Flour paint
Flour paint
Flour paint has been used for centuries in Scandinavia for painting the exterior of wooden houses. It is a durable and water resistant paint. Original recipes ingredients are water, rye flour, lineseed oil and mining leftover as pigment. The copper, zinc and lead content of the original Swedish paint makes it durable, antifungal, bactericidal, but also toxic. Nowadays other non-toxic earth pigments and oxides are used to colour the flour paint.
The life cycle |
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Low Energy Water based, mineral paints (clay, loam, lime) and flour paint, have the lowest embodied energy among paints. Low footprint Flour paint, together with clay, loam and lime paint, is one of the types of paint with the lowest environmental footprint. |
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Low cost Home made flour paint is inexpensive. |
Time consuming Boiling your own flour paint needs quite a lot of preparation. However, when your buy it ready made it is fast, it has a fast drying time: 2 hrs (1).
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High energy Flour paint is more energy consuming in production then other paints, since it needs to boil for 45 min - 1 hr. |
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Long lifespan Flour paint on exterior wood claddings can last up to 15 years (1). This however, depends on weather circumstances, and quality of the paint. Non toxic There is no offgassing. It is VOC and solvents free. |
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Easy reuse Flour paint is easy to sand and re-paint. |
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Links
Eco info
Check out the most extensive environmental comparison of wood finishes, which is Finnish.
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Other Finishing
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Examples on Harvestmap.org