hang on, how 'yellow' does faded gloss white get actually?

JustAnotherSaver

I think i've been conned!

I always preferred the idea & look of gloss white for things like skirting, door frames/casing & stairs (spindles & bannister). Hard wearing, shiny to a degree. Nice look (imo). I was put off big time when i read on various sites inc. this one & told by people in the flesh that it fades, not only does it fade but it "yellows badly" & often quickly too. This seemed to be the common train of thought.

So i got visions of this...



As yellow as one of those or at least not very far off. Horrible.

It appears i MAY have been mislead.

So we opted for Satin. It's been a bloody nuisance to work with but we read that it was also hard wearing, although duller, but would do the job well.


The Mrs asked if i'd sanded down the bannister (i hadn't) as it had chipped & you could see gloss under the old satin. She said this is what gloss fades to ....... it wasn't yellow at all.

It was more an off white. Sorry i know that's very non-descript, so the best i can do is say it wasn't sparkling white, more teeth-white (but not like Simon Cowell). I could handle this as it was still white. Not mega-sparkling, but white. NOT 'yellow' or anywhere remotely near yellow.


So can anyone please enlighten me - when they say gloss yellows, what does it ACTUALLY turn to? Photos of this would be even better. I may switch to gloss.

On the topic of which, why does everyone seem to make out it's a nightmare to work with? What's so bad about it (having never used it before)?

StevenMarks

White gloss goes an off white/pale yellow. Areas which don't get much daylight, such as behind furniture, will yellow much quicker and deeper than areas exposed to regular daylight.

Pipkin

As has been said, it depends how much light it has been exposed to. I am currently glossing my upstairs hallway.One half has been done, one half has not. The hallway gets minimal light. One half is now bright white, the other half looks like we smoke 80 a day indoors each ( none of us smoke.) It's a huge difference, and not nice at all.

jimmy_81

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

On the topic of which, why does everyone seem to make out it's a nightmare to work with? What's so bad about it (having never used it before)?

I'm no expert, so others may correct me, but quite aside from the yellowing aspect, my understanding has always been that it's a LOT more difficult to get a really perfect finish with gloss. Due to the nature of the finish any blemishes will be much more visible and it tends to show brush-strokes more than satin.

I personally much prefer the look of satin - the supposed extra ease of application is a nice bonus too

lostinrates

Pipkin wrote: »

As has been said, it depends how much light it has been exposed to. I am currently glossing my upstairs hallway.One half has been done, one half has not. The hallway gets minimal light. One half is now bright white, the other half looks like we smoke 80 a day indoors each ( none of us smoke.) It's a huge difference, and not nice at all.

That's the thing, its the hue of nicotine that's unpleasant.

Off white is charming, personally I almost never choose white, only once in my life has 'white' been my choice', but for off white nicotine is not the 'off' shade I am looking for.

nickj_2

the yellowing is caused by the new reduced solvent formulations , i now use w/b gloss or satinwood for all my customers these days

AndyPK

I would say it turns cream or magnolia

Should happen slowly enough for you not to notice.

Pipkin

jimmy_81 wrote: »

I'm no expert, so others may correct me, but quite aside from the yellowing aspect, my understanding has always been that it's a LOT more difficult to get a really perfect finish with gloss. Due to the nature of the finish any blemishes will be much more visible and it tends to show brush-strokes more than satin.

I personally much prefer the look of satin - the supposed extra ease of application is a nice bonus too

No, I would have said it was the other way round. The gloss, under normal conditions has a certain amount of flow, and the brush strokes eventually disappear if you don't just slap it on. Satin I found had much less workability, so once on you can't really mess about with it as it drags and balls up into little grains. I may have had a bad batch though, however I hate glossing, but after my experience i would always choose gloss.

JustAnotherSaver

Pipkin wrote: »

so once on you can't really mess about with it as it drags and balls up into little grains.

Ah finally someone who has had the same experience as me.

Anyway, i know the science behind it - i've read plenty of that.

It's just the deterioration i'm not sure about. We can talk about it all day long, but talking about it doesn't show someone what it turns to.

I've seen the shiny paint in our house which i take to be gloss. It's not sparkling white so i take that it's faded as we're talking of. I just wonder if it gets worse, but short of going into a load of folks houses i can't tell. Unless anyone has any photos?


Also, the Dulux Trade range ........ what's the difference between white & pure brilliant white, except for £1 in B&Q. Is it just marketing nonsense?

storytime

My husband is a painter and decorator ( working away at the moment so can't ask him) and I seem to remember that he said that all gloss has to conform to some EU regulations now and has some of the chemicals removed. As has been said already if the glossed area is away from sunlight it will yellow much quicker than the rest of the gloss. Next time we decorate we are going to use satinwood which stays white.

Pipkin

I could try and take some pics tomorrow for you. I don't know about the diff between the 2 paints you are referencing, but I do know this. I painted the downstairs gloss with Dulux trade brilliant white last year, it has darkened slightly but not much (something like £18.99 per L). Due to a bathroom refit I have had to do the upstairs this year, I found Dulux Professional Gloss at The Range for £14.99 for 2.5 L. I painted the toilet door and then (stupidly) removed the latch lock and replaced it with a new one which turned out to be slightly smaller. This was a few weeks down the line, and when I touched up the now bare patch the difference in the door and the patch was quite significant, that is the paint had darkened quite a bit, though not gone yellow. It remains to be seen how much worse it will get, but I think it may be a painful lesson learned.