how do you tell what kind of paint is on the walls? - DIY Chatroom

gregdonovan · 07-02-2009, 02:22 AM

just bought our first home and we are going to repaint the interior.

i have no idea what is on the walls now. how do i tell what is on there so i get the right stuff to paint over the old stuff?

kitchen is dark blue and will be painted yellow.

dining room and living room are both a very bright white and will be painted light tan and a light sage green respectively.

one bedroom is a medium blue and will be painted lavender.

planning on getting a BM or maybe C2, not sure yet. we need a nice balance of cost and quality. whatever we get it wil be from a paint store and not HD or Lowe's.

Faron79 · 07-02-2009, 02:45 AM

BM paint...what's that?!!?

Faron

gregdonovan · 07-02-2009, 03:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faron79

BM paint...what's that?!!?

Faron

ha. everytime i see SW here i think smith and wesson and when i see BM i think #2.

Thurman · 07-02-2009, 03:16 AM

I'll go with Benjamin Moore on the BM thingy, the C2 is new to me. I like Smith & Wesson for SW, but as far as painting, probably Sherwin Williams. Back to the original question: What type of paint is on there? I'm going to guess they are asking if it may be latex or oil based. There is the alcohol and cotton ball trick, and I always get it backwards, or confuse myself so help me here. You put some alcohol on a cotton ball, touch it to the paint, and if some of the paint coloring comes off with the cotton ball then it's oil based paint. Is that right or backwards again? My memory is gone. gregdonovan-there are just too many websites out there with this information, as to how to determine which type of paint you have, and information as to how to paint over one if you want to use the other. Please educate us on the C2 paint. I suppose if it were H2 or H3 it would be to paint one of those ugly truck things.

Thanks, David

gregdonovan · 07-02-2009, 03:26 AM

here is the site for C2 paint.

http://www.c2color.com/

just thinking of it because i saw Faron79 mention it and they are here in fargo and seem to like it.

chrisn · 07-02-2009, 07:32 AM

Rubbing alcohol or goof off will determine if it is latex, if paint comes off it is latex. It is rare now to find walls painted in oil.

Matthewt1970 · 07-02-2009, 07:56 AM

Oil will have a much smoother surface as well.

gregdonovan · 07-02-2009, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisn

Rubbing alcohol or goof off will determine if it is latex, if paint comes off it is latex. It is rare now to find walls painted in oil.

the house was built in 1917 and i am not sure the last time it was painted. i think it was at least 7 years ago, if not longer.

so if it is latex we need to use latex primer and paint, correct? can we just use a latex bonding primer no matter what is on the walls now?

mazzonetv · 07-03-2009, 12:43 PM

the cotton ball trick works most of the time. Another way is if you actually have a chip of paint - latex will be more flexible as a rule and oil will crack at the slightest bend - again most of the time..

With all that being said, it's pretty much a non factor because from what you said you really should be priming anyway. A good latex primer like 1-2-3 will stick to either oil based or water based coatings and will give you a sound surface to paint over. As always, I would suggest a light sanding, quick cleaning, and a high quality primer (like 1-2-3, aqualock, ben moore's fresh start, ect...). Top coat with a high quality latex. If the paint is that old, you might want to do a lead test first with one of those over the counter swabs.

Good luck!

gregdonovan · 07-03-2009, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mazzonetv

the cotton ball trick works most of the time. Another way is if you actually have a chip of paint - latex will be more flexible as a rule and oil will crack at the slightest bend - again most of the time..

With all that being said, it's pretty much a non factor because from what you said you really should be priming anyway. A good latex primer like 1-2-3 will stick to either oil based or water based coatings and will give you a sound surface to paint over. As always, I would suggest a light sanding, quick cleaning, and a high quality primer (like 1-2-3, aqualock, ben moore's fresh start, ect...). Top coat with a high quality latex. If the paint is that old, you might want to do a lead test first with one of those over the counter swabs.

Good luck!

thanks,

sanding really isnt an option because of the plaster wall texture. unless of course the pros know a way to sand that stuff without ruining it.

our plan is to clean and prime.

since the house hasnt had smokers or pet odors in it is just a cleaning with something like Spic-n-span (or some other TSP based cleaning product) good enough rather than full strength TPS?

saggdevil · 07-03-2009, 05:15 PM

You can use a variety of cleaning agents, but go lightly to avoid having to rinse unless you want to, lol. I used Lysol on three rooms recently and it worked good without rinsing. In the kitchen I used Dawn (cuts grease) with white vinegar (cleaner, cuts grease and neutralilzer) with fabric softener to kill the vinegar odor. Although Spic & Span is a great cleaner, it sometimes requires rinsing. TSP requires a lot of rinsing and a respirator.

Unless the pros know of something on the sanding, the only thing I can think of would be to use the sanding sponges or just a sheet of paper by hand to work around the bumps.

My house is 1913 and I am currently taking a break from sanding walls, lol. I kinda look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Just stripped 96 years worth of painted wallpaper and the walls looked like a jigsaw puzzle with all the cracks and nail holes. So just finished sanding the second round of compound and although the room is a white cloud right now, the walls are almost as smooth as a baby's ____

.

chrisn · 07-03-2009, 07:28 PM

the walls are almost as smooth as a baby's

saggdevil · 07-03-2009, 07:48 PM

LOL....and my heartfelt thanks go you you Chris and a few more on here that have guided me through this. This room was a BIG challenge, but practice makes perfect. (My dancing instructor drilled this into my head until I was mid 20's, lol).

gregdonovan · 07-04-2009, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saggdevil

You can use a variety of cleaning agents, but go lightly to avoid having to rinse unless you want to, lol. I used Lysol on three rooms recently and it worked good without rinsing. In the kitchen I used Dawn (cuts grease) with white vinegar (cleaner, cuts grease and neutralilzer) with fabric softener to kill the vinegar odor. Although Spic & Span is a great cleaner, it sometimes requires rinsing. TSP requires a lot of rinsing and a respirator.

Unless the pros know of something on the sanding, the only thing I can think of would be to use the sanding sponges or just a sheet of paper by hand to work around the bumps.

My house is 1913 and I am currently taking a break from sanding walls, lol. I kinda look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Just stripped 96 years worth of painted wallpaper and the walls looked like a jigsaw puzzle with all the cracks and nail holes. So just finished sanding the second round of compound and although the room is a white cloud right now, the walls are almost as smooth as a baby's ____

.

that is one thing i am very happy about there doesnt appear to be any wallpaper in this house.

i definately want to avoid having to rinse if at all possible.

Faron79 · 07-04-2009, 03:37 AM

Hey again GregD...
POWDERED Dirtex is a great cleaner for pre-painting...normally needs no rinsing!
EXCEPT for heavier "smoker" rooms....there I would defer slightly to a stronger TSP mix....which, unfortunately, needs to be rinsed VERY WELL-MORE THAN ONCE...

.

In the "after smoker" scenario, once walls are cleaned, the best primer is Zinsser's BIN Shellac/Alcohol-base.
Pretty smelly, but the best primer for this job. I'd rather use BIN than any Oil primer however!!! Have your windows open. I primed my whole Family-room with BIN, and just got a dry throat. This was in March a few years ago!
A decent Latex choice would be the C2-One primer.

Faron