# Painting Problem....



## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

I had in interesting issue arise today, and perhaps it's due to my general lack of experience but I've never run across this before....

A couple of weeks ago I fixed a bathroom water damaged ceiling. Patch, tape, top, skim, scrape existing god-awful texture, skim, skip-trowel. Skim over paint was with hot-mud, two coats to kill bubbles and level it off, then skip with Fast-tex texture mud.

Contractor calls me last week and says "You want to paint that patch? By the way, daughter let the tub overflow and it's stained too."

I show up today, it's dry, I start painting. I used Kilz Clean Start (sealer/primer), cut work looked great, started rolling the field and the paint starts bubbling. Little tiny bubbles that look like a sand finish. Made another pass with the roller, looked like they were gone and then there they were again, but not so bad. Cleaned everything up, and bubbles had settled, but left little craters.

Cut in the finish, looked great with no issues so proceed to roll on the finish..........more bubbles. Little tiny f***ers, another pass over lessened them, but let it be after that. Packed up and went home.

Here are my suspicions, would like to know if anyone has definite answers for why this happened....

Suspicion #1: Too much exposed hot mud, especially over a painted surface.

Suspicion #2: Shook paint cans to get material mixed up. However, done this on nearly every paint job I've ever done with no issues.....and they use a paint shaker at the paint house store place.

Has anyone encountered this before? I would have thought that after the sealer coat went on it wouldn't matter what was below it, hence the surprise at the finish coat bubbling too.


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## cazna (Mar 28, 2010)

Sometimes it just happens slim, Rolling varish and oil based enamel is the worst. Dont use foam roller sleeves, They tend to make bubbles.

When Acrylic paints first came out it was like this, Nasty little bubbles that the roller pulls up, Thankfully its not so common now but i did get a new bathroom and kitchen paint a few months back that did it too so i avoid it now.

As to why, Well thats a bit of a guess really but its almost like its got to much soap in it, You will notice too when you try and clean a paint brush the wash up water really foams up with heaps of studs.

And all you can do is roll an area, Dont reload the roller, Wait, Then gently pass the roller over it again and this will remove the bubbles, It may take a few passes, You may still get a few, but this is all you can do, Its slow and painful but you will get there, Try to avoid that paint and be thankful it wasnt a bigger smoothwall surface your were doing.


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## mudslingr (Jul 18, 2010)

cazna said:


> As to why, Well thats a bit of a guess really but its almost like its got to much soap in it,


You said the patch was stained ? Maybe it had soap on it from the tenants splashing around in the tub. Transferred to your roller ?


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## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

cazna said:


> Sometimes it just happens slim, Rolling varish and oil based enamel is the worst. Dont use foam roller sleeves, They tend to make bubbles.
> 
> When Acrylic paints first came out it was like this, Nasty little bubbles that the roller pulls up, Thankfully its not so common now but i did get a new bathroom and kitchen paint a few months back that did it too so i avoid it now.
> 
> ...


Phew....I was worried that it was part of the process that I'd done and that freaked me out. Lately every job has had something go crazy because the situations are so unique and complex to deal with. Thank you for setting my mind at ease. I did go back over it at the time, like you said, with a dry-ish roller. I should have kept hitting it, but was worried I'd start funking up the finish. Thanks again:thumbsup::yes:



mudslingr said:


> You said the patch was stained ? Maybe it had soap on it from the tenants splashing around in the tub. Transferred to your roller ?


The area I started in was well away from the stain, but it sure sounds like a good theory!


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## Workaholic (Dec 13, 2010)

Can be a number of things like, moisture in the mud, contaminate that did not get sealed (oil primers work best), roller cover, ect...


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## DSJOHN (Apr 5, 2010)

They use the bathroom after you leave? I never let them use the shower or tub while Im doing anything like that - or you warn them of the potential problem and tell them the cost for doing so!!!!


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## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

Workaholic said:


> Can be a number of things like, moisture in the mud, contaminate that did not get sealed (oil primers work best), roller cover, ect...


Interesting...I showed up to paint and asked if the daughter had taken a shower. He said yes, so I went down to feel it and it felt dry. However, it wouldn't surprise me at all if there was some moisture stuck in there at low levels. I used two different roller covers, and one of them had been used before with no ill effects.

And, after the last time being locked in a room with oil based primer I won't do it. :no: I don't care if you fire me.....that sh!t sucks. 



DSJOHN said:


> They use the bathroom after you leave? I never let them use the shower or tub while Im doing anything like that - or you warn them of the potential problem and tell them the cost for doing so!!!!


 This is a pre-sale deal, so I don't think anyone cares what happens at this point..........least of all me :laughing: I just want to make sure I learn lessons when they're presented to me:yes:


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## betterdrywall (May 4, 2010)

I did a patch in a bathroom once,, or maybe twice,, Hair spray,,, Hair and Smellgood stuff in the bottle... always makes work fun,,


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## Capt-sheetrock (Dec 11, 2009)

I thiink workaholic had it pegged.

Kilz won't block a mosquito fart.

When you encounter a situation like this,,, use an oil-based blocker, like zinsser cover stain, or zinsser's bin.(zinnsers 123 ((bullseye)) is useless!!!!)

If you use a water based(latex) sealer,,,,, you might make it,,, but then again,,, you might not!!!!!

JMO


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## everythingdrywallpaint (Oct 11, 2021)

Never happened with me as I am running Painting Company Waukesha WI but it was interesting. Maybe it was due to hot mud that got the paint dry out.


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