Because not all paints are designed to bond to all surfaces there can be some horrendous paint adhesion failures. If you don’t have expertise at what you’re doing you may have results like those illustrated below.

There are some general rules relating to which material works well on which specific surface, for instance, latex paints generally do not have a good reputation for bonding well to glossy alkyd/oil finishes but will bond to oil primer or oil flat paints. With an emphasis on ‘going green’ and issues of environmental air quality becoming prominent a solution for going all latex over gloss finishes may be to use a bonding primer.

Bonding primers are available in water born products as well as oil based products, in fact some of the latex primer sealers will bond quite well to questionable surfaces. There are several different bonding primers and conditioners designed for use on various metal, glass, porcelain, cement, stucco, or poor quality existing surfaces.

Use of these specialized products can be tricky and each product requires a specific set of application techniques and conditions. It is easy to misuse or improperly apply a product resulting in damage to the existing surface. As example, alkyd primer will bond to wall board, but it will usually raise a nap on the wallboard more than latex primers do creating a rough surface that will require vigorous sanding to prepare for the finish coat.

At John Grey Painting we are experienced at selecting the correct bonding primer and solving any type of bonding problem.