"Yellowing" brilliant white gloss - any solution?

[Lobster]

In common with many others, I've recently experienced severe yellowing of white gloss paintwork, within weeks of application. All due to the reduction of VOCs in 2010 legislation.

I have some more white glossing to do now; having just fished an almost-full can of white Dulux out of the garage (about a year old) and found the drips on the side to have gone lemon in colour, I'm very uneasy. Having looked into it a bit, I'm really struggling trying to find some new paint which won't be similarly affected.

Dulux in particular got panned on Watchdog recentlY:

say they've solved the problem, but there's an interesting article here about how (in the absence of any product recall) to tell whether you're buying the new stuff: (or

So the answer appears to be - look for batch numbers ending in "N". However, have just been to B&Q and I couldn't find any with an "N" so returned empty-handed. Brilliant. It certainly appears that it's not just Dulux which is affected (eg Crown is too), so I didn't want to buy something else without checking up first.

Evidently acrylic paint won't yellow; however I don't think it's as good and don't want to use it.

Anyone got any good info about this fiasco?

Thanks

[Mr Pounder]

It had been drawn to my attention that my recently applied Dulux gloss is now not looking to good. However, my recently applied bathroom and kitchen water based brilliant white is still brilliant white. This was also used on wood.

SHIT!!!!!!!

[The Natural Philosopher]

Piant it all yellow.

[Graham.]

> Thanks

Don't mention it.

[stuart noble]

It's technically possible to produce a non-yellowing white paint but it involves some pretty expensive urethane resins and some very smelly solvents. Bondaglass Voss used to supply the London Underground with a paint to do the platform edges. I've a feeling the old Hammerite didn't yellow either but I could be wrong about that

[A.Lee]

Go to a Dulux or Crown Decorator Centre, where their paint will be the Trade formulation, and fresh.

All trade gloss paint has been 'good' for a year, I was told a month or so ago at a Dulux trade outlet. I've been using Dulux Satinwood for the last 18 months, and think it is far better than gloss now.

[Fred]

I was very interested in this thread because yellowing paint is a bugbear of mine. Thanks to the OP for the URLS, I hadn't seen those before.

Is it only white paint that yellows or is it that all glosses do, only it is less noticeable in other colours?

When we moved in we had some ugly doors so we replace them with the six-panelled doors from Wickes. At that point we had not discovered pads or rollers and did them all by brush.

Six years later the doors match the cream colour of the walls! I can't face the thought of painting them all over again!

What interests me is that the articles say this problem began in 2010 when paint manufacturers reduced the VOC content of their paints. Now my doors were painted with high VOC paint in 2006, so why have they yellowed?

I know that sunlight is supposed to keep the gloss white and doors in dark places, like under the stairs and in the airing cupboard are the most yellow. Its strange really because normally sunlight has the opposite effect yellowing plastics and paper.

A previous thread about this suggested the oilier the paint, the worse the yellowing, so satinwood should be less yellowing than gloss.

I have tried the Dulux water based gloss and whilst it has remained white, it is not as durable on skirting boards and I think the finish is not as smooth as oil based gloss.

Another reply in an earlier thread suggested adding a drop of blue paint. I don't know whether this was serious or if anyone has done this with any success?

I don't understand why the ban on VOCs was imposed. The article says it was to protect tradespeople, fair enough, but why not use masks to protect them instead? That would have the same end result wouldn't it?

[NT]

the latter. Its not the white Titanium dioxide that discolours.

Cleaning existing discoloured paint improves its colour to a fair degree. Often it doesn't get cleaned.

Alkyd gloss has always yellowed. Brilliant white (titanium) is better than the older lead in that respect.

Varnishing over it is an option.

It does help. The same method is used with other things prone to yellowiness, like laundry.

liver damage was common among house painters. IMHO there are better ways to do it though. In fact as far as I can tell pre-existing leglislation covers this anyway, and could simply be applied.

What type of mask filter are you proposing that would absorb the guilty chemicals?

NT

[Paul D Smith]

...snip...

A friend of mine swears by pale grey paint. New it's almost white and when it does age it still tends to look white and not yellow. Perhaps it's got that "hint of blue" that another poster has suggested as a solution.

Paul DS.

[Fred]

Wouldn't a carbon filter do that?