Advance is not a cabinet coating, and is well under the durability of a true professional cabinet finish. Advance is a trim paint. It is popular with the DIY painting crowd because it is friendlier to the brush and roll skills of beginners who do not own sprayers, or want to deal with respirators and other professional risk mitigation PPE. It has a really long open time, so self levels extremely well. That helps produce a nice smooth finish, without someone having a lot of experience in applying paint.
That long open time has a price, in that it can have a lot of dust and debris in the finish if you do not have a clean work area. It also has a 30 day plus cure time, to reach full hardness, so requires gentle use until that hardness is reached. Dark colors can take longer than 30 days for cures.
Professional cabinet coatings are often dry within an hour, and cured in 6. Many shops also use infrared cure systems to speed up even that quick drying time. Professional cabinet coatings, especially catalyzed or hardener activated ones, are harder, more chemical resistant, and provide greater long term durability than homeowner grade trim paints. That is why that is why the pros use them!
CV, or conversion varnish is a multi part catalyzed system that is riskier to everyone involved that the newer waterborne 2K (2 part) European derived opaque polyurethane coatings like Milesi, Renner, Envirolak, Ilva, Centurion, etc etc. Those have some risks as well, but far less than the old solvent based products.
There are no zero risks, and if a homeowner is interested in professional coatings, I always suggest them being applied by the professionals who have the safety equipment and ventilation to do so. If an advanced skills homeowner wants to use pro coatings, they need to also have all of the pro equipment to do so. With at least 40 hours of practice in that properly fit respirator. They also need to look at the pictures of injection injuries from paint sprayers before ever firing up their sprayer. Safety doing any of this work is a very serious thing.
All cabinet coatings are a system of coatings. Not just the final finish coat. It all starts with a clean dry surface that gets sanded. And sanded. And sanded. With the correct sanding schedule for the type of wood, and the type of finish. Both those variables come into that sanding schedule. But, the sanding is whst makes the biggest difference in the final appearance, over any type of finish chosen. The sanding shows through. You have to do the work underneath the coating, for a good result. You can’t make up for poor prep work with an expensive coating over the top.
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