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Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @sebastian1. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about painting a wine barrel liner.
Pond sealer is designed for porous substrates like concrete, so it wouldn't be a good choice for painting your polythene wine barrel liner. Polythene is reasonably difficult to paint, as it tends to expand and contract in the heat of the day, and any non-flexible paint will crack. Given that the paint also needs to be suitable for use underwater, you'd have limited options. I am unaware of a paint with the qualities you're looking for. Will there be fish in this pond as well? If so, the paint would also need to be non-toxic. You could try the pond sealer, and it might work; it's just that polyethene is not recognised as a suitable substrate.
You might like to let our members know a bit more about your project, as that would allow them to make useful suggestions. Why did you want to use the pond sealer? Was it purely to change the colour? What colour did you want the liner to be?
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
Hi @sebastian1,
I've double-checked with the chemist at Crommelins, and the pond sealer will not adhere to the polyethene.
I'd imagine the cost of the liner would be coming very close to the cost of a new half-wine barrel. How long did you get out of the old one? If it was a significant amount of time, it might be worth going down that route again. Remember to elevate the barrel off the soil with half bricks, so it's not sitting directly on the ground and decaying. My concern is that if the barrel or your painted coating on the liner fails completely in a couple of years, you'll be back to needing to buy the barrel. Monetarily-wise, it seems to make sense to replace the barrel instead of going the liner route.
As mentioned, plastics are typically rather hard to paint as their super smooth surface doesn't allow the paint to grip well. You could scuff up the surface with some 120-grit sandpaper and then paint it with White Knight Squirts, one of the better spray paints for plastics. Unfortunately, there isn't really a sandstone colour. Alternatively, you could try Dulux Weathersheild mixed up in a sandstone colour. Both of these products are not designed for underwater use, so it would be a trial-and-error situation.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
Hi Mitchell.
Regarding your previous advice that the chemist at Crommelins advised you that the pond sealer will not adhere to the polyethene wine barrel liner that I purchased form Bunnings, this was not the case. I applied the pond sealer to the wine barrel liner and six days since applying the second coat and letting it cure in the sun before filling it with water, it has adhered really well to the polyethene surface with no problems. See attached photos. Perhaps you can pass on this result to the Crommelins chemist who advised otherwise.
chemist.
Hi @sebastian1
Thank you very much for that update, the pond sealer looks to be adhering very well to the pond liner. Let me tag @MitchellMc to make sure he sees the results of your handywork. Did you sand the surface before applying it or did you leave it as is and simply painted over the surface?
Again, thank you for sharing your pond liner painting project.
Eric
Many thanks for the update @sebastian1. I'm glad to see your solution is working well.
I apologise as I perhaps oversimplified my response previously about the product not adhering. It will stick to the polyethylene as it would to glass or any non-porous surface. However, through testing, it has been determined that there are too many variables to be able to recommend the pond sealer over a non-porous surface. Not being able to penetrate the polyethylene surface significantly hinders its ability to remain well attached. This means that there is potential for the pond sealer to crack and separate away from the smooth surface.
Regardless of this, it appears your solution is working, so a big thumbs up from me! 👍
Well done!
Mitchell
Hi Mitchell. I finally filled both ponds with water today, and the pond sealer was still attached to the wine barrel liner perfectly and none of it had come away from the surface. Ponds working beautifully as in photos. Cheers! Sebastian
