# Painting latex over oil. Help!!!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/painting-latex-over-oil-help/55304
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 21, 2001, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/painting-latex-over-oil-help/55304 "2001-02-21T03:32:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2001, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/painting-latex-over-oil-help/55304/1 "2001-02-21T03:32:54Z")
I’ve been remodelling my kitchen. I ripped out plaster and lather, and installed drywall. Then, I painted. The walls are fine, but I painted latex paint over an oil paint. The latex comes off rather easily, even when dry. What can I do to seal it so the latex won’t chip or peel? Polyurethane?
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### Author:  [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2001, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/painting-latex-over-oil-help/55304/2 "2001-02-21T03:34:37Z")
That it, I painted latex paint over the trim, which had an oil base on it.
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### Author:  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2001, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/painting-latex-over-oil-help/55304/3 "2001-02-21T03:47:19Z")
Probably not much. You might try roughing the surface with sandpaper, but I think its a lost cause.
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### Author:  [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2001, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/painting-latex-over-oil-help/55304/4 "2001-02-21T03:52:45Z")
Use a primer like Kilz or BIN (I think it’s cvalled). The folks at Home Depot or Lowes or anywhere else will tell you which of the many primers will work best for your situation.
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### Author:  [@Inky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inky_1)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2001, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/painting-latex-over-oil-help/55304/5 "2001-02-21T04:08:37Z")
Ah, spring. [Home improvement season](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=41609).
Chances are you screwed up. Oil based paints, even after sanding, don’t take latex or acrylics too well. Chances are the latex will buckle and start seperating from the old film in a year or so --sooner if you live somewhere with big tempature shifts or high humidity (how well the old paint took the new coat? Did it “creep” when you brushed it on, or did it take it okay? Now that it’s dry, can you just peel the new coat off?).
Luckily it’s only the trim and not the whole of the wall.
Take a sample of the trim paint to Kelly Moore or Standard brands and see if they can match the color with an acrylic enamel paint (not to be confused with a _latex_ acrylic). If your lucky that’ll both seal it and keep the humidity from doing more damage (test it first with a small can on an inconspicous area because there might be shrinkage problems).
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### Author:  [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2001, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/painting-latex-over-oil-help/55304/6 "2001-02-21T06:11:35Z")
Any reason why you don’t want to go back with oil-base?
Q
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2001, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/painting-latex-over-oil-help/55304/7 "2001-02-21T16:06:49Z")
Well, you can use a paint stripper first. They are pretty mild these days. Just Strip it & do it right. I’d forget about all the patch tricks when you have something like this happening.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2001, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/painting-latex-over-oil-help/55304/8 "2001-02-21T16:21:40Z")
Strip off the new pain, then sand the trim, then hit it with a primer specifically designed for bonding latex to oil-base.
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### Author:  [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2001, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/painting-latex-over-oil-help/55304/9 "2001-02-21T23:01:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Any reason why you don’t want to go back with oil-base?
If the latex is peeling, and you cover it with a coat of oil, you’ll just have _two_ layers of peeling paint.
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### Author:  [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2001, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/painting-latex-over-oil-help/55304/10 "2001-02-22T01:08:46Z")
I went to Lowes, and the guy told me to sand.
Screw it, I thought. I bought some polyurethane enamel. It seems to work.