I’m trimming and doing closets in a house where the homeowner is, by default, the contractor. The initial paint job looks fine but it’s a bit touchy.
Last Friday I lightly stuck some pieces of blue tape to a closet wall, just over the shelves, to protect them from my orbital sander when I sanded the shelves. I did the sanding today (Monday) and when I took the tape off it pulled off patches of paint. I didn’t know what it was at first, because I’ve never seen that happen
The walls are 5/8 sheetrock and I’ll look at the paint cans tomorrow , but I think it’s latex. For what it’s worth, I’ll get the brand and model number… but I suspect the painters were just slack about cleaning the finest dust off the walls.
Is there any fix at this point?
What should I tell the homeowner, if anything, to do?
Replies
Happens a lot with fresh paint, esp. if you press the tape to hard, or bump it with the sander. Touch it up with leftover paint, no biggie.
If this was fresh drywall that was painted the problem usually not using a drywall PVA primer first to seal the sheetrock. Paint has a harder time sticking to unsealed drywall.
Pretty much what I figure. Drywall has to be primed. Primer sticks to drywall, paint will only stick to primer.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Check to see how much dust is on the backside of the paint you pulled off. If they did not wipe the walls down after sanding, the dust is enough to weaken the bond. On one project the drywall lead refused to wipe down the walls and primed before my inspection. The paint came off like wall paper with the entire back covered in drywall dust.
It amazes me how many of my cohorts don't use primers. They'll say two coats of paint is like one primer and the final coat or the primer is in the paint.
I was raised and still appreciate the value of a good primer for all things. I agree that all situations may not require a primer but it doesn't hurt. I still love oil based primers for bare wood especially on exterior surfaces even though I know I should find an equal latex to help the environment.
Drywall is something that as I've said seriously needs a primer but many don't and not everyone has problems without one but when you do it's usually a big one.
Here's a great site for amateurs and pro's alike...
http://www.painterforum.com
You can't use safely use blue tape on paint on drywall unless it is fully cured semigloss or better.
Jeff