If it's painted then lacquered it will be water tight.

Rock wrote If it's painted then lacquered it will be water tight.

Neither of these have water holding capabilities. Something that can hold water needs to be flexible (some sort of rubber), and you almost never lacquer of paint, that is just to put a sheen on a piece if it's a piece of furniture. All paint is is a pigment that is diluted with either water or oil (remember you can't lacquer water base and vice versa) so once the base dries up then you just have you thin layer of pigment. Since pigment is not flexible, once the temperature goes up or down like 20 degrees you will start micro cracks which will turn into real cracks.

OP, if you want to make it waterproof, get a spray sealant like flex seal and paint over that. If it is just small holes flex seal will do good, if it's larger holes try to use the flex stuff that's just bare rubber in a can (forgot the name of it), or if you want to go budget you can put in bondo or glue or something to fill the cracks more before you spray it with your rubber. You can even spray in plastidip but it's not able to be painted over (usually) whereas flex seal is made to be painted over.

002 wrote

Rock wrote If it's painted then lacquered it will be water tight.

Neither of these have water holding capabilities. Something that can hold water needs to be flexible (some sort of rubber), and you almost never lacquer of paint, that is just to put a sheen on a piece if it's a piece of furniture. All paint is is a pigment that is diluted with either water or oil (remember you can't lacquer water base and vice versa) so once the base dries up then you just have you thin layer of pigment. Since pigment is not flexible, once the temperature goes up or down like 20 degrees you will start micro cracks which will turn into real cracks.

OP, if you want to make it waterproof, get a spray sealant like flex seal and paint over that. If it is just small holes flex seal will do good, if it's larger holes try to use the flex stuff that's just bare rubber in a can (forgot the name of it), or if you want to go budget you can put in bondo or glue or something to fill the cracks more before you spray it with your rubber. You can even spray in plastidip but it's not able to be painted over (usually) whereas flex seal is made to be painted over.

I thought the lacquer itself was water tight, always thought that's what protected steel from rusting on cars. Learn something new everyday

Rock wrote

002 wrote

Rock wrote If it's painted then lacquered it will be water tight.

Neither of these have water holding capabilities. Something that can hold water needs to be flexible (some sort of rubber), and you almost never lacquer of paint, that is just to put a sheen on a piece if it's a piece of furniture. All paint is is a pigment that is diluted with either water or oil (remember you can't lacquer water base and vice versa) so once the base dries up then you just have you thin layer of pigment. Since pigment is not flexible, once the temperature goes up or down like 20 degrees you will start micro cracks which will turn into real cracks.

OP, if you want to make it waterproof, get a spray sealant like flex seal and paint over that. If it is just small holes flex seal will do good, if it's larger holes try to use the flex stuff that's just bare rubber in a can (forgot the name of it), or if you want to go budget you can put in bondo or glue or something to fill the cracks more before you spray it with your rubber. You can even spray in plastidip but it's not able to be painted over (usually) whereas flex seal is made to be painted over.

I thought the lacquer itself was water tight, always thought that's what protected steel from rusting on cars. Learn something new everyday

Woah the was highly educational, he schooled us both bro .

I used to think the same thing until I started working in the carpentry / finishing industry lol. All a lacquer does is add sheen with some protection but for outdoor furniture you would use a varnish which seals the wood (not and cracks) from water.

One thing to also realize is that the water should swell the wood and cause it to seal. Most barrels are sealed with Wax if there are issues.

Don't mean to dig this up... But, I used Flex Seal and it worked perfect. I used the like quart sized bucket or whatever and a brush tho so its not pretty but wont be too noticeable under the moving water. I would have got the spray version but they were sold out.

TheFakeMrSneaky wrote Don't mean to dig this up... But, I used Flex Seal and it worked perfect. I used the like quart sized bucket or whatever and a brush tho so its not pretty but wont be too noticeable under the moving water. I would have got the spray version but they were sold out.

That's why I don't use that anymore, it works great but it's not pretty. I heard (I haven't tried) that you can heat up a piece of flat metal and smooth out the rubber. Not sure how well it'd work but the idea seams logical.