interior paint not drying; now what?

[wannaroam]

Last fall I began to paint the interior of our AS. I went according to directions on the forum. First I scrubbed everything with the heavy duty cleaner recommended here (can't think of the name right now). When dry, I put on a coat of Kilz primer.

The last few days have been hot and humid and I notice that several areas of the walls appear tacky. It seems that the areas that are tacky are the ones that I couldn't access as well to scrub hard, like the ceiling, and the molding edges around the windows. I think that they may have not gotten cleaned enough and that is why the paint still feels sticky.

Has anyone else had this problem; and what did you do?

I thought that I should rescrub them again, and reprime again. Any other suggestions to improve the process?

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by wannaroam

Last fall I began to paint the interior of our AS. I went according to directions on the forum. First I scrubbed everything with the heavy duty cleaner recommended here (can't think of the name right now). When dry, I put on a coat of Kilz primer.

The last few days have been hot and humid and I notice that several areas of the walls appear tacky. It seems that the areas that are tacky are the ones that I couldn't access as well to scrub hard, like the ceiling, and the molding edges around the windows. I think that they may have not gotten cleaned enough and that is why the paint still feels sticky.

Has anyone else had this problem; and what did you do?

I thought that I should rescrub them again, and reprime again. Any other suggestions to improve the process?

If the interior is going to be painted, the rules are simple, but must be followed, or else.

If the walls were sticky to start with, and they were not cleaned properly, then the result will still be a sticky wall.

Unfortunately, the walls "MUST" be scrubbed to perfection, when they are going to be painted.

I think you answered your own question.

The fix?

Take the paint off and start from the beginning.

Andy

[wannaroam]

Andy

Yes, the walls were sticky before I scrubbed them. Actually, I bet I've scrubbed them at least four times altogether. After the last scrub they no longer felt sticky, so I assumed that I had them clean enough.

Sigh.

[Gkiesel]

As humid as it's been around here i don't think anything would dry in under a month. Does your unit have airconditioning? Or do you have a dehumidifier? If so, run it. The dry air might help. You've got nothing to lose. Good Luck. George

[Over59]

So you have the wonderful vinyl wall covering. Does the paint mark up if you rub it? If not consider living with it and don't touch the walls.

[2airishuman]

hi 'roam...

it's been 6 months since the painting?

that seems like plenty of time to dry.

is the 'tacky' a new finding, in other words did the paint surface feel dry and smooth during the winter?

u mention primer, but what about a top coat, what was used?

was any solvent or thinner or other agents (like fungicide or adherent) added to the paint?

while not cleaning and prepping the surface well might lead to early problems with paint peeling or adhesion....

the tacky nature of the original wall vinyl isn't gonna migrate THROUGH a good topcoat of paint.

but PRIMER paint has attributes that help the next coat adhere...

again much of this depends on the topcoat paint specific details.

cheers
2air'

[Gkiesel]

I guess I misunderstood your first post. I thought you just finished the paint job and was having trouble with the new stuff drying.

[RBolton]

Have you tried scrubbing the newly painted surfaces that are tacky? Many of us have scurbbed ourselves silly only have the walls become sticky again. There are several posts that address sticky walls. Just as many explanations as to why they get that way. It could be that your paint has dried but your walls are becoming sticky again. Roger

[Inland RV Center, In]

Sticky walls will stay that way, until "ALL" the stickiness is remove.

I know, scrub, scrub and more scrubbing is what it takes.

Just because the walls may be painted a color, won't stop them from getting sticky again.

It's all in the cooking and/or cigarette smoking.

Most owners paint the walls, to get a different color. If that's their choice, then they need to know, that the same sticky problem will happen.

However, once the walls are cleaned, they can easily be protected, with a wax or acrylic, that's good enough for a floor.

Once the wax or acrylic is applied, future cleaning of the walls becomes a piece of cake.

The following, tells you how.

Airstream Interiors for $5.00

Andy

[2airishuman]

using vinyl specific floor wax on VINYL wall covering is common knowledge.

it should be easy to understand that a vinyl wax is ok for vinyl walls...

but using floor wax on a PAINTED surface...

without knowing the type of paint and finish and compatibility with the wax product...

could be a huge booo booo.

so far the o.p. is still at the kilz primer stage...

cheers
2air'

[wannaroam]

My mistake; I should have clarified earlier; the only paint that is on it is the first coat of primer (Kilz). That's as far as I got last fall. Again, it felt ok to me when I first put it on, but sticky in many places now.

The weather here is horrendously humid; 93% last I checked and it is beginning to rain again.

Ok, so what I thought I would do is scrub everything all over again, and put a fresh coat of Kilz on and pray it feels better. Then top coat it.

I simply don't have the heart or energy to strip off the first coat of Kilz and start over.....

[toastie]

Originally Posted by wannaroam

My mistake; I should have clarified earlier; the only paint that is on it is the first coat of primer (Kilz). That's as far as I got last fall. Again, it felt ok to me when I first put it on, but sticky in many places now.

The weather here is horrendously humid; 93% last I checked and it is beginning to rain again.

Ok, so what I thought I would do is scrub everything all over again, and put a fresh coat of Kilz on and pray it feels better. Then top coat it.

I simply don't have the heart or energy to strip off the first coat of Kilz and start over.....

What are you painting?

[TomW]

Originally Posted by Inland RV Center, In

Sticky walls will stay that way, until "ALL" the stickiness is remove....It's all in the cooking and/or cigarette smoking ...

Vintage Airstreams suffer from the vinyl off-gassing a sticky residue. There was a great post by a chemist made around 2004 that explained the situation well, but I can not find it.

The punch-line was that the process never stops. Your "looks great today" paint job may not hold up as long as you would like.

Tom

[wannaroam]

toastie

We are painted almost all of the interior. We didn't actually do it to get rid of stickiness but to brighten up and individualize the interior.

[PINKBIKE]

did you prime with oil based kilz or the water based kilz?My guess is you used the waterbased,which re activated the grease,and never sealed it in... please inform me on your choice?

[toastie]

Originally Posted by wannaroam

toastie

We are painted almost all of the interior. We didn't actually do it to get rid of stickiness but to brighten up and individualize the interior.

We painted our 1965 Caravel zolatone walls with a Benjamin Moore Metal and Wood Enamel paint, pricey, but what a great paint. No problems what so ever and going on 3 years. Never try-ed it on wood however, but worth a try

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/bmpsweb...h_findproducts

[TomW]

Originally Posted by toastie

We painted our 1965 Caravel zolatone walls ...

Zolatone is different than vinyl-clad aluminum.

One can simply wash zolatone well and expect a top layer of paint to last a long time. Off-gassing does not apply to zolatone.

Tom

[wannaroam]

Guilty as charged, I used water based Kilz.
I assume that you can't switch now to the oil based. Or can you? And would that help?

[Happycampers]

Hello... been there and done that... we washed and rinsed our vinyl clad walls last summer and primed with Kiltz... and painted... everything was great until March ... we were in Canada for the winter and did not have the Argosy ready to go south for the winter... the inside was peeling... well we should have sanded but did not.... we scrapped all the paint and primer off and are in the process of sanding and will NOT use Kilz again.. using a Sherwin Williams bonding primer...

[wannaroam]

For anyone in the same boat as I am, you can indeed put oil based product over the water based, per the Kilz phone in tech line.