# Why are barns painted red?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-barns-painted-red/262301>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 30, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-barns-painted-red/262301 "2004-08-30T21:00:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![boucheresq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@boucheresq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boucheresq)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-barns-painted-red/262301/1 "2004-08-30T21:00:33Z")

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That’s all - just passed one the other day and it got me thinking . . .

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**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-barns-painted-red/262301/2 "2004-08-30T21:02:45Z")

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According to [the master,](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_382.html) it’s because the thing they had plenty of to change the color of their paint was iron oxide… aka, rust.