Praise: Crown Paints

Eydon

Hi,
Recently decorated DD's bedroom. She's a big Dr Who fan so asked if she could have it painted the same colour as the Tardis. Crown's Dramatic seemed to fit the bill so opted for Silk Emulsion to get the same shine that the Tardis has (usually use Matt paints).

Paint went on ok (walls previously painted in flat Matt), although it did take three coats to get a good finish. We left a full 24 hours between coats and at the end it looked great.

Fast forward a week and the walls are still a bit tacky to the touch, and in places the paint has peeled off like skin.

Contacted Crown but didn't really expect much of a response so was surprised when they emailed back asking for the batch number of the paint and a phone number so we could talk.

Ended up speaking to a very nice Customer Service rep who said they had discussed our issues with their experts, who couldn't really explain the tackiness after a week but that the peeling was probably due to greasy marks on the wall before we started (seems likely as the worst areas are around DD's bed). Apparently we should have cleaned the walls before we started.

Their solution, give the walls a light sanding to remove the silk sheen and any other loose flakes and then apply two coats of Crown Trade paint (different formula to standard Crown paint), for which they are sending me vouchers for two free tins to take to my local Crown Decorator Centre.

So, despite the fact that the problem was almost certainly caused by me not preparing the walls properly before painting they are paying for me to get some fresh paint which will hopefully resolve the issue.

Well done Crown, and thankyou.