How To Get A Smooth Paint Finish

No matter how hard you try or how many times you go back over your work trying to get rid of brush marks, roller marks or lap marks you seem to be going nowhere and give up.

Paint is generally made for what would be described as an average room temperature or outdoor temperature for the geographical location where those paints are sold.

The problem is, whenever there is a difference in temperature either down or up, that paint will be harder to brush out or roll on to the wall etc.

Indoor water based paints, Latex or Emulsions tend to dry too fast when the temperature is warmer than average, resulting in each new section painted may contain streaks because the piece before has dried too quickly. Painters / Decorators describe this as 'losing the wet edge'. Painting ceilings can be especially difficult because all the room's warm air rises up towards the ceiling which causes the recently applied paint to dry much faster thereby causing more lap marks etc.

Should you be applying water based paints on to a wall on a nice sunny day, perhaps with a slight breeze, or worse still you've got the sun shining on your back and the wall you are trying to paint; you will have a hard job because this weather condition means that you will lose that 'wet edge' almost immediately as soon as you apply a roller full of paint. It is wise to choose a day that is neither too cold nor too hot for exterior wall painting etc.

If you are applying oil based paints or varnish, especially outside on a warm dry day, you will notice that your paint becomes very heavy and the brush will drag making the painting job a lot more tiring. This is because the solvent in the paint evaporates quicker in the warmer conditions and it will be necessary to thin the paint a bit to make it flow easier.

To get your paint to flow, one historically adds a little water to water based paints and some mineral (white) spirit to oil based paints. This generally gets your paint to flow out better.

Thinning paint in this manner can have negative effect, for example; the paint loses some of its 'hiding power' which can be annoying when using 'weak hiding' colour paints (reds, yellows etc) because you will probably need extra coats of paint to get a finish and block out previous colors etc. With gloss & other oil based paints etc, thinning in this way will make your paint flow better but it will weaken the hiding power and dulls a lot of the shine after a time.

Another alternative would be to utilise a paint additive or also called a paint conditioner which is designed to make your paint flow out and hide & cover better in less than ideal conditions etc. Additives or conditioners for oil based paints or varnish can be bought in some stores or probably best online. The water based paint conditioner is ideal for any colour paint but will not be suitable in water based varnish because of its milky appearance. However the color of the paint will not change. Water based (Latex) paint additives are designed to keep the wet edge open and usually enable you get a finish with no brush marks or streaks. Some of the better known water based paint additives help paint hiding power significantly especially in weaker colours like reds, yellows and so on and usually you save a lot of time and hard work because of the fewer coats required. Oil based paint additives will work well in any oil based paint and varnish. Check your paint to see if cleanup is with white spirit (mineral spirit) etc and if so, it means it is oil based and suitable for that paint.