Dulux Tile Paint Disaster

stargirl73

We recently tried to brighten up our grotty bathroom and didn't want to spend a whole load of money and in particular time on it as we are thinking of moving in the next year or so.

It's an awkwardly shaped room and we have to have a tiled area around and behind the sink to bring it away from the back wall so it's at a useable height.

Rather than retiling the whole bathroom, we discovered Dulux Tile Paint which seemed an ideal and quick solution to our refreshing problem. It advertises the fact that it is shower resistant and that no primer is required.

We followed the instructions on the tin to the letter, and even cleaned and prepared the surface better than it suggested and applied 3 coats of the paint, leaving at least 4 hours between coats (which is what it recommended).

It has worked OK on the vertical surfaces where water runs off, but around the sink where splashes occur and water sits, it blisters and bubbles up which totally destroys the area. It means reapplying the paint, and waiting a further few hours before we can reuse the bathroom. Which is a total hassle.

We have to dry the area after each use to prevent it happening, but we have a toddler who splashes, and guests to stay who splash and don't know they have to dry up after themselves.

And it just looks a mess really.

We consider it to be totally useless for the area that we're using it in.

We've contacted Dulux about it and they suggested that they would send us some paint stripper and some trade product which they suggested was more durable, but my husband is totally sick of painting and repainting the same area just for it to look really shabby, and wants Dulux to sort it out.

My husband says he won't strip it and apply their trade version because he has lost faith in the product and is sick of our bathroom being out of use (we don't have a second one and have had to rely on neighbours kindnesses for showers etc).

Dulux have said that had a professional decorator done the work, they would pay for the work to be redone with their trade product, but that as we did it ourselves, they would not "normally" pay for DIY labour.

They have offered, as a good will gesture, to send paint for further decorating jobs, but this still doesn't sort the problem with the bathroom.

My husband is refusing to do any further work in the bathroom and we have a bathroom which now looks worse than when we began. Had we known this was going to happen, we would probably have ripped all the tiles out and retiled, but we saw this as a quicker solution to our requirements, bearing in mind we don't have a second bathroom, and a splashy toddler to bathe.

So a few questions:

1) Why should their trade tile paint product work, but the one they sell in DIY shops not work?
2) If I do send a sample of the blistered paint to them (as they have requested) it doesn't solve the problem. What would we gain by that?
3) Should I get a quote for someone to redecorate the bathroom with their product, cleaning and preparing the surface to the same standard that we did, which took 3 days of my husband's time including drying time?
4) What reasonably expect Dulux to do? We don't particularly want any money, but we do want the problem solved and someone else to solve it as my husband is totally cheesed off.

My husband has told Dulux he will take legal advice, which seemed to worry them, but we just want the situation sorted out without us having to do any further work and inconvenience.

Any advice or suggestions welcomed.

Thanks in advance

cyclonebri1

1stly you won't really have them worried, you and me are way too small.

However a good time back I had an issue with Procter and Gamble, the big player in the cleaning products market. Basically their product ate my recently retiled bathroom.
Eventuall result? the cost of the original tilinf inc labour = 100% in compensation for the hassle of having to have it redone.

:TStick with it,

Wickedkitten

How did you clean and prepare the surface? Did you use a roller or a brush to put the paint on?

poppyolivia

is shower resistant the same as waterproof?

nickj_2

stargirl73 wrote: »

It has worked OK on the vertical surfaces where water runs off, but around the sink where splashes occur and water sits, it blisters and bubbles up which totally destroys the area.

that is probably where you are not going to get any joy- there's a huge difference between being showerproof and allowing water to sit
showerproof means getting wet and then running off - not standing water
you may finfd that if you dry the area the blisters will dissapear when they dry out , unless water is getting under the surface of the paint

gmgmgm

You said yourself it is "shower resistant" - that's totally different to expecting it to be fully waterproof with standing water. So it's not a fault of the Dulux product.

You could try a waterproof varnish or lacquer perhaps, but using the domestic tile paint by itself is wrong.

Shambler

gmgmgm wrote: »

You said yourself it is "shower resistant" - that's totally different to expecting it to be fully waterproof with standing water. So it's not a fault of the Dulux product.

You could try a waterproof varnish or lacquer perhaps, but using the domestic tile paint by itself is wrong.

If you shower a horizontal surface you will always get standing water.

Is the product desigend for vertical surfaces only?

nickj_2

Shambler wrote: »

If you shower a horizontal surface you will always get standing water.

Is the product desigend for vertical surfaces only?

most showers that i've seen either have a shower tray with glass + tile walls , or a bath with glass screen or if you have a walk in shower then they have a tiled floor , the paint is designed for tiled walls where thewater will run off imediately

cyclonebri1

I think this post actually shows that trying to fix crappy old tiling with an overcoat is flawed.

I would say bite the bullet and overtile, :T, but still have a go at them