Articles » Maintaining Masonry, Stone, Plasterwork » Painting Cobble Lock

I Want To Paint My Cobble Lock.

Q: I have tried a lot of D.I.Y. shops and building suppliers for cobble lock paint and it is not available. Any suggestions?

A: The biggest issue here is getting your paint to stick tightly to the surface you wish to paint. You have many possibilities. You can paint your cobble lock with any exterior quality water based masonry paint or an oil-based paint by using stir-in bonders. E-B is a very strong bonder you mix in to your first coat of any water based masonry paint and the great thing is that you can choose any colour you like!

Mix in EB as follows... 3 parts paint and 1 part EB. Stir well. Prepare and clean your cobble lock surface properly by having it power-washed to remove all bits and pieces that might be flaking off. Give it a few good drying days and then apply your paint. If you feel it needs a second coat, apply the paint but this time without E-B.

Your other option of course is to use an oil based paint which I think may have been used initially. In this instance, follow all the same preparation procedure, but use Owatrol Oil, a paint conditioner (this product has many applications apart from bonding so you'll have plenty of jobs for it if you have any left over) Stir in about 25% Owatrol into your oil based paint. As with above, choose any colour you like, the sky is the limit. If you want a glossy look, go for a gloss paint, and visa versa, if you would prefer a flat look go for a matte finish and so on. Either of the above should, with minimal effort give you the desired result.

I initially got these great tips from a red-hot painting contractor friend, and you can utilise them on a huge variety of surfaces, in fact practically anything porous. For example, garden ornaments / statues, shed, superlap or other wooden fencing, garden tables and chairs (oil based), patio slabs, tired looking roof tiles, and of course any kind of walls. I used the oil-based idea using a lovely blue paint in a garden fishpond after letting it dry out thoroughly following a good powerwashing. You can use the same ideas for indoor applications also but using indoor type paints instead. You can pick up those primers at all good paint outlets.