Paint disaster

[Tim Kane]

Couple of weeks ago I mist coated some new plaster skim with 10% watered down leyland contract matt, last week I did the final colour paint on the ceiling and this week I did the walls. I did the ceiling with 10% watered down Dulux Easycare Bathroom Brilliant White and this week I did the walls with the same 10% watered down Dulux Easycare Bathroom paint, but in an off white shade called "Rock Salt".

The ceiling is perfect, a slight sheen and it looks good. The walls however, they've turned out an absolute disaster. After a couple of hours, cracking all over. The paint is cracked, brittle, and thankfully easy enough to scrape off. I've been scraping it off for 3 hours and am about half way done.

So what went wrong? I have no idea! The Dulux paints I used were the same type and watered down the same. I must admit I didn't stir the paint in the pot, just poured it into a skuttle and watered it down and mixed in that. See the pics attached. One is of the wall, and one with pencil lines is of a test patch I did, the white on the left, coloured on the right.

Duff batch maybe or did I screw up?

 

[Tim Kane]

Removed!

 

[opps]

I don't understand why that happened.

I once had a similar experience. The client had dark red vinyl silk walls. I decided to use Dulux Trade Supermatt to obliterate the dark colour. I then applied waterbased eggshell over it. It crazed but nowhere near as bad as yours.

Phone Dulux- you will probably find that they offer you a voucher (which has to be redeemed in a Dulux Decorator Centre).

 

[Tim Kane]

I tweeted dulux and they are sending me a voucher. I've also no idea why this has happened, I can only think the batch of paint was bad. I bought two tins of the same batch and they both did this crazy cracking.

I even did a test on some backing paper, first a coat of dulux matt emulsion, then an area using the paint sample mini roller thing, then a patch from tin 1 and a patch from tin 2. The sample was perfect, but the paint from both tins cracked badly.

 

[opps]

Perhaps the paint was dodgy then. Thanks for the update.

In the past I have found Dulux to be pretty fair. I recently did a job where the Dulux Trade matt emulsion was completely different in colour from an old tin of the same paint. I rang Dulux and they explained that sometimes the paint colours drift away from the correct colour and that they eventually tweak it to correct it. I sent them a photo of the difference, they sent my customer £180 in vouchers. In her case the paint was Dulux Trade so she had to go to a Dulux Trade Centre. Yours is the retail paint, what the limitations on where you can redeem your vouchers?

 

[Tim Kane]

Haven't got the vouchers yet, but I'm guessing they will be dulux decorator centre ones. Maybe I should have pressed them for some more compensation because I've wasted something like 12 hours scraping the old junk off and getting back to white matt.

 

[opps]

Dulux Decorator Centres don't sell the Dulux retail paints.

With regard to your time, I get your point but they will normally only pay for the labour if the work was carried out by a Dulux certified decorator

 

[TeaAndBiscuits]

Just arrived at this thread via search because I'm in basically the same situation. Freshly plastered bathroom that I mist coated when completely dry with watered down leyland contract matt emulsion a few weeks back. Recently I painted the ceiling with some white anti mould bathroom paint from Lidl. Went on fine, finish is perfect, looks great.

The weekend just gone I bought some Dulux Easycare Bathroom in Rock Salt and did the walls. Put on one coat and came back an hour later to find the exact same thing you've experienced. Took a scraper to it and it basically just pinged off in a shower of tiny flakes leaving the mist coat intact underneath. Some areas easier than others but none of it difficult. Weird thing is that the small test patch I had applied with a roller tester pot previously stayed stubbornly attached underneath and in fact I left that in place as I didn't want to gouge the wall up to remove it.

Looking for answers... my only two thoughts were that perhaps I put it on too thick or maybe it doesn't get on with the leyland emulsion (but then why would the tester stay put?).

 

[opps]

Leyland Contract matt emulsion is another low latex/acrylic paint just like the Dulux Supermatt.

 

[JohnD]

I must admit I didn't stir the paint in the pot

why not?