I know, I know. I'm not a chemist. Leave it up to the chemical engineers. Etc. Etc...
But I've gotta know. Is anybody else doing this?
I used to apply a "custom" finish that consisted of a formulation of a popular latex paint with a water borne soy lethin polyurethane. Worked out fantastically for years. All still holding tough years later.
The water poly resolved my blocking issues and created extra hardness in the latex paint dried finish. Didn't really affect my color purity much. I guess the magic was in the ratio.
Eventually I found easier and cheaper products I preferred. Given how formulations change, I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep getting the same results over long periods of time.
Any other custom concoctions out there that have had success? Any horror stories?
Nothin wrong with home brews. That's how the squints do it. Only they have education and $ to back their trial and error.
Our experience is our education. When in doubt, test it out. At your place or on "just the right project".
Personally, I think it keeps things interesting. Sometimes we in the field figure something out lonnnggg before the squints do. And when they finally catch up, they market it and sell it for top dollar. Rustoleum cabinet restore is an example of that. $75/a kit. Liquid sandpaper, solid deck stain and a coat of hybrid poly will yield similar or better results. I figured it out on my kitchen cabs.lol
How can you warranty the work when you've altered the products you're using?
Unless you're really in to chemistry, and I'm not, why spend the time concocting something when a better version of the hillbilly potion is likely available from a professional supplier?
I tried to make a vinyl ester mortar mix for a chemical containment. I thought I could just add fine kiln dried sand to fiberglass resin and trowel it on a fairly large repair area. The troweling went well, but the material never dried, even though I used the proper ratio. Apparently, the sand displaced the ability for the resin to chemically cure.
Needless to say, I had to scrape it off. I ended up using a SIKA clear epoxy mortar mix that worked perfectly.
There was a big lawsuit if I recall correctly where a drywall company mixed a little hot mud in with their regular mud to make it harden quicker and be stronger but there was a major paint failure over and in court since they did not follow manufactures specs they had to pay in the hundreds of thousands in damages. I have mixed hot mud and regular mud on occasion but never on a large scale it was college dorms i believe.
Every now and then I'll mix and match my own colors in products that don't recommend it. Most of the time there isn't a problem. But that doesn't mean I'm smarter than the squints that studied chemistry, and who performed the R&D in a controlled environment with boo coo resources. It just means that occasionally, I too fly by the seat of my pants. It's the nature of a painter. "Clear the runway. Here I go!"
I put Febreeze in my paint. It makes paint smells better
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Professional Painting Contractors Forum
741.4K posts
37.3K members
Since 2007
A forum community dedicated to professional painters. Come join the discussion about the industry, safety, finishing, tools, machinery, projects, styles, scales, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!