Floetrol by Flood: The Magic Paint Additives
Flood Paint Additives that Make House Painting Easier
House painting projects attempted by homeowners may initially seem like a piece of cake. Until you get started, you realize that achieving an even finish on an exterior painting or an interior painting project is more involved than it appears.
A few innocent mistakes during paint application, and you could end up with a streaky, peeling mess on the walls, ceiling, trim, or cabinets. A more ambitious job like painting an entire home exterior during the summer months will require extra steps and planning to avoid future headaches.
Professional house painting results aren’t easy to achieve, but there is a paint additive that will help elevate any exterior painting or interior painting project. Expert house painters often turn to Flood’s Floetrol, a product that transforms acrylic paint into a medium that grants effortless, brushmark-free, and smooth finishes.
Floetrol will significantly increase paint leveling while decreasing flow issues in a way that confidently inspires your painting workflow.
Floetrol for Water-Based Paint
Acrylic paints can be difficult to work with as a beginner because they dry more quickly, causing uneven finishes. The work of a newbie painter may be evident with tell-tale signs like brush or roller marks that compromise the overall appearance of a fresh coat of paint. Floetrol is a latex paint additive that serves as a conditioner to aid water-based paints’ flow and paint leveling.
While it may be tempting to add water to a can of acrylic paint to make it easier to apply, you may be on the road to destroying the color you’ve purchased or the overall durability of your paint job.
Adding excessive amounts of water will significantly reduce paint adhesion properties, which will affect the longevity of your hard work. Even if you add just the right amount of water, you stand a chance of paint pigments being altered, ultimately compromising your paint color. Floetrol will slow down that paint drying process and lower paint viscosity, making the paint easier to spread and work with, minus the negative impacts.
It’s important to note that you should only add Floetrol to water-based paints. Additionally, it’s not a good paint additive candidate if you’re attempting to achieve a high-gloss finish as it will reduce the gloss in the coating. To avoid this problem, first, dilute the Floetrol with a small amount of water, and then mix the Floetrol with the paint.
Using Floetrol for Interior Painting Projects
Floetrol is suitable for any project, but it especially comes in handy for challenging house painting projects.
If you’re struggling with the paint dragging on interior painting projects like on the wall, trim, doors, or cabinets due to it setting too fast, Floetrol can make a big difference in giving you more time to smooth the paint out before it dries.
Its conditioning properties help create a seamless, paint leveling finish that will eliminate noticeable brush marks.
Using Floetrol for Exterior Painting Projects
If you’re tackling an exterior painting project, there are even more benefits to using Floetrol. If you live in a hot climate or a cold and dry climate, you may already know that exterior paint jobs can be difficult as it is often tricky to get a proper coating when the weather isn’t cooperating. The results can range from mediocre to cringe-worthy, so the added help from a conditioner like Floetrol is often essential.
Instead of wasting money on extra paint to attempt to cover up an uneven layer, Floetrol can make your paint materials perform better. The substance will help the paint glide on the surface and extend the time you have before it dries, allowing you some leeway to correct any mistakes due to painting in extreme heat or direct sunlight.
This paint additive also works well if you’ve chosen to use spray guns to apply the paint, as Floetrol acts as a lubricant and will help avoid clogs and wear and tear to paint sprayer parts.
Penetrol for Oil Based Paints
Most oil-based paints have a pungent odor, and the potential health and environmental effects are why they’re currently not used often for house painting projects. However, when your house is older or painting over metal surfaces, it may be vital to learn how and where oil-based paints work best.
You may have heard the saying “oil and water don’t mix,” which also applies to home painting projects. If a home has already been painted with oil-based paint, you should not simply paint over it with a water-based formula. Water-based paint applied over an oil-based paint will not adhere and will crack and peel into rubbery strips.
Although, if you’re looking to do a quick paint job but don’t want to waste your money and time re-painting a surface that will quickly degrade, an industrial-grade oil paint will offer the best long-term results. Oil-based paint is known for its slow-drying properties and its durability. However, it has less flexibility than latex-based paint and is harder to apply.
You may notice that attempting to brush the trim in a room with oil-based paint slows down the process and often leads to hand cramps due to it being more difficult to spread than acrylic formulas. Although there is a relief, Flood offers an oil-specific paint additive that makes brushing with oil paints easier.
Flood’s first product on the market more than 100 years ago was Penetrol, an oil-based coating additive created to improve the flow of the paint and help it penetrate and adhere better to the surface. It still works well today to smooth out the paint’s consistency which eliminates the appearance of brush and roller marks.
Penetrol is the best paint additive while brushing any dark color in oil-based paint.
Enhanced Paint Bonding Properties
No matter what kind of paint you’re going to use, the critical factor to its durability is the bond it forms with the surface. House paints ability to bond can be compromised when painting over a chalky substrate.
A chalking paint surface is caused by long-term exposure to heat and oxygen. Paint chalking is exacerbated by continuous exposure to excess moisture or UV rays, impacting paint binders and pigments, also known as oxidation.
Exterior paint oxidation is most prevalent and is easy to detect. When a powder appears on your hands upon touch, paint oxidation is well underway.
There’s another easy way you can test for oxidation. If your wall is dark, choose a light-colored rag, and conversely, if you have a light wall, choose a dark rag.
Take the clean rag and run it across the wall. If particles of paint appear on your rag, you know you’re working with a surface that is already chalking, and the outcome of your project depends on what you do next.
You’ll need to use a primer for the best possible exterior or interior painting results. Thankfully, this doesn’t need to be a completely separate step in your house painting process. Flood created E-B Emulsa Bond as a bonding paint additive that painters can stir in and apply on the first coat.
Mixing the solution into your paint will also increase drying time. According to Flood, painters who use the E-B Emulsa Bond also generally use 20% less material than if they had applied the paint without the E-B Emulsa Bond.
Painters should mix E-B Emulsa bond with latex paint. The typical mixing ratio is about 1-quart Emulsa-Bond to 1-gallon of latex paint. You can then apply your paint with a brush, roller, or spray and let it sit for about 4 hours before applying a topcoat.
This bonding primer is not ideal for use with gloss paints.
The History of Flood & PPG
PPG has been in the home materials business for nearly 140 years. The company began creating plate glass in Pennsylvania and acquired an interest in its first paint company ten years later.
In the company’s long history of business, PPG has provided glass and paint for automobiles, WWII military aircraft, and early flat-plate solar panels. It developed the protective printing material used in passports and photochromic lenses that automatically darken to block harmful UV rays when exposed to sunlight.
In 2011, PPG acquired several home improvement brands, including Flood, another long-time business that a family of painters started in 1841. Over the decades, Flood has built a reputation of being “The Wood Care Specialist” due to the brand’s specialty wood stain and paint additive products.
Together PPG and Flood provide products used by nearly half of all paint contractors in the United States. Their products now serve as the secret ingredient for people who spend their days as professional painters and homeowners mastering their first do-it-yourself paint job.
Are Paint Additives Worth the Cost?
When you’re about to start a house painting project, you might wonder if purchasing paint additives are worth the extra investment. ” I mean, will they help that much?”
The reality is a paint additive offers a substantial performance increase, decreasing the overall time and effort you spend on your project and the amount of paint you’ll need to get it done well.
The appropriate paint additive will, at minimum, shave off a couple of steps from your painting process. At most, it will reduce the likelihood of hiring a professional to redo your hard work completely.
You’ll likely spend years looking at the paint job you’re about to complete. While it’s unlikely you’ll remember forking over a little more money now for the suitable paint additive, you’ll regret not purchasing it if you end up with streaks and flaws in your finished work that you’ll obsess over for years to come.
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