Ray Mernagh is a painting contractor based in Ballycarney, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. He showed the Irish Farmers Journal some painting work he is carrying out on haysheds. Ray says for a painting job to have a long life, time and effort must go into preparing the shed. “Sheds should be power washed first to get rid of dirt and old flaking paint,” Ray said. He has a 5,000 PSI diesel power washer and water tank on a trailer he brings to every job. Every surface to be painted is washed down.

Ray uses a cherry picker instead of a ladder to gain access to shed roofs. He said in the past he had bad falls off ladders and the cherry picker is much safer. When working on the middle of the roof Ray walks on timber boards. The boards spread his weight across the roof, reducing the chance of a sheet collapsing. Some people try and follow the line where the cladding is fixed to the purlins, so their weight is receiving the best support available. However, this is still dangerous. He always avoids skylights when walking on the shed because they are usually fragile. When painting the shed he covers the skylight to avoid covering it with paint.

Once the shed is power-washed it is ready for priming. Ray uses a metal primer which is grey zinc phosphate-based. Priming ensures a better bond of paint to the surface, increases paint resilience and provides additional protection. One coat of the primer is sprayed on to the sides of the shed using his Wagner spray pump machine and this is dry and ready for painting after half an hour. A timber board attached to a sprong placed at the base of a sheet prevents the concrete wall underneath being sprayed with paint.

When priming is finished, the shed is ready for painting. Ray usually applies one coat of paint evenly across the surface via the spray pump machine. He uses oxide gloss enamel paint from Castle Paints. Usually Ray adds a little white spirit to the paint to help it flow through the spray pump fluidly. He stands on the timber boards to paint the roof of the shed safely and uses the cherry picker to paint any high points at the side of a shed.

Ray showed me one shed he recently completed in the locality. He says that a well-painted shed should last six to eight years before it requires painting again. The three steps to implement if doing the job yourself or getting a contractor in to do the work are:

1. Power wash off old paint and dirt.

2. Apply a coat of primer.

3. Apply a coat of good quality paint.

Safety

Safety is the biggest issue when painting a shed or carrying out any type of work on a roof. When working on a fragile roof, a full assessment of the roof should take place first. According to the HSA, factors to be taken into account when assessing the risk include:

  • Roof lights which may have been obscured by paint.
  • Any repairs carried out in the past, especially if fragile roof sheets have been used for ‘‘patching’’ an otherwise non-fragile roof (such practices are highly dangerous).
  • Metal roof sheets which may have deteriorated with age and become fragile.

    • It is important to remember that there may be live electricity wires and cables present when renovating/working on farm buildings. One of the obvious hazards with working on roofs is that there may be electricity wires either passing overhead or attached to the building itself. These factors need to be considered and dealt with appropriately.

    Insurance

    Before hiring a painting contractor, ask them for their insurance certificates and ask your own insurance provider regarding the suitability of your own cover. Ray always carries copies of his insurance in case a farmer wants to see it before he starts a job.

    Hiring a contractor

    Some farmers will choose to hire a contractor while others will decide to do the work themselves. If you are doing the work yourself always try and do it as safely as possible, taking on board some of the points in this article. For farmers hiring a contractor, perhaps it would be worth checking out previous work done by them and talking to their clients before committing to their services. There are some rogue painting and repair contractors in every region scouting for work who do not have proper insurance cover and, very often, carry out substandard work.

    Watch the full video here