# Bubbling Paint....why???



## AWG Painting (Jul 19, 2011)

I am faced with a bunch of bubbles on various surfaces on a very large job just completed. We did a full, thorough sanding of all surfaces, full oil based primer, then two topcoats with Ben Moore Aura Exterior Semi-Gloss. Only thing I can think of is heat and humidity but there are only a few bubbles in certain spots, not everywhere.

Ideas???


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## Paradigmzz (May 5, 2010)

Pictures please.


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

In my experience, the only things that cause bubbles in paint are applying it in direct sunlight (i.e. too hot of a surface) or that there is moisture trapped in the substrate which is then trying to evaporate through the coating and pushing the film out.


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## Mike's QP (Jun 12, 2008)

Are they microbubbles coming through the surface or are they bubbles or blisters under the film


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

Mike's QP said:


> Pee in it


That might cause bubbles too I guess. Never tried it :jester:


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## Mike's QP (Jun 12, 2008)

An old timer taught me that the ammonia in your urine will make the microbubbles go away, I'm not sure if it works in new paints or not


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## TJ Paint (Jun 18, 2009)

What kind of bubbles

small, big? 

help us help you.


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

Mike's QP said:


> An old timer taught me that the ammonia in your urine will make the microbubbles go away, I'm not sure if it works in new paints or not


Why not just add a bit of ammonia instead? :whistling2:


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## TJ Paint (Jun 18, 2009)

Rcon said:


> Why not just add a bit of ammonia instead? :whistling2:


the extra trace minerals in urine help with adhesion.


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

TJ Paint said:


> the extra trace minerals in urine help with adhesion.


:laughing:


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## Different Strokes (Dec 8, 2010)

welcome to the forum. :thumbsup:


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## TJ Paint (Jun 18, 2009)

Different Strokes said:


> welcome to the forum. :thumbsup:


Oh yeah, good point. Welcome to PT! 

Stick around after we've solved your problem or made it worse!:thumbup:


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## BC_Painter (Feb 14, 2010)

On several occasions I've had walls that were prepped properly, but then bubbles started pulling away from the wall. When you scrape these off, they are usually previous coating failure from the drywall.

If this is the case, not much you can do other than scrape them off and fix them after they appear. I actually had one wall today with a couple of these pop up.


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## TJ Paint (Jun 18, 2009)

It could be from the heat or direct sun exposure.

The outside film skims over and then the inside paint dries and lets off gasses which will bubble the outside film.

So many things it could be and so little info given.


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## Mike's QP (Jun 12, 2008)

Swamp gas


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

BC_Painter said:


> On several occasions I've had walls that were prepped properly, but then bubbles started pulling away from the wall. When you scrape these off, they are usually previous coating failure from the drywall.
> 
> If this is the case, not much you can do other than scrape them off and fix them after they appear. I actually had one wall today with a couple of these pop up.


That reminds me that I once experienced this on drywall where the new coating lifted the old coating off an old drywall patch. Oddest thing I ever saw since the paint peeled right off and none of the previous coatings had adhered to the patch underneath, even looked like it had just been freshly sanded.


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## BC_Painter (Feb 14, 2010)

Rcon said:


> That reminds me that I once experienced this on drywall where the new coating lifted the old coating off an old drywall patch. Oddest thing I ever saw since the paint peeled right off and none of the previous coatings had adhered to the patch underneath, even looked like it had just been freshly sanded.



Yep, quite often it's off of the drywall where it was sanded like that.

The worst was when a customer hired a drywaller, then they primed it themselves. I'm thinking that sometimes the film forms over the dust on the wall rather than adhering to the drywall. Usually if you work it in enough and sand it, this won't be an issue, but with someone trying to get it done quickly and not knowing how to do it properly, I can see it failing to get past the dust everywhere, then lifting as soon as a new coat is added overtop.


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

This forums is crazy. Post exterior paint issue, and get advice to pee in paint on the first page. 

To the op its most likely moisture.


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## ewingpainting.net (Jun 2, 2008)

AWG Painting said:


> I am faced with a bunch of bubbles on various surfaces on a very large job just completed. We did a full, thorough sanding of all surfaces, full oil based primer, then two topcoats with Ben Moore Aura Exterior Semi-Gloss. Only thing I can think of is heat and humidity but there are only a few bubbles in certain spots, not everywhere.
> 
> Ideas???


Please help me, I am bidding a job that the home owner would like all her wood work painted. My problem is she wants the same color and I can't find the color. Can you tell me the color?
.
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.
.
.
.
.
As my question is impossible to answer yours is to. There are so many reasons why bubbles occur, moisture, heat, gases, surface contamination, product failure, etc. Without picture and/or a description of the surface, conditions, application, preparation, it is not possible to give you any reasonable answers.


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

ewingpainting.net said:


> Please help me, I am bidding a job that the home owner would like all her wood work painted. My problem is she wants the same color and I can't find the color. Can you tell me the color?


Tell her its white, she won't know the difference. :jester:


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## ReNt A PaInTeR (Dec 28, 2008)

ewingpainting.net said:


> Please help me, I am bidding a job that the home owner would like all her wood work painted. My problem is she wants the same color and I can't find the color. Can you tell me the color?


:lol::thumbup:


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## Workaholic (Apr 17, 2007)

Post some pics, what was the application method?


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## AWG Painting (Jul 19, 2011)

Thanks for the input everyone. My gut feeling is that it is due to heat/humidity at time of application combined with possibly not enough dry time in between coats. The temperature was brutally hot/humid and I primed and double coated in one day. The odd thing is that the fascia board in this photo was completely stripped down to bare wood. I also stripped another identical board and also primed and double coated it on the same day and no bubbles at all.


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## AWG Painting (Jul 19, 2011)

Here's another pic


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## AWG Painting (Jul 19, 2011)

Oops that was the same one. Here is the other one


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

heat. no doubt.


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

I think that is from stacking the coats in the humidity. They didn't cure properly. Every time I have seen this its from re-coating to soon.


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## Mike's QP (Jun 12, 2008)

was it a light color before? I had this happen not too long ago, it was and off white that I painted a dark blue, I believe the surface got much hotter than it did before and it separated the two previous coats, there was no bubbles until I had finished painting. So I hit it with a heat gun to strip it down to bare wood as much as I could, when it heated up it bubbled anywhere the existing paint was at.


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## NCPaint1 (Aug 6, 2009)

Dont try to fix it now, leave it for a few days, they may go down on their own.


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## Paint and Hammer (Feb 26, 2008)

NCPaint1 said:


> Dont try to fix it now, leave it for a few days, they may go down on their own.


They probably will go down on their own, but when I've seen this (mostly exterior though) they come back when humidity or heat comes back.


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## Backroll (Sep 1, 2011)

SW All Surface Enamel. This just happened to one of my guys too.

This product leaves a great finish, but dries way too fast. Especially in the
wind. Paint is forming a film before it's body starts it's own drying process.
Moisture can't escape...


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

ewingpainting.net said:


> Please help me, I am bidding a job that the home owner would like all her wood work painted. My problem is she wants the same color and I can't find the color. Can you tell me the color?
> .
> .
> .
> ...


Gabe, 
Then can you at least help me with a pricing question? :whistling2:


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## RDK (Sep 22, 2011)

With PPG products I have found you cant 2 coat right away you need it to dry for 24 hrs between coats. I always have problems even spot priming interior walls with PPG.


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## SandApainters (Mar 3, 2012)

Use a moisture meter to check if it is possibly a moisture problem. 

Is the project a re-paint? It could be that there is a chemical reaction with old coats of paint. Re-scraping, sanding and using slow drying, shellac or oil based primers can help. If the bubbling persists, sometimes the only solution is to go right back to the wood, or replace specific sections of siding.

Check out this website for some more answers. 

http://www.sandapainters.com/main/solutions


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## TJ Paint (Jun 18, 2009)

Shoulda pee'd in the paint...


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## HQP2005 (Feb 14, 2012)

I was asked to correct the same problem a couples years ago. The siding would bubble under direct sunlight then shrink back as it got cooler. I removed to bubbles, primed and repainted. unfortunaltey I made the same mistake and did this in the direct sunlight on a 90 degree day. :blink: Same thing happend.


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## Scotiadawg (Dec 5, 2011)

TJ Paint said:


> Shoulda pee'd in the paint...


Pfft pi*& on that !


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## TJ Paint (Jun 18, 2009)

Pretty sure it's moisture caught underneath the paint film. 

Either that or it's too much heat and blistering.


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## ROOMINADAY (Mar 20, 2009)

TJ Paint said:


> Pretty sure it's moisture caught underneath the paint film.
> 
> Either that or it's too much heat and blistering.


what he said. 3 coats in the heat on the same day and no mention of using extender. The last paint film is barely adhered if at all to previous.


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## ROOMINADAY (Mar 20, 2009)

SandApainters said:


> Use a moisture meter to check if it is possibly a moisture problem.
> 
> Is the project a re-paint? It could be that there is a chemical reaction with old coats of paint. Re-scraping, sanding and using slow drying, shellac or oil based primers can help. If the bubbling persists, sometimes the only solution is to go right back to the wood, or replace specific sections of siding.
> 
> ...


How about an intro. I spent 13 years in Calgary and took CIM courses at UofC.


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## Scotiadawg (Dec 5, 2011)

ROOMINADAY said:


> How about an intro. I spent _*13 years in **Calgary*_ and took CIM courses at UofC.


s'okay, we won't hold that against you:whistling2:


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## jonathanthepainter (Jul 5, 2011)

With oil primer in high humidity, we usually allow the primer to dry for at least 24 hrs. On some projects ( on the lake combined with high humidity) have returned days later with oil primer still tacky I suspect the blisters are caused by the oil primer continuing to out gas under the stacked coats. If you got your rep to come and check it out I bet their take would be - technical term - multiple coat failure, resulting from application not within recommended material specs.

You may be able to pin prick the bubbles and allow them to release the gas they might tighten up and lay down. Which would require an additional coat to seal the surfaces. I doubt they will go away on their own.

My 2 cents.


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