ᐅ Wooden balcony – what to do?

Hello everyone,

I inherited a house, and we plan to renovate the interior early next year. We are also getting new windows and a new exterior paint job—gray windows and a white facade.
Now we have the wood surfaces. I want to replace and repaint the privacy boards, or rather repaint all the wood in a different color. What would be suitable for this? Stain? Oil? Paint? We want the new wood to match the color of the existing wood. Do you have any ideas?

Best regards

Hello Benedikt,
Wood ages over time, meaning that the lignin contained in the wood breaks down. Lignin is responsible for the wood’s strength; over time, the surface strength decreases and the wood weathers. Therefore, old and new wood differ in color due to biological reasons.
Repainting such wood is difficult; you would need to completely sand off the lignin-free (somewhat fibrous) surface until the natural wood tone is visible again – only then can you paint, stain, or allow the wood to weather again along with the renewed boards.
Painting with a light color provides the best weather protection because it prevents UV rays from reaching the wood surface; a similarly effective result can be achieved with highly pigmented stains. These allow the wood grain to remain visible while adding color – but they require regular maintenance (refreshing the stain) since a small amount of UV light still reaches the wood surface, causing weathering.

I would still paint it in that color.