Paint

[Kent Matthew]

I've decided on a built in entertainment center and book shelves project. Since this room is going to get wood floors I'm going to do white wainscoting with the entertainment area. How do you get that smooth professional quality paint job?

[Jamie Buxton]

You might want to look in SMC's Finishing forum.

[Frank Pratt]

I was chatting with a painter who was doing the trim in a high end house. He sprays anywhere from 7 - 10 or 12 coats of sprayed lacquer. Between every coat he sands & fills with spot putty. The results were spectacular; perfectly smooth surface with no imperfections & perfectly uniform sheen. I can't imagine what the contract for just the trim painting would be.

And yes, post in the finishing forum for more responses.

[Carroll Courtney]

Welcome to forum Kent,that's a pretty good project you have going on. I'm sure you know that for a good painted finish you will need to start out with good wainscoting material which I use MDF. But what I made was only top/bottom rails with styles and 1/4 paneling with cove mold and cap rail along bedroom walls. For me the mdf was good for painting,cheap and at that time I got to use my biscuit jointer. After using my finish nailer I went over all nail holes with putty sand then putty again. Well mdf comes in 4x8 sheets which if it was any bigger I don't know if I would been able to pick it up. But 8' length,plus styles I had lot of joint intersections which were not perfect. So I would sand some then sand little more till it look pretty good. You know for a painted surface just like car guys you got to have a good canvas to start with. So spend the time,end results will be worth it. At SW's paint they sell a rattle can prep paint that I would spray all the intersections,sand then spray again. I use SW's what they call Pro Classic paint which is an oil base paint that can be thin down little to work with a sprayer,it is good paint and not your HD quality. I use a spray rig that has a 2qt pressure pot which was perfect for me. But if I had a do over,I would use one of those airless paint sprayers with finishing tip. I talk with a real painter who does high end homes which he show me pictures of his awesome handy work and that is what he uses is an airless paint sprayer that is thin down just little to help make painting easy. If Youtube had been around then I would watch them to pick up on painting interior finishes. Hint-Hint

[Dave Sabo]

how do you get that smooth quality paint job ? ? ?

1. Quality materials
2. Qulaity equipmment. Which usually means sprayers, but a brush can be used.
3. Skill and experience. No real substitute here.
4-10. Prepwork

The fastest , least painful route is to hire it out to someone who specializes in this work. If you want to DIY , you're gonna have to invest a lot of time reading , watching and researching how this is done. Then you'll want to practice , because even experienced professionals have to deal with the variables that crop up on specific jobs.

The industry is moving to waterborne technology, and MDF doesn't like water. So be careful what you build these out of if you're going with the latest and greatEst.

[Jim Becker]

If you can pre-finish the built-in, you'll be able to potentially achieve a much better finish result that you can by finishing it in-place. Aside from that, what Dave just posted absolutely applies. Don't cut corners on material quality just to save a few shekels. That includes the materials you use to build the project as well as the product(s) you choose to finish the project. Toward the latter, you do NOT want to use regular house paint for a built in that's going to have stuff sitting on it. You need a finish that doesn't have "blocking" (things stick to it) like regular latex paint does. If you are brushing, you want a 100% acrylic product like Sherwin Williams ProClassic or Benjamin Moore Impervo (acrylic version) or similar. If you are spraying, you want something like Target Coatings EM6500 or General Finishes Milk Paint (it's an acrylic, not actual "milk paint") or Benjamin Moore Advance which is an emulsified alkyd water borne. The Advance does. have a much longer dry time, however.

[Adam Herman]

if you are not spraying, i like the roll and tip method. often used on a boat, for my flat surfaces. I am a fan of proclassic. a good prime and sand, a coat of the pro classic, light sand and then for the final coat, thin it maybe 10% for the final coat.

[Kent Matthew]

Yes, I will be spraying.

[John TenEyck]

Lenmar Duralaq acrylic lacquer is a WB product line that is available through BM, is very reasonably priced and sprays great. Their Undercoater primer has an incredibly low viscosity and sprays great with a gravity feed HVLP gun with something around a 1.6 - 1.8 mm N/N. I've used it over plywood, maple, and HDF w/o issue; covers great, sands great. The white topcoat has a viscosity of around 100 sec. #4 Ford cup so you would have to thin it a little to spray it well through a gravity feed gun. With a pressure feed, however, like I have it sprays great with a 1.3 mm N/N. It gives a hard, smooth, factory quality finish of consistent sheen, at least with the satin I used. Both products dry very fast and can be recoated in less than 2 hours.

John

[Kent Matthew]

Welcome to forum Kent
Thanks. Actually I've been a member for many years. I was away for a few years and when I tried to log on I must have gotten kicked out of the system. So I re-registered. John on thinning the color coat since its lacquer based thin with lacquer thinner or something less hot like mineral spirits?