Dulux Paint STAY WHITE Aquatech
Water based paints for woodwork and metal have been becoming more and more popular over the years but as a devout supporter of oil based paints this painter isn’t so convinced. Why’s that you might ask? Well for a start water based paints for woodwork are generally not as hard wearing as oil based paints, they don’t really cover as well which means more labour and they don’t tend to flow as well which means you tend to get obvious brush strokes in your finish.
That said, Dulux recently invited me to try out some of their new formula Dulux STAY WHITE Aquatech, water based paints with a stay white guarantee. Fair enough I thought, I’ll try it and see what happens.
In order to get a good idea of what the Dulux STAY WHITE Aquatech was capabale of I needed to try it out on something and decided to use a red door, which had one side already painted with an oil based undercoat and satinwood, in white.
So I painted the red side of this door using the Dulux STAY WHITE Aquatech undercoat and satinwood.
These are the steps I took:
- First the red door was given a really good clean & rub down with some sandpaper in order to key the surface.
- The door was then dusted and wiped down with a clean damp cloth.
- Before using the Dulux STAY WHITE Aquatech undercoat, it was given a really good stir, this is when I first noticed the paints covering ability. The stick that was used to stir the paint was quite dark and when it was removed from the paint it was completely white, so far so good.
- The first undercoat was applied with a very good quality brush. Starting at the top of the door and working down. The Dulux STAY WHITE Aquatech undercoat went on quickly, a lot quicker than an oil based undercoat, it seemed to cover at least as well as the oil based undercoat and best of all there was no fumes to inhale. Impressive.
- The door was left to dry before the next undercoat was applied.
- Once the second undercoat had dried the door was given a light rub down with a piece of wet and dry sandpaper, 240 grade, then dusted and wiped down with a damp cloth.
- The Dulux STAY WHITE Aquatech satin wood was given a really good stir before being applied to the door, again with a good quality paint brush.
- Once the paint had dried it was again given a rub down with wet and dry sandpaper and then wiped down with a clean damp rag. In case you haven’t noticed I’m doing this by the book.
- The door got its second coat of Dulux STAY WHITE Aquatech satinwood. At this stage with the oil based paint the job would be finished. Does Dulux STAY WHITE Aquatech satinwood cover as well with the same amount of coats? I’ll let you be the judge, take a look at these pictures.
Verdict – I’m impressed. All in all the Dulux STAY WHITE Aquatech undercoat and satinwood actually worked out very well. The primer/undercoat covered better than I expected and likewise the satinwood. It was easy to work with and a lot faster to apply than the equivalent oil based paint. It was also practically odourless which is huge benefit. It was touch dry within a couple of hours and you can recoat the same day unlike oil based paints. It costs a little less than its oil based counterparts, which is another plus. Compared to the oil based finish it actually looks whiter too.
Finally how did the flow of the Dulux STAY WHITE Aquatech compare to oil based paints? Very well is the answer, I was expecting heavy brush strokes to be honest but they didn’t appear. Using a very high quality brush certainly played a part in reducing brush strokes in the finish.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating folks, don’t take my word for it, try it out for yourself.
