Painting doors with semi-gloss, paint dries too fast and leaves brush marks.

Questions & AnswersCategory: Interior Trim, Windows and DoorsPainting doors with semi-gloss, paint dries too fast and leaves brush marks.
Ellie May asked 10 years ago

My professional painter asked me to buy expensive Sherwin-Williams paint for the best effect on all my doors. She rolled on the paint, and then used a fine brush to paint it out, that is, to get rid of roller marks and the look of a rolled door. However, the paint dries so fast that she can’t brush easily; the paint rolls up into little balls. The paint costs 60.00 a gallon, and S-W said they never heard of this problem, which I find difficult to believe, since we had the same problem with Behr, Valspar etc. My doors have now got three coats of semi-gloss on them, with shiny brush marks, little balls of dried paint making little lumps everywhere, and I am considering just rolling them over so they will at least look consistent. My painter added Flo-trol to thin the paint so it wouldn’t dry as fast, it basically did nothing to improve the problem. I have been told this issue is due to low voc paint, but every paint I buy from anywhere is now low voc apparently. Lowes and Home Depot folks in my area are mystified as well. Any suggestions, other than my own…to just roll the doors and live with the effect, which my pro painter says she will not do, as rolled doors look terrible.

6 Answers
Crowder Painting answered.

Getting a smooth brush mark free surface using modern acrylic paint is tough at best. Yes, it all dries too fast. Here's some ideas that might help;

1- More Flotrol can be added than is recommended. Flotrol doesn't thin paint but it will lower the paints coverage, more coats will be needed.

2- Add a little water to the paint. It doesn't take much but a little splash in the paint your painter is using will help it flow out. This can be combined with the Flotrol for better results.

If you have to roll the doors there are some nice smooth surface rollers on the market.

Luke answered.

Spray them

Crowder Painting answered.

Spraying is a good option but the paint can be thinned or Flotrol paint additive used to help with the fast dry time.

MagicDave answered.

Well, it seems you have gone too far in the WRONG Direction, unfortunately, now the best way to achieve a satisfactory finish is to first STRIP Off all the old paint using a Paint & Varnish Remover… then simply follow my advice on my web page for painting doors here: http://davmagic.com/paint/PAGES18.html
Good Luck

elainekayschramm answered.

Thank you everyone for your help. Please note this was a problem my professional house painter had, not me, as I am not a professional house painter. We solved this problem by removing and recycling all the doors, and I did the painting myself on the new doors, while the humidity was higher than 3% (which is normal here) and there was no problem this time. The answer to my question is “dont paint when the humidity is 3-4%!”.