Painting Grrrr......

[Stephen H]

Hi all,

I have been painting the master bedroom. I had scraped off flaky paint back to bare brown plasterboard, polyfillered in the cracks and dents with white filler. The old sound paintwork was sanded to give a flat and keyed surface....

the bare plaster was primed with plaster sealer. the white polyfiller sanded smooth..... walls then wiped down of the dust.....

I get the tins of emulsion out........

1st coat goes on..... very blotchy as expected 2nd coat goes on..... still blotchy 3rd coat goes on..... Can see where the bare plaster and the white polyfiller 4th coat goes on..... White polyfiller gone but can see brown plaster in 5 places.

Will be putting on the fifth coat on tomorrow.

half the walls are being done in buttermilk which is not far off magnolia and the other half in deep red

Both sets of walls similarly affected..... with paint prices being what it is, this is getting expensive, i have got through 12.5 litres of paint so far.

The artexed cieling was fine with just two coats of white emulsion.

For future room decorating, is there a base coat paint i can use that will reduce the number of emulsion coats that I have to put on?

Stephen.

[Phil L]

If you'd used a decent paint like a trade paint, you'd be finished by now, but go on....

headache...

Jesus suffering f*ck

will to live lost 3 coats ago, bit do continue

one coat of normal paint, yes, using 'our mam's' , 'best in' or anything with the word 'value' in the name is a definate no-no, as you have already discovered. If you have been using quality paint already and got to this dreadful situation, it boils down to the application, which begs the question, have you been using a catapult?

[Tim Watts]

What make of paint?

I usually find Dulux will cover pretty well in one with the 2nd coat being perfect, no matter what the subtrate is - old paint, sealed plaster etc.

[Dave Liquorice]

Flippin heck, never got above three coats myself, normally two is enough.

What paint?

Application method?

Spreading to thin?

Meh, I have 60l of paint and 15l of varnish waiting to be applied...

[Stephen H]

Matt "Colours" by B & Q. In a rectangular plastic 2.5 litre tub

Edges are done first with a brush and then a soft fluffy roller

This is a room that is 4m by 4m by 2.4m high

[Phil L]

B&Q's own paint is expensive crap, and they do nothing that you can't get elsewhere. Go to a trade paint outlet and take a sample of the colour you have chosen and they will mix it for you, using quality bases

[Tim Watts]

Sadly you have discovered B&Q own brand is rubbish.

You will generally not go wrong with any of the Dulux range IME.

That seems pretty normal - the way I do it.

On the plus side, it will not cost too much to go and buy some decent paint ;-o

[Dave Liquorice]

Expensive "budget" paint. I paid =A332.97 inc VAT for 5l Dulux Trade Matt Emulsion from a Dulux Decorator Centre (so probably not the cheapest source) the other day. Only a fiver more, for 5l, than the B&Q stuff...

Long or short pile? Rough would need a longer pile than smooth.

So less than 38m^2.

Hum if I found the right product on the B&Q site that should have covered >112m^2 at it's lowest coverage rate of 9m^2/l, thats about 3 coats. So it doesn't appear you are brushing (rollering) it out too much.

The highest coverage of the B&Q paint is quoted as 15m^2/l, FYI Dulux Trade has a quoted coverage of 17m^2/l.

[Lobster]

Not to disagree with that assessment but I have found myself using that stuff myself in the past (SWMBO bought it!) and there was no particular problem with applying it. She and my son did out son's bedroom here last summer with it, and the usual one or two coats did a perfectly reasonably job.

My point is that no way is the difference between B&Q paint and decent stuff enough to account for the OP's disastrous results... my guess is that if he applies a coat of Dulux now using the same tools/methods, then the results won't be significantly different.

I'd have diagnosed it being spread too thinly or watered down or something, but Dave L's calculations apparently give the lie to that one. Bit of a mystery!

David