I'm planning to repaint my oak cabinets white. They're stained with an amber-tint now. I'm planning to use a liquid sander to rough up the top coat, and then use a enamel primer. My question is how many coats of primer do I need?
Two Approaches: (1) Once you use liquid sandpaper, and the surface is completely dry, you should use one, or perhaps two coats of stain blocker primer, such as alcohol or acrylic based Zinzer or Bullseye. Regular primers will not seal the stain in, if the cabinet clear finish is breached anywhere, and it may bleed through to the white topcoat over time. (2) (easier) In order not to breach the clearcoat over our stained oak, we just cleaned the varnish over the stain with 409 or fantastic, then lightly sanded for better adherence of the primer. The key thing is to get the surface super clean, grease free, and slightly rough. That was several years ago, and the new finish paint looks great. We used Zinzer as a primer and undercoat.
I used one coat of regular primer and two coats of melamine paint on mahogany after hand sanding. It adheres well and looks great.
I would sand down to the bare wood and use one coat of primer. Personally I would never paint wood like that though. If you don't like the color than you can always stain it a different color them put your 3 coats of polyeureathane over it.
Besides we much prefer the painted look to the old stained one. That said, we are moving to a house with medium oak stained ones that are definitely not going to be painted.
I don't like oak because it's looks too busy and I don't like the open grain. That's just my personally preference. Having said that, I don't really like to paint wood in general, even oak. But, these cabinets are just too massive and overwhelming. I'll paint over 80% of them, and try to re-stain the cabinets under the U-shape counter. That's the plan. If the chemical stripping process turns too difficult which means I have to turn to mechanical sanding, then I'll just paint over them. I don't like sanding, esp. I don't know if these old veneer cabinets can take the beating.
Only one coat of primer? How about the undercoat?
thx,
-w
if you ever bother to get primer out for anything, and use less than two coats, you are just asking to have to redo it soon. always two coats of primer. more as required.
randy
On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 01:56:07 -0600, "xrongor" scribbled this interesting note:
Sand, clean, prime, sand, clean, prime, sand, clean, prime, sand, clean, enamel, sand, clean, enamel, sand, extra clean, finish coat of enamel. Do this correctly and with oil based enamel and you end up with a super clean and smooth finish that is very tough and durable. Done this way you can even polish out minor scratches. If you use latex enamel then polishing and scrubbing is out of the question.
-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)
it also gets easier every time when you do this. the first prime coat and sand are most of the work. the last coat will practically jump right off the brush.
randy
On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 20:26:02 -0600, "xrongor" scribbled this interesting note:
This is true. The key here is to make the surface as smooth and clean as possible to begin with. Each coat you apply fills in smaller and smaller voids while each sanding dresses down the high spots (I know you already know this randy) and the cleaning after each sanding removes as much of the dust as possible. That's why I like to spray all my oil based enamel paint whenever possible. I feel a sprayer, used properly, gives a smoother application and the compressed air is a wonderful tool for removing all the dust.
I've got some shelves in our living room I painted in just this way (although I probably used one or two more coats of primer, just to be sure) and the finish is wonderful. Looks almost like glass. It would look like glass if I took the time to apply a light polish and wax job, but they are, after all, only book shelves!:~)
-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)
I thought you can sand/polish water-based (latex/acrylic) paint? Do you use oil-based primer, paint and varnish all the way through?
As for acheiveing a smooth finish, is that possible with oak because of the open grains?
-w
That's a good tip. I can set up a paint booth in my garage and spray the doors. As for the rest of the cabinet (which I'm not going to remove), can I just paint (brush or roller) them. I'd rather not do any spraying in the kitchen. Would it look really odd if the doors are sprayed, but not the rest.
-w
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