Resolving a Paint Issue

If you are a paint contractor, building contractor, facilities manager, surveyor or lawyer, this information will greatly help when you want the painting job to be done right, and if things go wrong, how to investigate the failure. 

Welcome to our first of what will be a large collection of papers concerning different problems which may present themselves during paint application or during the service life of the paints. 

After a paint has been applied to a surface, the process of film formation will commence. During this film formation process, the paint must transform from a liquid to a continuous film which both protects the surface onto which it has been applied and look good. In effect, a paint must offer years or even decades of protection.

Irrespective of the surface onto which it is applied, a dry paint film must be of a reasonably uniform thickness, and free of defects, such as cracks, craters, peeling, blisters, and flaking. Anybody can paint but remember, latent paint defects can both destroy the paint film which in turn will have catastrophic effects on the life of whatever was painted, be it a house or a garden railing. 

A huge amount of time and expense may be saved, and problems may be prevented, if the whole painting job is done correctly. As seen in the image, in one case, the painting protocol required two uniform coats of primer applied wet on wet to a dry film thickness of 350 µm each and one topcoat to a dry film thickness of 300 µm, therefore a combined dry film thickness of 1000 µm. Within four months of paint application, the paint started to peel off and water started to corrode the mild steel fire escape. 

Our laboratory determined that the root cause of the failure was the failure of intercoat adhesion between the two coats of primer. Through detailed analysis, we found that the second primer coat was applied days after the first coat (significant atmospheric particulate contamination on the first coat was the proof).

The cost, a €47,000 claim to remove the coating and reapply. Our detailed Report found the painting contractor to be at fault, and a court found him to be liable. 

As for resolving a paint problem, using our expertise and our cutting-edge laboratory equipment we have the investigative resources to find out with surety, how the paint failed, why the paint failed and who is responsible for the root cause of the failure. 

Back to listing