To ask if any decorators can help! Farrow & Ball nightmare

[farrowandballsack]

When we renovated our house the decorator used Valspar and I hated the finish on the kitchen / bathroom stuff. When we decorated our nursery, I fell in love with a Farrow & Ball colour and used that, it was emulsion and we had no issues. It still looks great 2 years later. This gave me the impression it was worth the price jump and besides we were saving by not using a decorator as it was just one room.

So doing a bit of decorating and decided to splash out on Farrow & Ball again. The estate emulsion went on the walls yesterday, all good. It has been very humid but no issues drying.

Sanded down the floorboards and gave them a coat with the Estate Eggshell. We didn't use a primer ... And yes I know F&B say you should use theirs but I assumed that was a marketing thing. They also state you should use their brushes, I wasn't convinced not doing all of the above would be detrimental. I've painted using eggshell many times and never used a primer, never had issues.

It was hideously streaky with a brush so we switched to a foam roller for half the floor, which was a lot better. It clearly would need another coat so we left it to dry.

10 hours later (it says it dries in 4) and it's really sticky. I had to go in to shut a window and I got a glob stuck to my foot, revealing floorboard underneath.

I've had a Google and it seems this is a common issue, with lots of people having used the official primer and still experiencing it. It has been very humid (thunder forecast tomorrow here) so I'm hoping this is the issue ... But having seen Farrow & Ball have stated to a customer it can take 4 weeks to cure (WTF), I'm panicking. Especially as we didn't follow their instructions re: the primer.

Do any decorators know what the fix is for this? Do we just have to wait it out ... Will it ever go hard or have we totally messed it up? If so, what do we do about that? I imagine sanding it off would be a complete disaster as it's so sticky.

I'm really hoping to wake up tomorrow and find it's cured over night in the less humid weather, but based on my Googling I'm guessing that's unlikely

Fingers crossed for tonight OP

Bumping for you

Frenchic paint will cover it beautifully if you get stuck

DH used to work for a well known paint manufacturer. Was it solvent based? He says it can take longer if there’s little air flow in the room and isn’t ideal for floors but it will dry.

Thank you thehop!

We've got a dining room's worth of furniture kicking about the house and a curious toddler. Really hoping it magically fixes itself!

I'm scared of putting anything else over it, as it's so sticky and wet.

We have the paint to do the second coat already, otherwise I'd 100% use something else which is less particular. Thanks for the recommendation though, will check them out for next time.

The primer helps the later coats stick, it also provides a barrier that prevents anything in the wood reacting with the top coat. Following the primer with an undercoat gives depth of color more cheaply than using multiple top coats of the "good" paint. The primer is non-negotiable if you want paint to stick on a high wear area like a floor.

Paint doesn't "dry", the curing is a chemical change in the paint. It takes time, things like humidity and moisture/oils in the wood can affect the process. Again, this is why you use a primer as a barrier between the surface and the top coat.

I think you're going to have to let it cure in it's own time, and that first coat is going to be an expensive undercoat at best. But if its not keyed to the wood you're going to end up sanding it off and starting again. With a primer.

Champagneformyrealfriends it's water based apparently. That's good to know, thank you!

Hoping if it's less humid tomorrow and I can try and get as much air flow to it as possible we can accelerate it

I've made similar mistakes with floors myself. And I've two doors that for whatever reason no primer, undercoat or gloss will reliably stick to for longer than a year. I suspect they were dip stripped and there's something in the wood.

DogInATent There's a small patch by a door which seems harder than the rest and that seems to have taken well. We gave the floor a really good sand so hopefully that will go a small way towards having skipped the primer, in terms of it keying. Lesson learned!

I think you're right. It looks so awful, the paint we've put down so far will need going over at least once more, but I could see it needed further coats.

Bloody expensive undercoat 🤦🏻‍♀️. Just hoping we don't have to start all over again.

Although to be honest, just having it dry (whilst looking awful) would be an improvement on the sticky room we can't use at all.

Thanks for the advice!

We have F&B in whole house and IIRC I didn’t buy any of their primer so assume decorator used his own e.g. Johnson’s. He also told us not to touch for an entire day every time he did the woodwork and radiators in each room.

Not super helpful but just suggesting going forward you prime but not necessarily use F&B.

My DH is a decorator and his advice is to scrape off as much as you can, wash it down with hot soapy water, and let it dry.
Then sand it then prime it.
Then paint it.

Unfortunately there really is no easy fix he says.

But good luck with whatever you decide to do!

PooWillyBumBum it does seem silly that only their specific primer would work! Apparently though it's the only one they'll support as it were, with customer service stuff.

Would definitely use a primer in future though!

FawnDrench thank you for the advice, eek . I feared this might be the case. I think given how much we've wasted on overpriced paint I'll have to wait and see if it'll cure of its own accord.

But I have a bad feeling we'll be sanding back and starting over ... Just not with F&B next time!

Not that I'm blaming them, just an expensive mistake to make and would be looking for the cheapest resolution possible.

1. what’s the rough price difference with f&b room for room and
2. is it worth it?

About to renovate and not sure

Their eggshell is notoriously difficult. I now use Little Greene. I like the F and B final result but it is very labour intensive.

crispysausagerolls in case you've not gathered, I'm far from an expert in this field ha. But what I will say is the price difference is misleading. The coverage is worse than other paints I've used.

It was £56 or something for a 2.5L tub of the emulsion but did give a really nice deep colour. We needed 2 tubs for a fairly standard sized room, 3x3m.

For the eggshell it was £26 for a .75L but we needed 3 tubs of it. And in retrospect obviously the primer and potentially undercoat.

The eggshell was only £12 more than a competitor but seemingly a lot more particular to use ... If I had my time again I wouldn't have used it.

Googling seems to suggest tradespeople hate it but clients love it. I wish I'd known that before.

@crispysausagerolls I would probably advise any sane person to just get colours made up at Johnson’s but I’m too much of a wimp so just paid. The finish is absolutely lovely though. We have Dulux durable one in DDs room and it looks very very different. Think we went for modern as decorator says estate can be hard to clean and a bit chalky but modern is still v matte.

Abra1de in my hunt for help before posting here, I came across so many forum posts on decorators websites about how much of a faff it is. Really regretting not doing more research!

Thank you, that is so helpful! Think I will have to sit down with the decorator and see how adverse to it he is!

If it’s air flow that helps to dry can you put a fan in the doorway? That would surely improve airflow across the floor. Not too strong as you wouldn’t want bits flying in and sticking but left quietly over night it might help.

DH is a decorator and he agrees with the advice given by FawnDrench's DH.

DH is getting really interested now.

He wants to know if it's natural wood or laminate.

If you end up sending back and using something else, I'd highly recommend osmo polyx oil, you can get natural and various shades, plus grey, white etc. We used a honey tone to even out our natural floorboards, it's brilliant goes on with a broom type brush, dries overnight, hardens to a soft sheen (think you can get matte but not used it) and if you ever damage the floor you can just touch it up no need to sand back like varnish, or remove and redo periodically. It's not cheap but it's excellent, hard-wearing and waterproof

Okay - so floorboards - as you said - DH says you'll have to get it off, put knotting on the knots, prime it, then undercoat it, then two coats of eggshell.

So a clusterfuck, basically.

Sorry, OP. You've got some work ahead of you.