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Preparing Outside Of Barn For Painting

Name: Carol  City: Zionsville IN

Question: We are scraping all the loose flakes off of the exterior of a one-story small barn. The barn was built in 1865 so the wood that we expose is weathered and gray. I tried a palm sander to smooth the edges from where we chipped off the loose flakes. However it is not very effective. We are senior citizens and cannot use heavy equipment. Will the primer plus paint (oil based) smooth out those edges where we have removed flakes? This building is near our house and we want it to look really nice.