Now that we've got some application and performance guidelines, the next thing to sketch out are some product features. Good performance and low cost are often uneasy companions. For the alkyd primer part of our project I've asked that we focus mainly on achieving performance, and pay less attention to cost. First impressions are important. A customer is more likely to go back to the same brand of paint if the first tin opened looked good.
Wood has fairly poor water resistance.
Timber painted with a good primer has better dimensional stability and water resistance than unpainted timber. Drier systems can get pretty fancy and specific to particular binders. I've asked to keep ours simple. Touch dry in one to four hours is fairly standard for a wood primer. I've asked for a broad spectrum preservative package to keep mould and bacteria at bay.