Why are Barns painted red?

[Kenneth in Texas]

Dont know about now days but long time ago used to be very few colors available. Same with brick, most old brick buildings are dark red/maroon.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

never painted our barn

 

[tcreeley]

"Many barns in the northern United States are painted barn red with a white trim. One possible reason for this is that ferric oxide, which is used to create red paint, was the cheapest and most readily available chemical for farmers in New England and nearby areas. Another possible reason is that ferric oxide acts a preservative and so painting a barn with it would help to protect the structure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn

In school we read about a man who made his fortune on this paint...and subsequently lost it satisfying his wife and kid's desire for a big house and entry into good society. The Rise of Silas Lapham - By William Dean Howells

Reinforces the idea of "lucky stars"!

 

[Jstpssng]

Dont know about now days but long time ago used to be very few colors available. Same with brick, most old brick buildings are dark red/maroon.

Up here it's because that's the natural color out of the kiln.

 

[PILOON]

I was involved in the artist paint industry.
Pigments vary greatly in cost with the bright reds being the most costly and the earth colors the cheapest.
Red oxide is in the low $ range close to the earth colors while Cadmium red is at the high end of the $ scale.

Early whites were white lead and faded (yellowed) and today not used. (old master paintings were all faded due to lead white pigments)
Today white is mainly titanium white.

Get a car painted in bright red and the paint $ will shock you compared to the more somber colors.

 

[MH8675309]

Red is more durable - Said by the reverend Playfair from the Quiet man.

 

[DFB]

Red is more durable - Said by the reverend Playfair from the Quiet man.

Good advice...great movie! :thumbsup:

 

[SweBota]

I can tell you why they are red in Sweden. 250 years ago the first affordable paints were made from dry pigment (burnt iron ochre) which was a byproduct of copper mining in Falun. Farmers could by this in bags and mix their own paint at a very low cost. Since then almost all barns and many other types of buildings in the countryside are red. A million swedes emigrated to the US so some of this tradition was surely brought along, especially to Minnesota and Iowa where most swedes settled.

The mine is closed since 1992 but the paint is still manufactured in Falun.

The start |

/Marcus

 

[mike46]

I was told that there was some sort of mineral in the pigment that made the paint job last a long time. Iron Oxide??????

I have the answer for Quebec, no doubts! I come from Champlain near Trois-Rivieres (a farming area) and exactly were we lived the woodland used to be owned (1920 app) by Sherwin-Williams, the painting company. At the beginning of the century they were extracting dirt, a red oxided pigment that was then used as a base for many paints. I remember, a digged area, there was a cedar grove and the soil was swampy. There was a shop nearby at Red-Mill, a small village (still existing) where they proceed to the first transformation before train shipping to probably Montreal and USA. Every barn around were white at the base and red pinion and doors. All farmers had a bag of that red powder in the shed and it was cheap. To be used, you had to add linseed oil, get the desired thickness and spread with a rough painting brush. Some of those red farms still remains. In the great depression (1929), many canadians moved over to eastern states finding jobs in weaving mills. Could some of them brought the idea? or was there some other extracting sites in US...

 

[jonnmero]

Maybe a better explanation can be found here: Falu_red ? Notice also how it is traditionally made, which may be the reason for its wide usage, also in North America. See my Swedish mate beat me to the post ;-)