Painting over polyurethane -- unique situation, help!


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Old 04-20-10, 01:16 PM
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Unhappy Painting over polyurethane -- unique situation, help!

Hi there,

I am getting ready to sell my home. I had horribly ugly kitchen cabinets and could not afford to replace them, so when I moved in I put a crackle finish on them and polyurethaned over it. My realtor thinks it's ugly and wants me to paint them.

Everything I have read says that for proper adhesion, I need to sand the polyurethane or put on some sort of chemical. Neither one of these are options for me. I have asthma, small kids, and sanding creates dust which WILL give me a bad asthma attack. (Yes I would wear a mask while doing the actual sanding, but there will be at least some lingering dust in the house, and that will set off my asthma sooner or later). Solvents are out of the question for the same reason. (Also, I can't afford to hire someone to run a negative air machine while the cabinets are being sanded --- this is the only possible way I could even see sanding them).

So what can I do? I am open to painting them, but I don't want to sand or use solvents. I am open to any other suggestions!! Can I use oil-based paint? Is there a chance latex paint could hold up if I don't sand?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Old 04-20-10, 01:35 PM
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I'm not sure you can get rid of the crackle effect without sanding. Sanding also promotes better adhesion. Latex paints/primer don't adhere well to poly. You need to use a solvent based primer. A pigmented shellac [like zinnser's BIN] would be best but most any decent oil base primer will do ok. The top coat can be oil base, waterborne or latex enamel.

I wonder if you used some wet/dry sanding paper along with water [wet sanding] if that would work. That should prevent airborne dust. You would have to deal with the water - protection and clean up.
 
 

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