I used to strip old paint off of Victorians in San Francisco with a torch. That is illegal now. The hardest layers to take off were the old coats of oil based paints that were full of lead. Lead is very poisonous: It made kids sick and the dust from the stuff may be why I can barely remember my phone number. It did, however, make paint tough as nails. Lead was banned from paint in the US in 1978. These days oil based paint is a shadow if its former self and is getting harder and harder to find. If you are repainting your home and it has oil based paint already in it you might want to switch over to latex. Here are a few reasons why you might do that.
Latex paint dries faster so you don’t have to quarantine your kids form the playroom for as long. The best ones are very tough and washable. Latex paints, while they don’t smell like the Lancombe counter at Macy’s also don’t make you think of brain damage at the first whiff. Cleaning brushes is a breeze, especially if you spray a little WD-40 on the bristles of your brushes and rub it in.
The problem is, latex paints don’t adhere dependably to a cured oil based finish. You should prime them first with…yes, an oil based primer. But then that’s it. You never have to open a can of the smelly. sticky stuff again. If you skip this step and just put latex paint over an old oil finish you’ll be able to scrape the finish off with your fingernails. Steam will peel the paint away from your bathroom walls in sheets and nothing you put over it will fix the problem. You’ll be stripping paint while the rest of Westchester is grilling burgers. Don’t do it.
Have Fun Painting
By Joe Adami, Local Painter. Email any questions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text86453 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 914-980-7216
