Oil based Primer?

Kotik

We had a ceiling done by a contractor: 2 skim coats, oil based primer & 1 coat of paint. Contractor said he used Sherwin Williams low odor fast drying oil based primer. However, there was absolutely no smell what so ever.
We tried to perform a test to determine whether there in fact is a coat of oil based primer underneath the paint by rubbing a wet paper towel gently on one little area of the ceiling. The paint comes off and then water seems to get through and the skim coat becomes visible.
Now, I don't know if I'm crazy or what, but I thought oil based primer should keep the water out. So just in case i took a piece of Sheetrock and applied oil based primer (not the one they used) to it and let dry over night. In the morning I performed same test with a wet paper towel. Nothing... in fact i even tried scrubbing it with my nails and nothing.
Does anyone know if the primer can fail or may be they applied too thin of a coat? (they sprayed it on)
Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks...

sdsester

Doesn't sound right to me! A good quality alkyd primer, unless it was barely misted on the surface when sprayed, with a coat of decent paint on it (two coats recommended though by the way) should not be coming off all the way down to the skim coat with just gentle action and a wet cloth! Low odor oil based primers do not give off so much smell but you would have been able to detect something. Sounds to me like you have been played. I would ask them to come back and do it again.

Kotik

I would ask them to come back, but they've already been back 2 times doing repairs. They call themselves professionals but I had to literally walk around and point out the areas that looked uneven/unsanded/bubbling up or chipping down. And every time they got here and sanded a bit I had to clean everything up. If they come back again that means sanding down all latex paint before putting oil primer on and I'm fed up with dust and their faces... I am asking for my $800 back that I paid specifically for OIL based primer under contract. :/
P.S. Sherwin Williams rep told me they can do chem analysis of the paint if we bring a chip in...