Chips in gloss

Postik

stuart45 said:

Postik said:

In the past I have stripped the paint right back to the bare wood and started again.  It's extreme and time consuming, but my woodwork had layers and layers of paint, some of it not done very well.  It gives you a nicer finish and you aren't relying on the adhesion of older layers.

In this instance though, I might be inclined to just touch up the chips until I was ready to redo the whole lot.

What I have done for this kind of thing is use a wood filler or fine surface filler to fill the chips.  Straight after filling I use a wet sponge to carefully clean up around the area so that it's completely smooth without having to sand.

With small chips and in areas of low traffic I have gotten away with just leaving it like this and sometimes the filler just blends in.  With bigger chips and/or high traffic you'll probably need to paint over the filler to protect it.  I would do two or three very light coats of paint and feather the edges to blend it in to the surrounding paint.

The issue is whilst thigs might fix the existing chips it won't stop more from coming.

It's a good way to prep a job, and does produce a good job. However, when paying a pro to do the work for you, the majority of people won't pay to go to those lengths.
A friend of mine told me that when he was an apprentice, at college they were given a few battered up old doors. After a burn off, filling, sanding, priming, undercoat and gloss, including sanding in between coats, the doors looked like a sheet of glass.
He added that he had never been able to price for work like that again, and only came close when working on his own property.

Absolutey, it took me an age to strip them off using Nitromors, but a sharp decorator's hook helped too.  The other thing is, I did this when I first moved in so I removed the carpets as I was replacing them anyway.

It now pains me to paint over previous gloss knowing I am making the layers thicker and perhaps in forty years time someone else is going to have to go through what I went through lol.

For me the finish was worth it.  I did this in every room apart from the hallway and landing due to the amount of woodwork there, and it never felt right compared to the rest of the house.

Intel1982

Thanks for your replies everyone. It was all Dulux products that were used, there was a tonne of woodwork to do it was three stories worth of spindles, Bannisters etc so maybe he did cut a few corners but he has a very good reputation. I think I'll just need to try and fill in the holes and hope for the best because it took the P&D a long time to do it 😭 

JohnB47

Hmmm. Perhaps he has a good reputation because unhappy customers don't speak up or complain?

Why not contact him and ask him to come around to view the problem?

I would think it would be difficult for him to say it was all down to wear and tear.

Perhaps better to solve the problem and maintain that good reputation?