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protective clear coat on painted furniture

13 years ago

Is there a benefit to doing this -- finishing painted furniture with a final coat of polyacrylic or similar?

It seems to me the resins in polyacrylic must be the same stuff as the resins in latex paint, so I'm not sure it would be any stronger/more protective than the paint itself. But it seems to be a widespread practice from what I read on blogs and DIY sites.

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Comments (5)

paintguy22
13 years ago
There is no benefit.
girlndocs
Original Author
13 years ago
See, that's what I thought. So then why is it so popular? I don't get it.
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paintguy22
13 years ago
Probably a few reasons. Latex paint by itself was not always this durable. 100 percent acrylic paint is very durable. Also, advice you may get from blogs written by decorators and designers may not be the best because designing and decorating is their thing...the actual painting part is not their top priority. This is also why DIY shows about painting draws a lot of criticism from actual painters....rolling a 'W' on the wall without using a rolling pole for example. I also see things that get said and then that person tells another person and then that person tells two more people and before long you have millions of people thinking that you need to topcoat your latex paint with a clear in order to protect it.
Faron79
13 years ago
Yeah...this almost gets into the "urban-legend" kinda thing!
...a "half (AT BEST...)-truth" gets sorta blended somewhere along the line. After awhile, it just seems to be accepted! ESPECIALLY by people that only have occasional forays into similiar projects.

The MAIN reason to avoid clearcoating:

(the part that's NEVER addressed anywhere...)

>>> CURE TIME. Paints/primers, as a coating-"system", need to fully cure b4 being "trapped" by a clear topcoat(s).
* Depending on many factors, this can be a MONTH OR MORE!
* If coated too soon, moisture in the paint gets re-wetted by the clear-coat, and may start to peel.
* Clouding may also occur if clearcoats are too thick.

>>> Soooooo...to summarize...Not many people are gonna want to haul out the painting equipment a month later to do some clearcoats!
>>> The benefit is just too small vs. all the re-work.
>>> If you've used top-notch paints with a higher-sheen, there's almost ZERO benefit.

Faron
girlndocs
Original Author
13 years ago
I agree with you, Faron, even before paintguy confirmed it. If I'm going to the effort to prep conscientiously and wait to let my paint job cure, I don't want to go back and mess with it again unless it makes a BIG difference.

So am I right that the resin in the clear coat stuff is essentially the same as the resin in acrylic paint?

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