Air bubbles in paint?

sparty426 · July 2010

I'm painting our living room and using Lowe's Valspar brand. In one of the colors I used, it worked beautifully and dried quickly and I couldn't be happier. In the other color that I just finished applying, there were air bubbles in the paint. Tons and tons of them. I stirred it, but that didn't really make a difference. As I painted you could see the bubbles on the wall. I tried to go over areas that had lots of bubbles with a hand brush. It's drying now, so I don't know if the bubbles will show or not, I'm hoping not.

Has this ever happened to any of you when you painted? Any idea why this happens or how to make it not happen? Is Valspar just a bad brand?

ShhLovesJkh · July 2010

I love Valspar paint. It's the only paint I use now after trying several brands. I've never had this happen and I've painted a lot. Maybe give Lowes a call?

ShhLovesJkh · July 2010

Is it drying okay?

laudanum1 · July 2010

http://www.sherwin-williams.com/pro/problem/problems/bubbling/index.jsp

Maybe one of these issues?

I've also noticed that lots of air flow, like a ceiling fan or stand fan, can sometimes make bubbles appear in paint (including even nail polish).

sparty426 · July 2010

Well it was a brand new, full can of paint so my thought was it had something to do with the way they made it, but it has been sitting around for a little over a week. Maybe that had something to do with it. Although, the other can was too and that was fine.

It's pretty much dry now and where I took the little hand brush to smooth things out, you can't see any bubbles. But there are bubbly spots I missed with the hand brush and there are definitely bubbles on the wall. They're tiny, you have to be up close to notice them, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist and it's driving me little crazy. I don't think applying a second coat would help though- I think it would only add more bubbles. Oh well!

terpbrideinnc · July 2010

That's strange, I've never had that problem and like Shh I've always used Valspar. We've also definitely used it after having it around for a week without the issue, too. I would probably bring it back to Lowes & complain if I were you. And if the spots on the wall are bothering you, I'd get out an orbital sander and make a quick pass over it with a fine grit paper to smooth it out before doing a second coat of paint. Or just hand sand. Or just put a painting over it

Nat&Nate · July 2010

Actually this same thing happened to me a couple weeks ago and oddly enough with Valspar paint. The paint was fine when I used a brush for the trim but when I tried to use a roller I had tiny bubbles appear on the wall. Still not quite sure what caused it. I had already used Valspar in the rest of the house and it did fine.

terpbrideinnc · July 2010

I was thinking about it, did you use a roller meant for smooth walls? I was thinking if you used a thicker one meant for textured walls that maybe some air bubbles could have gotten caught in the roller that would have normally been pressed out going over a textured wall? Or maybe you need to roll the roller kind of firmly on the pan to press out excess bubbles b/f going on the wall?

Air bubbles in paint?

Re: Air bubbles in paint?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards