Here’s a situation: you have your sundries laid out, windows open, and painter’s tapes secured. You’re ready to work on the renovation project to start your year right. But when you slather the paint on your wall, the film suddenly looks bubbly, and tiny crater-like holes form on the surface. What you have encountered is what is called foaming and cratering in paint. This is an unintended effect that can happen in a painting procedure. How do you deal with this problem?
How the Quality of Your Paint Causes Foaming and Cratering
First, let’s recognize that the main suspect is low quality paint. Coatings with poor components are particularly susceptible to foaming, causing unwanted craters to appear. When it comes to painting, trust in brands that guarantee a high-quality finish when used.
Boysen offers premium paints that come in different finishes. For water-based paints for concrete walls, you have your choice of Boysen Permacoat Latex, Boysen Healthy Home, and Virtuoso Silk Touch. These high-quality paints guarantee good opacity and a smooth texture when correct surface preparation and adherence to the painting schedule is done.
Still, a very old paint has its quality decreased significantly, making it more prone to bubbling. Refrain from grabbing whatever old paint you have for a project. At the very least, check if it is still in good condition (seeing if the color still matches is a good benchmark). Low quality paints produce low quality finishes. Paints could also get unintentionally mixed with different chemicals which can cause different reactions.
Avoid Foaming and Cratering through Proper Mixture and Application
This kind of painting problem could also be triggered even before you open a can of paint. Especially for paint that has been partially used, intentionally or unintentionally shaking the container can cause bubbles to appear on the film. This problem occurs most commonly in latex and acrylic paints. As water-based paints, it is possible for air to be mixed within the paint which causes the foaming.
In similar fashion, excessive mixing or aggressive stirring can also cause foaming in the paint, as it is a way to integrate water in the paint. Think of it like how you’re making dalgona coffee—you need to stir exhaustively until you get the foaming effect. That’s not how it should work for paint. Yes, you get the components of paint evenly by stirring it, but done slowly and consistently.
Be careful, as well, when using thinners or reducers in solvent-based paints. Boysen Acrytex Reducer or Boysen Epoxy Reducer for Acrytex or Epoxy Enamel, respectively, is used to reduce the viscosity of the paints. Properly follow the recommended amount each type of paint uses. Exceeding the respective ratio could not only make the paint not adhere to the surface properly, but could also potentially cause foaming and other painting problems.
Another way to get craters on the paint film is in the painting process itself. Similar to the advice above to not excessively stir it until it foams, the method of applying the paint on the surface should not be too aggressive. A good quality paint would not foam easily anyway, as we have mentioned. Just ensure you use Boysen paints correctly to achieve the finish you want.
Key Takeaways
Craters appearing on the film coat may look interesting, but that is not an intended textured finish for the paints. Plus, it could potentially lead to the paint not lasting long on your walls. For imperfections such as these, the rule of thumb is to do your painting with care and precision.
For more painting tips, subscribe to the blog. If you have questions about other paint problems, send us an email at ask@myboysen.com and our technical team will be happy to help.
