Paint Contractor: Working with based oil paint

As a paint contractor I have to work with different kinds of paint, and one type of paint that is really complicated to work with is definitely oil based paint. And today we are going to tell you why.

Differently from latex based paint, oil based paint does not dilute with water, therefore if you ever get your clothes stained you won’t be able to get it off, so the first thing you need to know when working with oil based paint is that you must wear clothes that you need no more and won’t matter if you get them stained, preferably wear gloves when using this paint.

Another critical thing to know is that you are going to need to work with dangerous solvents for thinning the paint so it is highly recommendable to wear glasses and a respirator and also to perform this operation in an open environment to avoid the fumes that come with solvents, this is very very important. Also remember that some of them, if not all, are highly flammable, therefore keep them away from heat and flames and never work with them near flames or hot surfaces.

Now that you know this, it is important to talk about how to thin your paint, first of all, make sure that you buy a solvent designed for oil based paint and also, and this is very very important, for the applying method you intend to use, this is a critical point as, depending if you are going to brush it or spray it, so is the thinner you need to select.

To use it read carefully all the manufacturer’s instructions, and, like we mentioned before, use the necessary protection and do it on a ventilated area away from heat sources. For the ratio you can from 3:1 to 4:1 (units of paint versus units of thinner) bear in mind that if you use too much thinner the color will diffuse and you will end up with a lighter color than you intended once you apply it on the desired surface.

Finally to test your paint apply it to the surface and see if the color and consistency is the desired one.

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