Post #432183 by woofmutt on Mon, Feb 2, 2009 11:40 PM

I am beginning to think I have a serious problem here. But while I'm posting again I thought I'd mention that just painting over the lead paint isn't a good idea. And here's why:

I was at West 5 this past weekend and noticed a steel support post which had been painted over when West 5 opened a couple years back had some paint peeling off of it. The post is located at the end of the bar and is between two of the bar stools. It gets a lot of wear and tear. Unfortunately whoever had painted over the post originally hadn't properly prepared it for painting. The previous paint on the post had been a high gloss enamel. The color is immaterial to this story but I'll mention it anyway: It was sky blue.

I would guess that the original paint had been oil based due to it's high gloss and enamel like hard surface. I know that there are newer latex paints which can provide a hard, high gloss surface but based on the age of the building I would guess the post had been painted originally with oil.

When the paint job for West 5 was done whoever did it merely painted latex paint over the high gloss on the post. There was no preparation such as a primer coat or a light sanding of the gloss surface to give it some "teeth" for the latex to grab onto.

This is also a common mistake when people are painting old kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Ive seen some reactions between old gloss oil paint and new latex which are nothing short of disastrous.