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.

Catanddogmake6 I've opened windows and doors as best as I can so will see what that does overnight, but may get the fans on it tomorrow if that fails. There's a slight breeze now and it's definitely cooler.

Jemima232 laminate haha? That would be bad even by my clearly low DIY standards

Appreciate the advice but wonder why?

Prior to this we've painted floorboards (identical age / process / house) with Dulux eggshell and it was fine. Just sanded it and then painted. No issues with the knots, no stickiness etc. Lasted years and is still down, besides repainting a really high traffic bit where an office chair rolled over it.

Is it the F&B situation which means it requires all that? Or is that just the 'proper' way to paint a floor?

TheHandsOfNeilBuchanan That sounds good, thank you for the recommendation.

Don’t suppose you have a dehumidifier? Or can borrow one? I had paint that wouldn’t dry & ours really did the trick.

Is it the F&B situation which means it requires all that? Or is that just the 'proper' way to paint a floor?

The F & B apparently.

so buy cheap shitey paint next time

That said Jemima232, I get that if we go back to the sanded wood, it would be wise to do it again properly without rushing. And can see that process would get optimum results.

But I'm so over this, I think I'd just sand it so it's not sticky, stick something on to protect it like stain / varnish / whatever then invest in a rug and some counselling.

laminate haha? That would be bad even by my clearly low DIY standards

I once gloss-painted a cupboard which was already gloss-painted.

Without removing the old lot of gloss paint.

Got a lot of stick for that. But then he can't deliver babies.

Feelsdeadpeople ooh I do indeed! I will try that, thank you. Good idea

Have you considered just putting a carpet over the whole fuck-up?

Jemima232 Argh, can't believe I didn't research this more first.

Haha

Jemima232 I'm currently wondering if I could recoup some costs by using the sticky mess as underlay.

I'll be sure to update tomorrow with a stickiness update and some photos in the light of the interesting brush stroke texture I've added. There's a signature footprint in there too, I add one to all my works. Currently taking bookings for 2020.

This sounds daft, but I'll only use dulux paint, my OH despairs of me, but after painting so many properties, dulux is the only reliable paint I've found. Own brand takes too many coats to be even, and I've found Johnson paint to runny/sticky and patchy results to be worth the cost saving.

I've also gone back to Harris paint pads rather than rollers and have had excellent results, so much so my DM thought I'd used a decorater!

Good luck with the F&B 🤞🏻

WRT what to buy next - I’d go to a Dulux decorator centre and buy their trade stuff (guess who DH used to work for ) - great coverage and they should advise you on what to use. Costs more initially but you’ll use less, and they should sell you the amount you need if you give them dimensions.

Water based paints dry chemically but they also do dry out. Humid conditions will slow this, but mostly the problem with it flaking is when the surface can’t absorb any water- it means the paint can’t sink into the surface and bond properly. There’s a good chance your floors were previously oiled or varnished and so are now effectively hydrophobic. Test on another bit of floor- if you drop some water on the wood does it sit in discrete droplets and just sit there for ages and ages? Or does it spread over the wood and then sink into the wood?

If the wood has been treated, you have two options: sand the wood back till you’ve stripped enough to get past the saturation, or paint with oil based paint (takes 3 days to dry so the floor can’t be walked on/used for that time)

Our skirts were painted with F&B eggshell (with primer) and it was terrifying at first - it looked like we'd used hammerite! Anyway - it dried/cured very slowly - took almost a week and was still a bit tacky. The final finish was amazing.

Thanks everyone for the advice!!

I went down to check on it this morning and it had dried! No more stickiness. I can't believe we've got away with it.

I am going to brave a second coat later today, but fully expect to need to give it 48 hours to dry fully before putting furniture in etc.

Really hoping the finish is good as others have experienced, but will be happy with a usable floor that doesn't have patches (& footprint textures)

Yay!

Fingers crossed for your second coat :)

I'm in the middle of a whole-house decoration and one room has been done in genuine F&B (£20 a can in a Homebase closing down sale) and the rest is being done in Johnstone's Trade mixed to F&B colours (they've got them all coded into their paint mixing computer). The Johnson's is only £35 for a 5l can of matt, is much less patchy (the F&B is on its 3rd coat and still not perfect), and you'd have to be an expert to tell the difference. I don't like Johnstone's retail paint, but their trade stuff, so far, has been absolutely fantastic.