Have you ever wondered why we use water-based rather than oil-based paint for woodwork?

There are pros and cons to both types of products:

Water-based is by its nature quick drying, usually touch dry in an hour and can be recoated in around 4 hours. There’s virtually no odour and our “go to” product is Johnstone’s Trade Aquaguard which has the added benefit of being durable. It will never be as durable as oil-based and if you’re going for gloss, the shine won’t be as, well, shiny. That said, the most common sheen level we get asked for is satin so that’s rarely an issue. The biggest “issue” with water-based paint is the need to use a primer when painting over oil-based paint, usually gloss. Simply put, water and oil don’t mix and although technically you can paint over it, the new paint won’t stick at all well and it will ultimately fail and come away.

So, after washing, sanding and rewashing the woodwork, we apply a coat of Zinsser Bullseye 1-2-3 which is a water-based multi-purpose primer-sealer and stain blocker that adheres to oil-based paints and has a short recoat time of only an hour and provides an excellent base for the topcoats. If it’s water-based over water-based, then you can get away with just 2 topcoats depending on the condition of the existing paint although we do recommend undercoating first.

Coming on to oil-based, today these products tend to be called “professional gloss” or “high gloss” or something similar, our preference is Dulux Trade High Gloss. These are all very good products and modern versions don’t tend to yellow as badly or as quickly as their older counterparts and do have great durability and shine levels in gloss. The main drawback is their long drying times, often 4 to 6 hours until touch dry and around 16 hours recoat time so effectively you can only do one coat a day. There’s also that lingering odour to deal with. For the best results, you need to use an undercoat so it’s still a 3-coat system like the water-based but takes a lot longer.

So, in a nutshell, water-based is quick to apply with little to no odour but the durability and shine aren’t as good as oil-based which takes much longer to apply and does have a lasting odour until properly dry.

Ultimately, it’s all about personal preference and costs and we’re happy to use either product type.