaware of any paint still
being made with linseed long oil. The whole idea of that was to penetrate deep into bare wood fiber and dry slowly. Most linseed derivatives started being converted to alkyds long before most of us were even born. But we're talking ancient history here. True oil enamels are outright banned in our part of the world, and that will become inevitable nationwide in the near future, because paint manufacturers are going crazy trying to market so many different blends for specific air quality jurisdictions. That's why the toughest standard usually applies in the long-haul. So we're starting to see what are called dual-drying hybrid products, which clean up with water, but have an additional component related to oil-based things, but which typically outgasses in about a week. Finding a nice flat black has so far been a problem. And I can't use any of the last of my true old oil-base, cause it's a working cleanroom. So my touch-up spots look pretty inelegant at
the moment; but when the lights go out, who would know? So I'll probably end up repainting with basic acrylic, then trying a dual-drying fast-cure clear glaze over
it, to combat any static charge. But that kind of maintenance won't be needed for awhile. It's my film and color printing room - a true clean room where I'm fussy
about static and cleanliness. The processing room is less an issue, because it has independent ventilation, and no equipment or film or paper stored in there.
But as an aside, true linseed oil products are very prone to mildew unless there's a suitable mildewcide in them, or they are capped off with a different kind of paint. Asbestos board and old lead-based paint surfaces are better capped off with fresh paint than messed with. If you need to remove them, that's the kind of
gear I deal in all day long. Bring one or two thousand bucks with you just to start out.

[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 :D

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/78836600/Lilla%20Handboken%20ENG.pdf