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Captivating Colours

KEIM for wood

Wood is experiencing a real renaissance in modern architecture. Innovative production methods are opening up completely new building methods. This building material is used for exciting, sustainable furniture, windows, facades, floors and doors for interior and exterior use. Wood therefore has the potential to become the building material of the 21st century. 

A success story going back thousands of years

Wood -the building material for the 21st century

Wood is probably the oldest building material used by humans. It stands out by being easily available and simple to use or renovate, as well as providing a good interior climate. When processed correctly, it can last for hundreds of years โ€“ as demonstrated impressively by countless wooden structures across the globe.

Wood is a renewable resource that is durable and robust. It has good insulating properties and thus helps to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. It regulates humidity and absorbs harmful substances from the room air. Wood not only creates a better climate across the world, but also a more pleasant interior climate.

Durable, robust and aesthetic

For wood to maintain its natural beauty, it needs a coating โ€“ particularly when used outdoors โ€“ to protect it from moisture, UV radiation, chemical and biological influences.

Due to its swelling and shrinking behaviour, wood poses a significant challenge for coatings.

The appearance and durability of a wooden facade depends on the choice of materials, construction and surface treatment with a wood paint. Suitable wood coatings can be used as protective measures to meet todayโ€™s structural demands with respect to durability and visual stability.

Going beyond keeping the building fit for use, wood paint coatings also give the designer scope for aesthetic creativity to underline the individual character of a wood structure or wood-inspired interior.

Conventional wood protection versus innovative wood paints

Conventional wood coatings such as varnishes (conventional varnishes or modern powder varnishes) and varnishes are based on linseed oils, alkyd resins, acrylates and other plastics. They are supposed to reduce the ingress of moisture and the destruction of the lignin through UV light. However, binders contained in these organic coatings are not permanently UV-resistant. Initially, this causes changes to the colour or the gloss, and subsequently results in decomposition of the binder.

When the elasticity starts to decline, the paint on the wooden surface becomes brittle, flakes off and quickly loses its protective effect. Moisture penetrates into the parts of the wood that are now open, migrates behind the remaining coatings, increases the "movement" of the wood and thus accelerates the destruction process.

Conventional wood coatings or paints have a limited service life of approximately three to seven years, depending on the quality and the stresses involved.

 

The silicate principle applied to wood

Vision and innovation

Silicate paints consist of inorganic binders, mineral fillers and inorganic colour pigments. They bond with the substrate due to a chemical reaction of the binder with minerals in the substrate, which form an insoluble bond with each other. Silicate paints are proven to be extremely weather resistant and durable on mineral construction materials for building protection. Due to their typical matt- lime appearance and the purely inorganic pigmented shades of colour, they have fared particularly well in the preservation, protection and design of buildings.

After 20 years of research, the product developers at KEIM have been successful in transferring the silicate paint principle to wooden substrates. They have combined two tried-and-tested coating materials: oil-based primer with good ingression properties and silicate paint for wood with reliable protection from weathering and UV light.

Due to its ageing behaviour, which is typical for silicates, the coating structure of KEIM Lignosil is extremely durable and ensures that Lignosil surfaces do not usually need to be sanded prior to renovation: thorough cleaning of the surfaces is the only preparation needed.

Advantages of KEIM wood coatings

Wood coating with KEIM Lignosil protects and preserves modern and historical structures, with convincingly clear advantages:

  • Low diffusion resistance
  • Outstanding moisture protection
  • UV-stable and absolutely lightfast
  • Extremely weather-resistant and durable
  • Matt appearance appropriate for monuments
  • Easy to renovate
  • Tested in accordance with DIN EN 927
  • Safe due to tried-and-tested individual components

Controlled greying of wood

The attitude of architects and builders towards this is almost as controversial as the phenomenon itself: should we accept it and allow nature to run its course or try to control the development of the surfaces by applying coatings? There is now an elegant way out of this dilemma, with KEIM Lignosil-Verano, a silicate-based surface treatment that simulates a naturally beautiful silver-grey patinised wood appearance from the very first day. By deliberately waiving the protective function from the wood coatings, the coat of Lignosil-Verano gradually turns into a natural grey as time passes. No additional coats need to be applied โ€“ the desired look of an elegant, greyed wood facade develops by itself without the need for any further effort or action.

Sustainable wood protection

What makes it so special? KEIM Lignosil-Verano contains no biocides or solvents and guarantees an appearance with a stable and natural mineral matt colour.  The treated surfaces remain open to diffusion. As well as drying swiftly and being extremely simple to apply, Lignosil-Verano is a particularly economical and sustainable system.

Do you need more information about KEIM wood coatings or other coating systems? We will gladly provide you with advice for your projects. Don't delay, give us a call or send us an e-mail. 

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