Is all satin paint horrendous to apply or just Crown Non Drip? Losing the will here!!

JustAnotherSaver

Had no bother whatsoever painting the walls with crown products (aside from making a poor colour judgement early on). Am currently trying to paint the top of a stairs box thing in the box room (in fact i've a photo of it as i was stripping it)...



Got the Crown undercoat on there no bother. Sanded down the first coat, hit it with the 2nd coat ready for the paint. All good.

So i'm using Crown Satin Non Drip on it:



My freaking God what an absolute nightmare to deal with this stuff is!!!!! I'm wanting to know if it's me because i've had no issues painting other things before. I've painted plenty of fiddly pieces for/on the car with no issue at all. The walls as i said - no issue. The undercoat - no issue. This stuff - i was about to start breaking something i was getting that P'd off.


The problem:
Yes it's quite thick, but once you get moving it it 'frees up' quite well. The problem is, every so often it'll leave small 'chunks' of paint behind as you're moving the brush. So you have to go over this & then it'll leave small 'chunks' elsewhere. It'll also leave each end of your stroke 'bunched up' with paint, so you need to go over this to smooth it out but then the 'chunks' appear elsewhere & the 'runs'/'bunching up' just appear elsewhere on the wood. In essence, you're going round & round in circles, just in different sections of the wood. The wood is perhaps only 3ft-x-1ft, yet when you've gone up & down one side & you work in the middle & you get this chunking & bunching/running, you end up trying to smooth it out which takes you over work you've just done & this seems to have dried a bit, so you end up lifting paint & instead of it being all smooth it's then all lifted & 'bitty' (looks AWFUL).

I tried mixing this stuff with water so that it had a reasonably nice consistency - no better. I was at it for about 20-25 mins last night just trying to make that 3ft-x-1ft piece as even as possible. Went today to finish it off & it just became a nightmare to work with.


I'm going to strip the damn thing tomorrow & start again. This paint cost me about £20 approx (without looking it up on the B&Q site) & i'm debating just chucking the thing because it's so !!!!!!! awful to deal with. I've only used approx 1inch down in the tin.

I've got the skirting to do & the door frames. There's no way i want to have this problem on that sort of scale.

I thought it was perhaps the brush so i got a new one - no better.

Shouting & swearing doesn't help either :mad::mad::mad:


Is it all satin, just this? Am i doing something wrong? Should i go with an alternative satin product? If so, which? At the moment i'm not bothered (too much) about cost, as i just want something i can work with.

Biggles

Non-drip paint is great to use - when you're used to it. Sounds like it's the first time you've tried it.

For a surface that size, it just needs loading on fairly thick up and down, evening it out by brushing across the line, then finally finishing by smoothing up and down. The brush marks will disappear as it dries.

Don't try adding water to it again, that will ruin the consistency of it.

macman

You didn't stir it before use by any chance?

JustAnotherSaver

Biggles wrote: »

Sounds like it's the first time you've tried it.

Got it in one.

For a surface that size,

We'll also be looking to do up door frames, skirting & the stairs (bannisters/spindles)

it just needs loading on fairly thick up and down

Tried this one. Tried going thin, tried going thick. It's easier with thick but still the same problem i found,

evening it out by brushing across the line,

Are we talking about going against the grain here? The grain runs the length of the wood i put that photo up of, so are you saying go side-to-side? And then....

then finally finishing by smoothing up and down.

The brush marks will disappear as it dries.

It's not so much the brush marks that i'm fussy about, it's the patchy'ness. It's hard to describe. It's like the paint lifting in sections, as though it's all ok & i've come along & just dabbed a few sections with the end of the brush. It's really hard to get it all looking even - & that's what i want, just an even look.

Don't try adding water to it again, that will ruin the consistency of it.

I'll go ahead & sound dim here, but what do you mean by 'ruin'? I know it'll change the consistency, but why do you say ruin?

macman wrote: »

You didn't stir it before use by any chance?

Nope. Instructions said not to.


Would an alternative satin be any easier to work with for a novice like me?

Perhaps the Dulux equal alternative: http://www.diy.com/nav/decor/paint-woodcare/glosses-satins/Dulux-Satinwood-Brilliant-White-10298980?skuId=9260107?

And if it's any easier to work with then at this stage i don't mind paying a bit extra for it - Dulux Trade Satin: http://www.diy.com/nav/clearance/clearance-paint-decorating-supplies/Dulux-Trade-Satinwood-Paint-Brilliant-White-2-5L-11507563?skuId=9260694

macman

So how did you thin it with the water if you didn't stir it in?

JustAnotherSaver

macman wrote: »

So how did you thin it with the water if you didn't stir it in?

I poured some out into a pain tray, which was quite difficult in itself as the entire contents of the tin wanted to just jelly-flop out, so i ended up scooping it out into the tray & then mixing water with the paint in the tray while the paint remained unchanged in the tin.

I thought you was (originally) asking whether i just stirred all the paint in the tin like i did with the primer (primer instructed to stir contents before use).

JustAnotherSaver

Well this is just perfecto....

Went back to the house tonight to continue stripping that mustardy looking stuff (varnish?) off the stairs before we get to sanding & then painting.

Before i started that i went & checked in on how bad my paint job was. My total shock then when i saw that the coverage had somehow turned out perfect, except for one problem ........... in my rage i'd just thrown the brush back & forth on the flat, getting madder at how it wasn't laying the paint well. I then walked off to cool down & left it alone.

What i'd not done was take care of any paint runs as the flat of the top met the lip/ridge/edges. Had i done this it would've all been perfect.

Gutted.

Not sure how it sorted itself out after when i left it it looked so horrible. I did that the other day too - when i left it it looked bad & i thought when the paint set, it'd all come together, but nope it looked just as bade the next day.

Grr.

Biggles

That's what I meant by 'the brushmarks will disappear as it dries'.

Non-drip paint seems to 'heal' its surface as it dries out. The snag is that, for this to work, you need to paint it fairly thick and that means (as you found) that you need to watch for drips. The big advantage is that you should only need one coat.

As regards larger surfaces, the same principle applies, ie load up & down, even out across, then finishing strokes up and down. But keep to easily-manageable sections if it's a large panel or a wall and feather each one into the previous section before it starts to dry.

Glad it worked out (shame about the runs tho).

macman

It's probably run because you stirred water into it, whether in the tray or the tin.

JustAnotherSaver

macman wrote: »

It's probably run because you stirred water into it, whether in the tray or the tin.

Ah well at least we know that it's not that why it's run then.

I mixed water with it on Friday. I hit it with just straight paint yesterday, so it's not that.

warmhands.coldheart

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

....in my rage i'd just thrown the brush back & forth on the flat, getting madder at how it wasn't laying the paint well..........

Just picturing it now !! :rotfl::rotfl: