I'm using Sherwin Willaims Duration Coating on a cedar arbor. The arbor will first be used for a wedding or I would just give up on the problems. The arbor has lots of nooks and crannies for the paint to hide from the light until it gets partially setup. But worse, I am getting runs all over the place! I admit that my lighting is barely adequate as I have a very limited area where I can set up this large a project. But there has to be a better way!
I started with the salesman at SW recommendation of a particular roller. That thing shed like a long haired cat in the spring. It also left a beautiful orange peel (underexageration) surface which we didn't like. So I switched to the next thing on hand which was cheap foam brushes. Brush marks were horrible and runs everywhere. Any place where a corner existed it was difficult to not leave a large lap mark.
I scraped, fingernailed, and sanded as many of the thick spots out that I could find. I missed a lot too. I don't know that this stuff ever sets up enough to sand without balling up. Especially the spots that are thick are slow drying. I need to get done soon.
Off to the borg. Kid behind the counter couldn't believe I even tried to use foam with this thick latex. It's thicker than Titebond glue. He sold me (I bought) a decent nylon/polyester brush. Is the best they had decent? Anyway, that was their best.
I tried applying the stuff full strength after wetting the brush. No real difference was apparent. I thinned it maybe 10%, maybe slightly less, and it helped a little.
Tonight I started looking it over before the third coat. It has hundreds of runs and corner laps and all sort of errors!
Can this stuff (thick latex) be applied with hand tools or does it need to be sprayed someway? I would never try to brush a clear finish over something with contours like this, so I am lost. Should I just ignore all these atrocities or what? I have at least another coat to go and each new coat seems to add more problems.
David