Painting a barn roof

[theboman]

It's gotta be done. The old barn needs the roof painted it's rusted and nasty looking, but no leaks.
My brother and myself have put this off the past 2 years but it's gotta be done ASAP.
Looks to be just me on the painting since just last week my brother had open heart surgery and is out of commission on these types of chores.
Any tips? Paint types etc? I was thinking using a roller on a long pole, or moving my compressor and generator to the barn and using some type of sprayer.

 

[Glenn9643]

Bo,
Are you planning to try and treat the rust with anything, such as Ospho? I believe I would try to "kill" the rust prior to painting. I've never done a job like this, but do know that a metal roof can get really slick with a little help. The particulars of the roof would determine the approach I would think. How high is the ridge; what is the pitch; how long are the runs on each side? If it's not too steep you may be able to work from the top using a roller on a pole, painting from the drip edge back toward the peak to avoid having the paint run down where you're working. After you get it painted up to the ridge area, work back toward one end competing painting the ridge. Be sure your ladder is on the end you're ending up on! Good luck with the painting.

 

[SPIKER]

my house roof is metal, (orriginally built in 1880) and has several nasty patches and I painted it 2 yrs back now. ~20' up on one side and ~26' on other side. pitch is about 5-12 so steep figuring that it is slick. I used rop over one side and tied off using a roller to paint it with the fiber reinforced alum paint avail at many places. worked well no leaks and I had to replace a buch of nails. took 2 days for about 2000 SF of roof area. mixed 5 gal bucket on ground and transfered to 3 gall and hauled it up to roof by rope. painted mostly using a brush on a pole kind of a soft shopkitchen broom type thingy. they are available too. I brushed on the standing seams making sure they were coated well first then painted the flats. sliding down from top I would paint the seam on each side and then move to the next seam/side/panel and paint the seams on it while brooming the prior flat panel. on the end last one I painted the side drip edge and standing seam then went back down and painted the flat. only had to do this once as the other side was where I had the ladder and painted down the roof as I left it to get on the ladder, painted IN from each end to the center basically to there the ladder was at. I did nearly slip off the HIGH side because I kept getting tripped up by the rope as I was working by myself the woman wouldn't HELP but sat outside giving me some encouragement by asking things like "is you're life insurance paid up" "Don't fall yet I have to change the camcorder tape" and "runningup to the store going to take the truck parked in the yard where that rope is hanging@!" Not sure what she was meaning by that ? lol

If it is RUSTY you need to treat the rust with some sort of inhibitor first or else you will be re-dooing it very soon. some rusty metal primers may work but I don't know on that. mine was painted about 25 yrs back and was not rusty only loose from high winds and popped nails. (replaced about 50 of them first and added about 200 more.)

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Mark M