Dulux paint takes a week to harden!

[opps]

3k doesn't sound that bad. I would probably charge just over half that to repaint the units bar materials (based on a "normal sized kitchen- what ever that moght be).

BTW to be fair to Dulux, at the beginning of the year I was moaning about the drying times having increased. Dulux did have a rep here trying to tell us about the changes. No other company did.

Had I known how crap the new paints would be I would have stock piled the good ole stuff.

I think a fellow forum member TheDec summed up the paints quite well when he referred to them as "soul destroying".

They are horrible to work with and look pretty bad for the first week or so. I have always added Owatrol (to help the paint flow) but now I also add white spirits (to thin it) and the terebene (to speed up curing)- in effect I am probably more than replacing the bad stuff that they were forced to take out. The rate at which I can apply it has decreased so I am making less money. I hate them...

 

[joe-90]

How much does that work out a day then?

 

[softypaint]

Thank you Opps, it's beginning to come together and you professionals' experiences on this site have been a great help. We're to meet on Monday, perhaps do a couple of test panels with your suggested additives.
Maybe the Dulux will have dried out by then

 

[opps]

How much does that work out a day then?

Not enough but more than some people might be wlling to pay...

Sorry SoftyPaint - spill over from a different thread.

 

[opps]

Thank you Opps, it's beginning to come together and you professionals' experiences on this site have been a great help. We're to meet on Monday, perhaps do a couple of test panels with your suggested additives.
Maybe the Dulux will have dried out by then

Owatrol will actually ****** the initial drying time, albeit slightly- it is the terebene that will speed up curing- I only started using it in march and have been very conservative with it given that i am always on site- if they have a chance to experiment with quantities please let us know how it goes.

I use it primarily to enable me to be able to sand the paint the next day rather than trying to get back to pre 2010 total curing times. I could add even more but i cant experiment on site because if I get it wrong I will have unhappy clients.

Thanks.

 

[softypaint]

That's great opps, I have a couple of the solid ash doors which were replaced and I think I'll try a few test panels. Today (Sat) we think the paint applied on Tuesday is at last hardening to the extent I would expect after 48 hrs max. and it's ready for rubbing down.
Of course I'll post again with developments but your advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[softypaint]

Just found this site which adds to the pool of knowledge
http://www.bordercounty.co.uk/paintspec.htm
Good of these folk to share their experiences.
Today six days after our Dulux was applied it is hard enough to rub down and the glossy finish is definitely fading into the eggshell it was supposed to be.

 

[joe-90]

A painted kitchen always looks like a painted kitchen. You can replace the doors for a few hundred quid. Much better proposition.

 

[opps]

A painted kitchen always looks like a painted kitchen. You can replace the doors for a few hundred quid. Much better proposition.

Many of my clients tend to want hand painted kitchens with butt hinges and so forth. The awfully expensive firms acid cat spray the doors, trims etc first and then they are hand painted on site.

The higher end of the market is still dominated by hand painted finishes but over the last 5 years or so there has been a vogue for the very high sheen spray, I think that these are now starting to fall out of favour.

 

[joe-90]

Well I hope he hasn't gone for white in 2010 paints. Three grand to slap 10 quids worth of paint on? I'd go as far as Perth for that price.

 

[opps]

Sorry Joe,

Cant see the relevance of the colour. I get the client to pay for the finish coats as i have no desire to keep them and would probably never use them again.

I paint units for a number of cabinet makers and my charges seem to average at about 25-30% of the costs of the cheapest of those cabinet makers. The most expensive cabinet maker supplies everything pre-primed with acid cat, he charges 3 times more than the cheapest for supply and fit yet my labour charges are about the same because he uses plumb hinges so i have to take the doors off to paint them, then I need to number the hinges and rehang everything at the end of the job.

I expect to spend a couple of weeks on site just painting the units, longer if i am doing the rest of the room.

I don't just slap paint on. Getting the tramlines on a shaker door to be straight and in the right directions is a slow and meticulous process. I also need to recoup the costs of thousands of pounds worth of Festool sanders and dust extractors. I am normally the last trademan on site so i need to keep things as clean as possible.

My clients are intelligent enough to get someone with a rad roller to do the job at half the price but they are happy to pay for quality. It really is make or break. Why pay thousands for a bespoke kitchen and then ruin the effect with a poor quality paint finish?

 

[joe-90]

You shouldn't be getting tramlines. Take the doors off and paint them flat and if you know what you are doing they come up like Downing Street. But it is still an inferior paint product. It goes yellow (if white) and chips and scrapes.

 

[softypaint]

Thanks opps, my sentiments exactly. If you look at the first paragraph of this saga you'll see there is other work involved. We're happy to pay for a quality job otherwise we would have gone to MFI or wherever does cheap (or chip!) stuff these days ... like driving a Lexus instead of a Panda

 

[opps]

People want the tramlines, nice, slight uniform tramlines.

If they wanted a perfectly flat finish they would have them sprayed.

Agreed that oil based paints are less durable than formica but the kind of person that is paying for quality tends to look after their kitchens.

 

[joe-90]

. like driving a Lexus instead of a Panda

You don't paint a Lexus with a brush.