I painted four steel entry doors today. What a fiasco! First tried a small foam roller and every lap mark showed. So I tried brushing it and it didn’t level out–can see every lap and every brush mark. Looks baaad! Its semi-gloss and owner thought maybe that was the problem. I said it shouldn’t matter–sure gloss is a little less forgiving, but this looked like crap. The paint wouldn’t flow and seemed to be drying so fast that laps showed and would not blend. Owner was talking about getting the doors sprayed and I he could take them off and bring them to an autobody paint shop. (I think he would be shocked at what it would cost though.) I don’t own a sprayer.
I figured this would be a two hour job–was expecting water based acrylic, not oil based enamel, and enamel can be tricky, but this looks like it was done by someone who never held a brush in his hands before!
Anyway, we are meeting at a paint store tomorrow to ask their advice. This is humiliating! (Also helped that he stood beside me the whole time offering advice and help.) I used fine steel wool before painting and wiped it off with some “painters’ wipes” that are pop-up paper towels with cleaner, sort of like “Handi-wipes” and then rinsed their residue off with a sponge and clear water and dried it with paper towels. He pointed out spots I’d missed with the paper towels. (I let it air dry after the paper towels to make absolutely sure there was no moisture before painting, so it wouldn’t have mattered if i hadn’t seen those spots anyway.)
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Was the paint thick? A little bit of penetrol would help it to flow out and smooth nicely. And what kind of bruch were you using? it takes a little different touch with the brush too ... you can't apply it like latex.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
The paint was pretty thick. Part of the problem was I wanted to get the darn doors done so they could close up the house for the night and so brushed over what I had rolled and didn't wait the 24 hours between coats. I thought I needed penetrol, but they live way out in the country and the paint would have been dry by the time I got some and came back. Not sure if penetrol will work with polyurethane enamel. When I go to the store this morning, I will ask them.
Probably need a new brush too. I know the technique is just like varnishing with oil-based varnish--flow it on and tip it off, but this was like painting with honey--had to scrub it on to get it to "stick" (or it would leave little dots where the undercoat showed through), then the next spot wouldn't melt into the last spot. When I tipped off, you could see a divot where I started and stopped my brush stroke. Maybe I jsut didn't use enough paint--he had a quart for four doors and I was almost empty after I second coated two of the doors.
I had a heck of a time in the inside of this same owner's house when I painted with latex paint last winter. It was so dry in there, the paint was drying almost as I put it on. Didn't know about Flotrol then, but will use it in the future (although I used it on another later job and it didn't help).
Danno,
Sand them down, thin your paint, rag it on rag it off. Takes more coats to build the mils but you get a smoother finish.
Or switch to an alkyd paint with penetrol.
KK
Yeah, figured I'd have to start by sanding them down. One door turned out well with the rolled on thin coat of paint, but the guy noticed a streak along a hinge and wants it redone. That one I may try rolling on another thin coat. I think I would have gotten by better by rolling on a second thin coat, (the garage door was also pretty good except for a couple too thin streaks) but he said he thought the problem was that I didn't use a brush but had used a roller. Since the customer is always right.... Next time I'll just tell him to do it himself since he's so adept. I get madder and madder the more I think about it.
I can't stand it when the customer stands over my shoulder, "You missed a spot... There's another spot you missed...." Previously (I never learn) this guy's wife did that when I painted the insides of the doors with latex paint. I finally told her those spots were where the paint was already drying. "No," she insisted, "If you stand where I am you'll see that the paint is duller there and that you missed spots." I finally told her that after it all dried, if she wasn't satisfied, I'd do it again. When it all dried, it was fine. This time, however, when it dried it looked like crap.
I thought I had it bad, but while I was painting, the guy I usually work with was rebuilding their redwood porch/deck (three L-shaped steps up a platform about 4'x6') that I wrote about here earlier. First it was full of bees that the owner said he had killed. Marc shot down 17 with spray and got stung once. Then the legs of the L's were different widths, making the miters real problems. Lastly, he had to taper some of the boards because the width of the steps varied a half inch over the short leg! The owner saw a tapered board and complained. Marc explained. Guy thought the previous builder was some pumpkins, but after a few explanations from Marc, said he remembered they let one guy go shortly after his job because he wasn't "working out".
Well, the guy at the paint store said my problem was putting a second coat on before the first had dried. Said that's what made the paint hard to spread. Anyway, it's all still too rubbery to sand today, so after tomorrow's rain, I'll hope it's sry enough to sand and redo on Thirsday.
All comes from hurrying to get the job done quickly for some very demanding customers. As another person pointed out here, that always creates problems.
If that's what you did, then it might never dry.
If you apply a second coat very early while the first coat is still fresh, then the two layers of paint meld together. If you wait until the first coat is dry, then it has complet4ed giving off volatile compounds and has stabilized. However, in between times, the first coat has skinned over but is still trying to outgas, and if you apply a fresh coat of paint, you interfere with that process. The second coat traps some of the volatile stuff from the first coat, and it will stay gummy and soft for a long, long time.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt