Owatrol Floetrol experiences

[curium]

Hi all!

I'm about to decorate my hallway. I've chosen to do the wooden skirting with Dulux Trade Quick Drying Primer & Undercoat and finish with Dulux Diamond Satinwood.

These are both water-based paints and I was interested in using Owatrol Floetrol to improve the finish. I'm told it will reduce the occurrence of brush-strokes in the finish.

Anyone used it? What was your experience?

 

[opps]

I use it on a daily basis.

It will ****** the drying time. I don't mean that the paint will stay wet for hours but it will give you long enough to maintain a wet edge. Essential for painting doors etc.

I believe that it is propylene glycol based, also used as antifreeze and in hair conditioner etc.

You don't need much of it. add some and if you find the paint is dragging add a little more. Unlike water it does not thin the paint so it will effect colour obliteration less than water would.

depending on the age of the bottle you might find stringy bits of phlegm in it. I normally just pull them out of the paint with a brush.

I would also suggest that you consider using a good quality synthetic brush

good luck


Edit_______________________

After years of using the dulux trade acrylic u/c i have got so fed up with the fact that I can not sand it any more and switched to the leyland version, about 60% cheaper, it is an inferior product that leaves a finish with a high coeffient of friction (ie rough) but it is great to sand back, doesn't cover as well though.. I guess that you are painting timber rather than MDF so if that is the case then go for the dulux u/c- otherwise go for leyland

 

[curium]

Strangely enough alongside the staircase one side appears to be MDF or some sort of fibre board (after sanding, slightly furry with no visible grain) while other side appears to be pine.

I had hoped that the Dulux undercoat and primer would be fine for use on both as it would make it easier for me (time & money wise).

Your comments seemed to suggest that you don't think the MDF will be okay with my current choice.

Care to expand?

 

[opps]

If it was raw mdf the first u/c would do little to reduce the suction and would swell the grain. The latter is not a major problem as it can be sanded flat (the dulux u/c will however clog the paper faster than the inferior leyland). When you apply the first waterbased satin wood over that it will cause the grain to swell again and you will also find that the paint will drag regardless of how much floetrol you use.

The problem will reduce as you apply more coats but the first satinwood will have had very heavy tramlines (brush strokes) that will be even more difficult to sand back (again due to paper clogging). The satinwood will however reduce the suction better than the u/c but less effectively than an oil based product.

If you have not yet purchased the sand paper i would recommend 180-220 grit silicone carbide- the paper least prone to clogging IMO is made by neutral abrasives, others such as sait will clog in seconds. 3M and Hermes are also pretty good.

If the bits that you have sanded back to the mdf are very small then do not worry. You might find that you need to apply more than one spot u/c to try to obliterate the darker colour. The rest of the existing paint will have sorted the suction problem for you.

Hope that this is clearer, if not let me know

 

[curium]

Thanks very much opps.

I've no idea why the builders have chosen to do one side in pine and the other with MDF (new-build house). We are end of terrace so perhaps they had run out of pine...

I've sanded the MDF (as well as the pine) right back to the wood as they were previously stained (or varnished, I can't tell) and we now want a paint finish.

I may put 2 coats of the undercoat/primer on the MDF to try and reduce suction, with a sand-down in between.

 

[joe-90]

If your paint is dragging or leaving brushmarks then it's simply too thick - thin it down by 5%.

 

[opps]

Hi curium

On the mdf it might be safer to use oil based primer (given that you have sanded it back). The cheapest primer will be fine and you can thin it quite a lot with white spirits to speed drying.

Acrylic primer over acrylic primer really really drags. There would be little point sanding the first as the second would undo your hard work.

If you do opt for oil based primer then dust off thoroughly after sanding and allow a couple of days to dry otherwise you run the risk of "fish eyes". if you are putting the waterbased primer/uc over the oil based primer then the fish eyes are less likely to occur than if you used the satinwood over the oil based primer.

In the event that you don't have any oil based primer, thinned oil based varnish would suffice. Not something i would normally recommend but you are finishing with water based paints