Buy new cabinets. You aren’t fixing mistake on top of mistake.

And don’t interfere in a processionals recommendations as to how to do his job. If you don’t like his recommendation, pick someone else. But never tell him what processes or material to use. He tells you.

When you say water base paint you aren’t being specific about what kind! I don’t think your painter could have done a proper job given the parameters that were set and he should have been insistent about that! The cabinets should have been primed properly with a solvent ( oil)based primer. The doors could have been done off site. If you wanted something less toxic they could have been painted with BM Advance or Ace cabinet paint( Alcatex). I use a high quality brush.

That is a tough spot to be in, sorry you have all the headache to deal with! If I had to choose I would just have him do the varnish and pay for a hotel or an Airbnb for two days - cheaper than having to do over again with someone new and sounds like he can guarantee that finish will look good. Do the boxes look ok? Can he do the conversion varnish on the fronts offsite?

A professional paint job would be close to your 10K figure. Paying someone to remove what’s on there, and then to recoat, would cost MORE. And you should pay. You interfered in his standard process instead of hiring someone else who had your preferred process and materials.

Buying new is your better option.

Or DIY painting yourself.

Tell us exactly what finish was applied. Only then can someone comment on how to resolve the problem.

Saying what prep work was done will also help.

Yes PPF. My concern would be putting good over bad! The prep that would have to be done before a new finish may be cost prohibitive:(!

He used Chemcraft Aquaset water-based primer and paint. The doors were indeed sprayed off-site, so I’m not sure what sort of prep work went into them. The box of the cabinets in our home actually looks fine and they prepped it very thoroughly - in fact it seemed like the prep work took the longest. I’m not sure what exactly happened off-site; I know he has guys that work in his shop and spray the cabinets while he works in the home and does the box/frame, so I wonder if maybe his guys just aren’t as thorough or perhaps they were even more unfamiliar with waterbased paint.

The cabinets WERE very oily and greasy before they were painted; they’re 15 years old and the previous owner fried food constantly and apparently never once cleaned their cabinets. The film on them was so thick we couldn’t even get it off without stripping the color off the cabinet. The painter told us it would all come off in the prep work for painting, but now he thinks some of it was absorbed into the cabinet wood and that’s why it’s splotchy with waterbased paint. I consulted with another professional painter who does waterbased paint and he said he had never heard of anything like that in his 35 years of cabinetry, so I’m a little bit skeptical.

I realize just doing the conversion varnish is the easiest answer but I’m very concerned the fumes will bother us, especially since I’m currently pregnant (hence why we chose waterbased to begin with, even though it’s not as durable). I’m think I’m wondering if this answer of “oil in the wood grain” makes sense for why the waterbased paint is splotchy, or if inadequate prep work on the cabinets is more likely to blame. If it’s inadequate prep work, I think I’ll ask him to re-do it in waterbased again and hope that the prep work is cleaner. If it does make sense that some sort of oil in the wood could make waterbased paint look splotchy, I’ll have to decide whether to let him re-do it in CV or just leave it as is until we can afford new cabinets (a lifetime from now thanks to the new baby haha).

I would contact Chemcraft directly, explain the issue and provide pictures. Ask them the best way to fix.

I would clean, sand, spray a barrier coat of shellac, then continue with the Chemcraft finish.

The painter should purchase a new batch of finish as it has a 6 month life and you are nearing the end of that.

My guess is that they skipped the shellac and just applied the Chemcraft primer and topcoat.

Thank you! I didn’t realize contacting Chemcraft directly was an issue; I just sent an email with pictures.

I am not a very confrontational person (it took me awhile to build up the courage to call the painter and tell him the cabinets were discolored) so I’m unsure exactly how to approach it with him. He said he does want to make it right but he feels like conversion varnish is the only way to do that. I suspect that it’s just that he’s more comfortable with CV and wasn’t honest initially about his inexperience with waterbased paint, and now he is in a tough spot. He’s very nice but I can tell he’s frustrated to have accepted a job that has also been his worst nightmare! Do you think it’s reasonable to ask him about the shellac?

You have made a BIG mistake and now you want to compound that mistake. Surely, you have an inexpensive motel nearby that you could stay in for a few days. If not, this was a very bad project to consider doing.

BTW - I would never recommend using a water-based paint for hand-painting cabinets. An oil-based enamel will wear much better, but it does need tie to cure properly. Frankly, living in a house while painting kitchen cabinets while pregnant with very young children, is not a good idea.

Anglophilia - with all due respect, I have never claimed to be perfect. In retrospect perhaps this was not a good project to take on with two toddlers, an elderly and dying dog, stressful careers, and being 7 months pregnant with a surprise. We were led to believe this would be done in two days max with little fumes, and it’s something we’ve been thinking about doing for awhile so we decided to have it done before the baby arrives, There was no warning of discoloration, brown streaks, etc., or else we wouldn’t have done it at all.

Thank you for your opinion, but hearing how stupid of a decision this was is not helpful to our current situation.

EDIT: There was no hand painting, only spraying. The doors were sprayed off-site. I apologize if that wasn’t clear in my original post.

I'd wait to hear from Chemcraft. If they have a workable suggestion, talk it over with the painter, focusing less on what he did, or did not do, and more on how to resolve the problem so everyone is happy.

If the cabinet boxes look OK, and it's just the doors and maybe drawer heads, then any work could be done at his shop.

It may be the prep work done in the shop was different than that done on site. Chemicals used might not work under a water born finish, where CV would not be affected, for example.

Thank you very much. I’ll wait for Chemcraft to respond and go from there.

Do wait for Chemcraft to respond but this sounds like a primer fail to me. The description of the cabinets condition certainly gives me pause but I would never use a water based primer on cabinets that have already been previously finished! You can’t have a perfect finish without perfect prep!

First, anyone who would spray solvent based conversion varnish in a home should be criminally prosecuted. Seriously, spraying conversion varnish in a shop is bad enough, spraying it in a home shows a complete disregard for the health and safety of others. Furthermore, conversion varnish has been demonstrated to cause birth defects, so if you are pregnant, no... just no.

Conversion varnish is illegal in Europe and it should be illegal here. Manufacturers use the trick of binding the carcinogens and thus only count the free carcinogens to meet the safety requirements, something that we inexplicably allow.

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Aquaprime is 66% solids by weight and Aquaset is 42% solids by weight. Many manufacturers would call that conversion varnish, for example, General Finishes Enduro Conversion varnish is 28% solids by weight.

Anyone who can spray conversion varnish should be able to spray the water based versions, they are the same viscosity, they have very similar solids and perform similar. I suspect the problem is that the prep was bad. Were the cabinets cleaned with a vinegar or denatured alcohol solution prior to spraying?

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With 66% solids by weight, nothing should be showing through the Aquaprime. Even the 42% is a lot of solids and I find it hard to believe that things below the paint are surfacing. I suspect he didn't have good adherence and the light sanding removed all of the primer, but it would be impossible for me to know.

I really don't have advice for you other than to say trust your gut on the conversion varnish. I suspect it was a prep problem but also suspect that it isn't going to become less of a prep problem the second time around. I would consider messaging jdesign_gw he might be able to give you some better insights.

Best of luck

Thank you bry911, I have messaged that user directly. After more research I also suspect it’s a prep issue, but I certainly can‘t say that when the painter is insisting it’s not. Your statements about conversion varnish are basically my concerns as well — it’s already illegal in many parts of the world, is known for causing birth defects and a laundry list of other serious ailments, it off-gases for months like anything else even if the doors are sprayed offsite ... it may be extremely durable and make the prep more forgiving, but for me that doesn’t make it worth it (particularly with young, still-developing little brains around the house). In retrospect I should have dug deeper into the painter’s statement that he has done waterbased paint before since he clearly specializes in CV, but he’s been in the business a long time and came highly recommended so we went for it. Lesson learned.

I believe I’ll stick with waterbased paint and ask him to re-do, but I’m not too optimistic about it improving. In fact I‘d like to ask him to re-do just ONE door to see if it fixes the issue, because if it doesn’t I won’t bother having him re-do all of them. I’m not sure if spraying just one door is feasible or if all of them have to be re-done at the same time once the paint mixture is opened. (As you can tell, I don’t know much about this sort of thing!) Is it reasonable to ask him to re-do just one cabinet door as a test?

Sounds like he painted over grease from cooking. Every kitchen is different. Some people cook like crazy and the grease gets everywhere and others it's not so bad. If you paint over it, it may look good for some time, but that stain will eventually work its way back to being visible. If the boxes look fine and the doors are the problem that could mean they just didn't clean the doors good enough for painting. I also don't understand how conversion varnish will solve the problem. The stain is the problem. In order to fix you need to either kill the stain with a stain killing primer like BIN or remove the contaminant entirely which means stripping the paint. There is a chance that the primer he used (if it was water based) was just not capable of killing stains. If that is the case, then you can just apply the BIN to the already painted surfaces and then repaint. I would do one door to see if this works before doing the whole kitchen. If the grease is really in there, then I can't imagine any product will work long term.

In retrospect I should have dug deeper into the painter’s statement that he has done waterbased paint before since he clearly specializes in CV, but he’s been in the business a long time and came highly recommended so we went for it. Lesson learned.

As a disclaimer, you are a bit past my knowledge here, as I have not really used the chemcraft waterborne products.

I don't think Chemcraft Aquaset is a water-based paint. It is a solvent based paint that is waterborne, it has fairly low amounts of solvent, especially when compared to conversion varnish. Also, it likely doesn't create formaldehyde in the curing process as conversion varnish does.

I don't want to freak you out but you should mention to Chemcraft that you are pregnant. I believe that Aquaset has an, "Avoid exposure during pregnancy" warning. As a disclaimer I just googled "chemcraft aquaset material safety data sheet" to get that information so it may not be correct.

I am unconvinced his experience with water borne products is the problem, I think you are in danger of post hoc fallacy. I bet that I could switch out a pure solvent based conversion varnish with a waterborne conversion varnish and most people couldn't tell the difference in application.

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The idea that he will do the job as he originally agreed to do it but will not warranty it, will not fly unless he also offers you an option to get your money back. He can't arbitrarily force you into a worse position than you agreed to originally. You are essentially scrapping the original contract (which we can assume had a workmanship warranty by default) and creating a new contract (disclaiming the warranty) without any consideration (compensation).

I would insist that he perform the work as agreed in the original contract with all warranties intact, or return the money. Technically, you might be able to get more, but cash in hand might be better for everyone.

Hi just seeing this now. I'd like to have an exact answer for you but although I spray finishes often. I really only use one product which is an Italian water based 2kpoly and almost always over new wood. I never have problems with this which is one of the reasons I use it. So many factors can cause issues. Without all the correct informatoin it's had for anyone to tell for sure. I know a coat of shellac is used alot as a barrier between old and new but putting it over a failing finish I don't know. It could be oil that wasn't cleaned, it could be the top coat blushing, it could be tint was not compatible if they did anything like that and so on. Chemcraft tech support might be able to help but the painter should be talking to them to figure it out. Again they will need all the correct information or sometimes a field rep would come to look depending on your location.

Just to add I don't what to be anywhere around CV it gives me an instant headache. Also 2k poly is a better finish all around So I have no reason to.

Bry911 alway has correct information some of the others just want to tell you what they heard someone say once but have no experience.