SemiGloss Paint Looks Blotchy

[James Harvey]

Hello,

I am repainting a door with Behr Premium Plus Semi Gloss latex enamel. The door was originally painted with semigloss latex but I primed it with Kilz 2 latex anyway. There were probably at least two layers of existing paint.

When the paint dried it looked awful, in my opinion. There were areas that were glossy and others that were somewhat flat-looking. Brush marks were prominent even tho I used a good quality synthetic brush. I even tried a second coat to no avail. The paint was mixed thoroughly.

I did paint another door that had only one layer of existing paint using the same primer, paint, and brush, and it looks great.

I would appreciate any advice on what I could do differently, including stripping the old paint if that sounds necessary. This paint is too expensive to be wasting it on trial-and-error.

TIA, James

[SteveBell]

Kilz has so many solids that it's hard to put on smoothly. That could be the source of your problem.

Brush marks and splotching usually come from paint that's too thick or that dries to quickly.

Let the new paint dry thoroughly, then sand it with fine sandpaper to get rid of existing brush marks.

Use Floetrol (or a competing brand) to thin the paint and make it dry more slowly. This gives the paint time to level.

Paint the door horizontally on sawhorses so gravity helps level the paint.

Keep a wet edge. Start at one end and work to the other. If you let the paint in one spot get partly dry, work somewhere else, and come back to the first spot, the paint there has partly dried. Dragging the brush over partially dried paint disrupts the surface and makes _very_ obvious marks.

The best way to avoid brush marks is to spray.

[Anthony Lisanti]

Same problem I had when I moved in and painted. Apparently, the paint dried too fast, some areas too much paint. This was the first home I owned, and I've never painted before. My life is pretty much a desk and a spreadsheet, so handy I'm not.

[James Harvey]

Thanks for the advice. I tried some Floetrol and it does help. This paint does have some kind of stubbornly fast drying agent, so I will probably have to add a little more than the recommended amount.

Sanding enamel to remove brush marks is a real pain, though, even with a belt sander to speed things up. And using a belt sander tends to heat the old paint and make it rubbery. Using plain sandpaper is guaranteed to take years off your life .

I am really tempted to do a chemical strip and start over. I don't have unlimited time to keep experimenting and no one is paying me to do this.

BTW, I see you're based in Arlington and I live in Dallas. I may have a painting job for you.

[Red Green]

"SteveBell" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

If I want a decent finish on anything I prime with Kilz, once dry, I'll go over it lightly with a medium or fine sanding sponge; otherwise, it will end up with a more rough finish. Really makes a difference IMO.

[HeyBub]

Similar thing here: I was painting some trim with Behr Premium after a quality primer. I used a top quality brush, a sponge brush, and a roller. In all cases the result looked like it was painted with a fork.

So I went to a Sherwin-Williams store and got some oil-based paint (HD doesn't sell oil-based high-gloss). The results were perfect.

[Norminn]

Floetrol and Penetrol are great for thinning and levelling. Don't do more than label advises. I use the one for alkyd paint for spraying and it works like a charm - use little Preval sprayers for louvered doors but the spray pattern is a bit small for a regular door. It would work nicely if done right - for louvered doors, I kept a foam brush wrung out in mineral spirits to catch occ. drips and runs before they set. If the door was laid flat, it would probably work nicely.

This is the reason I use only alkyd semi-gloss for doors and trim. Bath and kitchen walls and ceilings as well. The blotchiness of your finish could be a result of not mixing the paint sufficiently immediately prior to each use. If you did some patching or filling without priming it could also cause blotches.

[James Harvey]

I did use oil-based paint on a trial basis and it looked great. However, the cost and pain of using hazardous cleanup chemicals and disposing of the resultant waste convinced me to move to latex, besides the fact that Behr had the exact color mix I needed.

[James Harvey]

Thanks for the advice.

[HeyBub]

In reverse order:

• Just about anybody can match any color these days. Even Wal-mart has the color-matching gizmo for their Dutch Boy and Kilz paints.

• There's nothing particularly hazardous about petroleum-based paints. If you drink them, maybe, but that's probably also true for latex.

• There is more effort at clean-up, true, but there are tricks to help. Don't clean up. Discard the brush and use plastic pails (or paint directly from the can). There might be a soiled rag or two left over but those can be left in an elementary school playground at night.

• Disposing of the resultant waste is easy too. Just pour the excess down the storm drain. This actually helps the drain in that, for a small area, it slickifies the drain making runoff more efficient. As an aside, putting lawn clippings down the storm drain also helps by providing roughage, just like in a human digestive system.

[James Harvey]

Hah. That's (not so) funny. Bubba might take you seriously. There is no shortage of people with arrested development issues. I think they are called Republicans, or so I'm told ;).