botched exterior paint job! help!

we hired someone to paint the exterior of our house last week. The job was almost complete when I discovered that the paint they were using is an economy INTERIOR latex paint. The painter's excuse was that he simply did not realize they had given him interior paint....We now have to fix this ourselves. We are obviously going to buy exterior paint to re-do everything. Is it OK to put exterior paint on top of interior paint without priming again? Someone told me this will cause the paint to bubble and chip. We are going to use Sherwin Williams products.

any comments/suggestions are appreciated! Thanks.

 

Welcome to the diy forums

I assume you didn't pay the painter!

In southern climates the interior paint may hold up so it is probably ok to just paint over it. Since you are planning on using SWP talk the situation over with them. They should be able to advise you better for your location.

 

Ummmm....small claims court? Why on earth are you going to have to fix this yourself?

Although suprising, it is not unheard of that this situation occured. It is possible that exterior/intererior coatings were confused, as many labels have become similar in graphics.

For example, the Interior Duration/ Exterior Duration cans are similar, although not identical.

I just can't wrap my head around your contractor walking away. If possible, stop payment on check, dont pay for job, whatever it takes. If he wont stand by job, take him to court. I am not a huge advocate of lawsuit justice, but in your case this would be negligence NOT to fix the problem once it became known.

At a MINIMUM I would Power Wash your home. As the paint was applied within a week, a powerwashing would take much off for a fresh coat of exterior paint.

I would be leery of leaving it on, as interior is not very flexible, especially considering you said it was an economy grade. It would be best to remove it before topcoating with the proper material.

Stand your ground! Do not belive anything your "contractor" trys to tell you about it being ok, or it will be fine. He will simply try to cover his arse.

Good Luck!

 

If someone replaced your oil filter with the wrong size claiming they didn't read the label, wouldn't you have them replace it?
If someone sprayed your house with roach spray instead of ant spray because the warehouse gave them the wrong stuff, wouldn't you have them re-do the house with the right stuff?
If someone washed your dog with conditioner instead of shampoo, wouldn't you expect them to make it right?

The painter NEEDS to re-do your house in the right paint. You hired them to do a job right with the correct materials. You should never pay for someone to do a job wrong with the wrong materials. It's the PAINTER'S fault he used the wrong materials, not yours (unless you were the person who picked up the paint, but that does not sound like the case).

I hope you did not pay the painter yet! You should only pay for services *after* you are sure they meet your expections, and the contract.

If you did pay, stop payment and take it up with the BBB. If they still won't budge the BBB may advise you to take 'em to court.

Good luck!

 

Give the Sherwin Williams Paint rep all the information
They will suggest something depending on the exact situation

I've seen them suggest everything from a full strip to an oil primer latex topcoat

Also, as others have mentioned, regardless of why the mistake occurred, the contractor is responsible for making it right

 

You may also take it up with the original selling store. It may be that they erred and sold wrong product.

In these cases, sometimes you can get the paint store to defray the cost of repainting.

I once sold a bridge job, (lots of them actually, as I was 1 of 2 stores in Il authorized to handle state bridge repaints. Anyway our factory told me that the product batch I sold had been approved by the state. Long story short, factory was wrong. It was another batch, and the one that had been applied DIDN'T meet spec. I had to personally write a 25K check (corporate check) to the contractor to cover new material, and labor to repaint the bridge.

You can bet heads rolled at the factory for that one. But mistakes happen, and if it was the stores fault, you may get help from them.

I would hesitate "going off the ranch" and shopping different stores until you figure out how wrong product was sold!