Best way to paint over silk finish paint

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 many years experiance and work in construction industry for last 8 years or so.

Nizam Uddin (assistant site manager)

Inactive

Wow, this thread is 5 years old...:eek:

diable

Inactive wrote: »

Wow, this thread is 5 years old...:eek:

keystone

nizam_uddin wrote: »

:jIn order to paint matt over silk paint, firstly you would have to PVA the wall in question.

5 year old thread or not what abject nonsense. PVA is the very last thing to be used.

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

Well you don't apprear to have learned very much then.

Cheers

brianandamy

so what do we do to paint over silk then?? Would it be easier to just go silk over silk??

jcb208

All you need to do is sand the walls down to give a good key on the silk and then paint with the matt emulsion.Been a decorator for 25 years and never had a problem painting matt over silk.

Cinquestelle

I have normally used silk emulsion because for washability it is hard to beat. But it has also become unfashionably shiny and I wanted to try the flat look which would make the rooms more cosy, especially in Winter. I was also aware that Dulux introduced a tougher matt finish called Endurance. So we took the plunge.

We had two types of surface: newly lined with lining paper and existing previously silk-emulsioned walls. The Endurance Matt went on a dream on the new lining paper but it was a near-disaster on the silk-painted walls. The problem wasn't cracking, it was that the result was patchy. I had indeed sanded the silk walls and washed them down with sugar soap but it is my opinion that I did not sand them down properly. Frankly, it is a bloody boring job and unless you use wet and dry paper you will create dust you can do without. In the end I had to apply three coats plus the odd additional pass here and there. It wasn't as if I was painting light over a dark colour, it was cream over pale yellow!

If you enjoy decorating and can find another benefit from lining a wall or re-lining the wall, then it will make the painting easier and two coats is likely to be all you need. But if instead you are going to attempt painting over old silk I would recommend a test wall first, get a really good key all over, wash down and then see how it works out with your brush or roller. I hope this is useful. This is my first post and would like to repay the time afforded to me with my first ever question the other day!