Yes Tinker.... You're one of the waaaayyyy too many victims of the "Realtor-induced" Paint-the-trim-and-sell-it phenomenon. I REALLLY WISH most sellers would leave well enough alone. Slapping-up a quick coat of paint usually causes MORE headaches for the new buyers. Sure....it looks good for a bit right before a sale, but then the reality of NO PREP sinks in! Latex paint IS RUBBERY for quite some time! That's the major advantage....flexibility. If it was as hard as Oils, it wouldn't breathe. The Truth/Remedy can be a b*tch....peel-off/sand-off/strip-off the existing paint. The existing paint not peeling now soon will be. And yes, obviously, choose Top-notch 100%-Acrylic paint in a Satin or higher sheen. Once the old oil paint is thoroughly scuff-sanded with 100-grit paper & all dust removed...you're at last ready for 2 coats of your new paint. Priming...wellllll....never hurts, but if you sand well, AND get real good paint, you're good-to-go! Faron

You probably do not need a primer. I'm not even sure that I would use an oil based coating. A high quality acrylic floor coating would probably be fine. Dutch Boy is certainly not considered high quality, but the issue could have been curing. If you pull tape and do not score the line where you want the tape to break away, you can pull the paint off. The paint will stick better and bond better and become more durable as it cures (up to a month). Paints in bathrooms can take longer to cure because you are showering in there and putting moisture in the air which can sometimes re-wet the paint film. Use the fan, take shorter showers, shower with the door open, etc..whatever you can do to help that paint cure. There are no-skid, non-slip additives you can add to the paint if you are worried the surface will be too slick.

Thanks Michael! It's for a project at our current house where i have some latex that needs to be used up coupled with the stained lumber. Wanting to use it all up before it gets bad. Thanks again!

Professional, licensed painting contractor here. Only age 30, we do very high end work. I do surface testing myself using scientific method and also read a TON of textbooks, literature, etc. The best primer to use is oil-based or alkyd-based, and I’ll tell you why. THEN, I’ll tell you why unfortunately some in the industry LIE. And it has to do with money, special interests, and EPA regulations. IN SHORT: Oil-based primer is better than latex primer because of the binder (oil), preventing moisture from intruding into the wood. (Oil and water don’t mix) Wood swells and expands when it’s surface gets wet. The oil primer prevents the rain from entering wood. This prevents paint chipping and peeling. Latex primer- even if it bonds great to the wood- still doesn’t prevent rain from soaking into the latex paint and latex primer, and then into the wood. When the wood expands, the paint chips/peels because paint has low elasticity. For a more scientific explanation: Ever seen how accidental oil spills in the ocean, result in the oil sitting on top? This is because oil and water do not mix. They cannot mix. This is because water (liquid H2O) is held together by hydrogen bonds. Whereas oils and fats not have any polar part and so for them to dissolve in water they would have to break some of waters hydrogen bonds, which they will not do, so they remain separate. All of the paint advancements in the world, cannot change the fact that the binder in latex paint remains water, thus it is WATER SOLUBLE. This is a problem when it rains. You can paint interior cabinets (just not in bathrooms) with a urethane acrylic (water based) paint and it’s generally fine. But outside wood, where it’s going to rain? It’s a very, very bad idea to use latex based. WHY THE INDUSTRY LIES: Paint Manufacturers (Corporations) receive money directly from our USA government as well as European governments, in order to promote what they call “environmentally friendly policies”. As oil-based paints are less “environmentally friendly” due to a higher VOC count, this results in paint manufacturers and paint stores feeling obligated- generally FINANCIALLY OBLIGATED- to push customers to purchase latex primers over oil based primers, even when oil based primers are much more effective according to science. Oil-based solid stains have actually been cut out of circulation completely… you cannot buy them in the USA anymore. For oil-based semitransparent stains (which are much better than water based stains), only a few states manufacture them and our state needs to have them shipped in. This is because of EPA regulations. I want to reiterate that I am certainly in support of helping the environment, and I understand the importance of that. I think both sides of the aisle can and should agree on that. However, I don’t agree with government corruption or misleading consumers in order to push incorrect claims. Any agendas should be based on truth and honesty, nothing else. There’s a reason the girl, in a comment above, mentioned How she had applied oil based primer to her deck and siding and it held up perfectly, whereas the latex primer and paint over that had peeled. Because latex primer on wood outside, fundamentally does not work on a molecular level. Corruption and EPAA regulations and government funding are the reason why companies incorrectly tell you to do this. But if you get a skilled and intelligent painting contractor, that really knows what they are doing, they’re going to tell you otherwise. And again, I’m 30, I grew up in a time period where I could do experiments/ tests on both oil and latex primers and come to factual conclusions based on the data. I have no bias, except I want to do the best job and make the most money obviously. And jobs hold up better and look better with oil based primer on EXTERIOR wood.