Best way to paint over silk finish paint

martinbsp

My house currently has whole sections of wall covered in silk finish paint that I want to cover with a matt paint. I've just finished one room and it's taken me four coats of dulux to cover it properly (I was covering a light blue with white).

What's the best way of painting over silk paint? Do I need to sand it down a bit first?

Thanks

Martin

economiser

I don't think it needs any special treatment. I would just wash it down and do the usual making good of cracks, dents and scratches.

RachelD

A professional once advised me to use matt on ceilings and silk on walls.

I painted the cloakroom in some leftover matt Dulux and wished I'd used silk finish, because the the matt absorbed every stain - spilled make up, soil spillage from a plant....... Even when cleaned it left a greasy looking stain. If it's a high traffic area I'd definitely go for silk again.

Rachel

inkie

I would advise silk - I find it easier to apply adn a lot easier to keep clean. Like RachelD, this is the advice profs gave to me when I had them in to paint my Church.

vansboy

http://www.dulux.co.uk any hints n tips on there??

VB

Davidboy

Warning - DO NOT paint matt over silk paint, it will crack. Looks like crackle glaze!! We found this to our own cost. In the end it was so bad we papered the wall!!

If you want matt walls ALL the silk has to be removed first..trust me.

I was hoping someone will have a solution to this problem, cos as far as I know, there is no solution, you will have to repaint it in silk.


D

Louisa_Jane_2

Davidboy wrote:

Warning - DO NOT paint matt over silk paint, it will crack. Looks like crackle glaze!! We found this to our own cost. In the end it was so bad we papered the wall!!

If you want matt walls ALL the silk has to be removed first..trust me.

I was hoping someone will have a solution to this problem, cos as far as I know, there is no solution, you will have to repaint it in silk.


D

It's never done it when I've painted over silk, granted it takes a couple of coats - maybe it's the make of paint? Personally I never use silk as I hate the look of it, especially if your walls aren't perfect. :rudolf:

Davidboy

Louisa_Jane wrote:

It's never done it when I've painted over silk, granted it takes a couple of coats - maybe it's the make of paint? Personally I never use silk as I hate the look of it, especially if your walls aren't perfect. :rudolf:

Well I am afraid you are the lucky one then cos it did happen to us, and we even phoned the Dulux helpline you get on the side of the tins and they confirmed do not paint over silk with matt. Too late as we had already found out ourselves. Their solution was to scrape off ALL the paint back to the plaster!!! Honestly, we said s*d that and papered it. It looked aweful. We had terrible problems trying to get silk paint the last time we redecorated. We always use either once or solo, but they only do it in Matt or they did earlier this year, perviously we used solo silk, cant get it now. Course the flippen makers Crown don't tell you, you can't paint over it with Silk, only when you phone up to complain.

Of course if you want to carry on and paint matt on silk as LJ suggests.... don't say I did not warn you!!


D

Louisa_Jane_2

I was only stating my experience - I have recently moved into a house that was painted entirely with silk paint, walls and ceilings. I've repainted the white silk ceilings with one coat of white matt - no trouble and repainted the walls with two coats when changing colour. Used focus, dulux and fired earth.

cattie

I had my bedrooms repainted last year & they had been done originally in Dulux silk. Repainting job was done with Dulux matt & is a perfect finish with no problems. Colour used was exactly the same as original & only one coat was needed.

nizam_uddin

:jIn order to paint matt over silk paint, firstly you would have to PVA the wall in question. Once the pva has dried just apply matt paint over it. This process will elimate the frost looking cracks appearing and you will have a smooth finished matt which should last its normal life.

The main reason why matt paint cracks is because matt paint can not get any key on, meaning silk is washable paint therefore doesn't any matt paint to penetrate to the wall surface hence the crack appears.

I have vast experiance and work in construction industry for last 8 years or so.

Nizam Uddin (assistant site manager)