Paint Coverage

[Pete the Feet]

We purchased some paint sample pots the other week and returned to B&Q for another. We took the gamble of buying enough paint, 2 drums to cover the walls in the living room. The colour was fine but the coverage was tragic. Three coats and I could still see the previous wall colour [A sort of mint green]. Every time I added a coat I could still see the greenish paint underneath which took on the tinge of raw bacon. Too late by now, so another 4 drums of paint bought.
B&Q Good Home , Tough and Durable. I wish I'd read the reviews first. Soul destroying as it took 5 coats in total. Are all matt wall paints now this poor or should I have used a base coat first? The finished coat was a yellowish ochre type of colour [Gran Via]. It had occurred to me to get the colour made up by a different manufacturer by one of those colour matching scanners.

 

[opps]

I recently painted a customer's room in a dark green. I used 3 coats of trade quality paint. The original paint was a light blue.

If I had been applying light blue over dark green, I would have hit the walls with a quality trade white first.

You applied a yellow. They can be a mare. I painted my (bare MDF) kitchen units with a similar colour using Dulux Trade oil based eggshell years ago. The label mentioned that it was a "special process colour"- that is a euphemism for lots of coats required. In the end I had to get oil based undercoat mixed in the same colour. I spent years specialising in painting raw MDF, that was the first time that I ever had to get the undercoat tinted to match the top coat.

I wouldn't want to use the B&Q own brand paint, but cannot say that the paint itself was inferior. I do however think that they should have warned you that it may require extra coats because of the colour. Over new lining paper, 2 coats would have probably sufficed.

It is just one of those things.

 

[Pete the Feet]

Useful to know thanks. The original green that I was painting over was a very light green.

As a matter of interest is Dulux one of the better paints as opposed to Crown, Leyland, Farrow and Ball and the B&Q touted Valspar?

 

[opps]

Useful to know thanks. The original green that I was painting over was a very light green.

As a matter of interest is Dulux one of the better paints as opposed to Crown, Leyland, Farrow and Ball and the B&Q touted Valspar?

I tend to stick with Dulux Trade. If one were going over new lining paper a cheaper paint such as Leyland Trade is fine.

I have only used Valspar once, I didn't like the finished texture. It didn't feel as as smooth as Dulux would have.

I only recommend Farrow and Ball if you want a really matt/dusty colour. Coverage is awful. I try to avoid it but I did have to use it late last year. I used oil based eggshell on the woodwork prior to painting the walls. 5 days after applying the eggshell, as I cut in with the emulsion and I ended up with fisheyes. Fish eyes are little pools that appear as the paint tries to push itself away from the surface. In this case they are the result of the solvents still being released by the oil based paint. Dulux Trade emulsion would have been fine to apply after 24 hours. Leyland after 24/48 hours.

I haven't used Crown Trade for about 3 years. It was a PITA. The walls were being painted a mustard colour and I kept finding bits of white phlegm tracking up the wall as I rolled. I suspect that the paint on the lids was becoming thick and was distributed throughout the paint when they mixed it. I ended up having to strain each new tin. I showed the evidence to the staff in the Crown trade centre, they just shrugged....

 

[Pete the Feet]

Great tip on Crown as I'm about to repaint the hall with what is left of a Crown Matt sheen emulsion. It's about 7 years old and if it didn't mix well I was going to get another tin. I will go for a Dulux equivalent from a different source to where I bought the original. They specialise in Crown and something called Little Greene which I hadn't heard of before.
Any tips on covering knots on door frames that are covered with so called knot remover and Dulux white gloss?

 

[opps]

Great tip on Crown as I'm about to repaint the hall with what is left of a Crown Matt sheen emulsion. It's about 7 years old and if it didn't mix well I was going to get another tin. I will go for a Dulux equivalent from a different source to where I bought the original. They specialise in Crown and something called Little Greene which I hadn't heard of before.
Any tips on covering knots on door frames that are covered with so called knot remover and Dulux white gloss?

Little Greene is pretty good, but expensive.

Knotting solution is shellac suspended in alcohol. I tend to use Zinsser BIN which is the same but with white pigment added.

If you use either, buy a small bottle of household ammonia to clean the brush.

 

[DiyNutJob]

Use heat gun on the knot to make the sap boil out. Try scrap it away as it boils. Once most of the sap is boiled out, you will have less of a problem. My observation of the knotting solution used by the house builder is that it still caused paint failure, although some knots were contained. Still a time bomb.

 

[opps]

Use heat gun on the knot to make the sap boil out. Try scrap it away as it boils. Once most of the sap is boiled out, you will have less of a problem. My observation of the knotting solution used by the house builder is that it still caused paint failure, although some knots were contained. Still a time bomb.

That is a good point.

There have been occasions where I have drilled in to particularly resinous knots to remove them. A bit messy if they are wider under the surface though.

 

[DiyNutJob]

Boiling the knots out is the easiest if there is no risk of damaging the surrounding paint or glass. When I do it, I use a mini nozzle made from tin foil (small nozzles can be bought), and then shield the surrounding area with metal plates. The sap comes out naturally from the sun's heat that can get quite hot. But the heat gun is hotter and creates a greater expansion pressure on the sap than the sun. So, if you get the sap out with heat gun, the sun won't have the temperature to bring more out. Although, I believe the wood will continues to make more sap to some extent. The heat gun need to be hot enough to boil sap, but not hot enough to char wood. With a restrictive nozzle retaining heat, the heat gun will more likely to blow its thermal protection after switch off.