Ronnie the Painter

With spring fast approaching some of you will be thinking about external painting.
In a previous post I recommended applying a coat of external primer/sealer before applying finishing coats (usually water based) and this was questioned by a few (cost and necessity being main reasons).
The attached pictures show 2 walls of a villa I visited today. No 1 is a newly cement rendered wall and No 2 is original painted wall of villa which where painted 9 months ago.
As you can see both have blistered/loose badly with the render being thrown on new wall.
Then I am told because the UK house had never been washed or primed before painting and everything was ok there they saw no reason for it and it was a third cheaper just to paint.
Works Now Required: Power Washed/Scraped to sound, filled/render, primed and 2 coats


Preparation is king and costs a lot less!!!!

Dal Dy Dir

Valuable post Ronnie, got any tips for an imperfection free finish on black gloss, currently doing all my stair rails / bannisters (in UK not Portugal) and despite hoovering up any dust / using tack cloths between coats I still seem to collect every airborne particle know to man!!

Ronnie the Painter

Great question not a lot you can do during painting process. If areas being painted are well prepared/cleaned and dust/particle free then it is only airborne dust settling on wet paint.

For a lovely smooth soft to touch finish wait for paint to cure (not dry) usually 2-3 days then rub vigorously with clean towel or similar in fact an old fashioned baby's nappy is best but not easy to come by on no circumstances use a modern disposable one ha ha

Hope his helps please let me know how you get on

Dal Dy Dir

Thanks for the tip Ronnie, yes it has removed a lot of the imperfections so certainley something I will remember for the future. So as a proffessional, putting aside the Enviromental / Health & Safety Issues where do you stand on the great "Oil verses Water" debate. On the black paint I have done the stair rails in I have used a traditional oil based paint and the finish and shine is to me what a gloss paint should like like. Meantime the Mrs has been doing all the white work (door frames, shirtings etc) with a water based paint and the finish, despite being labelled as gloss / high sheen on the tin looks almost dull. Whilst I appreciate she has a lot less drying time, easier to clean brushes and hopefully less future "yellowing" it just don't look gloss to me. We have used synthetic brushes for the water based as that is how we were advised.

Ronnie the Painter

In my opinion there is no debate, I have been painting man and boy and have not found a better widely available gloss finish
than Dulux trade gloss. Their undercoat leaves a bit to be desired though I would recommend Spencer Coatings undercoat.
As for the water based household paints available today u/c, gloss, eggshell etc their not for me. Terrible finish, poor coverage, lousy shine, scuffing in corners/joints, brush marks even using expensive make believe brushes ( a better brush than a Hamilton perfection has not been invited yet) my personal hate is kitchen/bathroom paint full of teflon so next time you come to paint it new paint crackles and shrinks!!

Over time paint does become tired sometimes yellows etc and needs re-done keep in mind there are very few paints that last a life time plus is there anything nicer than walking into a freshly decorated room?

The worst thing they did to paint was change the VOC content but thats a whole new issue...................