Chalking Paint: Common Defect in Paint


Paint gives us a feeling of newness and sense of completeness in our house. We paint our walls, furniture, etc. basically for protection and decoration. It makes our surroundings more attractive, live and vibrant. When it comes to painting your home, different types of paint defects could happen to the paint due to a wide variety of reasons. Several paint defects like blistering, chalking, bleeding, flaking, etc. are observed during or after the paint application. Among them, Chalking Paint is one of the most common paint defects!

The formation of a white, chalky powder on the surface paint film is known as “Chalking Paint”. It simply means, once the chalk like substances (white patches on the surface) becomes visible on the painted surface then paint film turns into powder form. Chalking paint mainly occurs due to insufficient oil in primer.

Also Read: Choosing the Right Primer for Different Surfaces

Paint chalking occurs due to excessive sunlight, moisture, and oxygen in the moisture. All these conditions degrade the binder and also release the binder’s hold on the pigment. Consequently, white patches become visible on the painted surface and then paint film becomes powdered! Over the time almost all the paint will have a defect called “Paint Chalking” if subjected to outdoor exposure.
Following are the few reasons of chalking paint:  

  • Applying paint over oily, greasy or very smooth surface
  • Combination of unsuitable pigment during manufacturing of paint
  • Another causes of chalking paint is applying paint over loose particles like dust or rust
  • It occurs due to not sanding previous coat of gloss paint
  • Inclusion of foreign particles i.e. dust, dirt, metal chips, etc. in the paint
  • Applying paint over partially dried coat
  • Paint not mixed properly when colour pigment is added!

Paint defects generally arise because of taking shortcuts or missing issues that needs to resolve before painting. So always make a good surface preparation.

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