Too cold?

[BelgianPhil]

My workshop is in an unheated garage that is attached to the house and the neighbours house. It isn't freezing but it isn't very warm either. I bought some non-drip high gloss white paint on Monday for a little project that needs to be done ASAP. (It's a newel post extension for the stairs so i can install a stair gate and stop my 8 month old from climbing up the stairs)

When i opened the tin the stuff inside was quite thick. I could stand my paintbrush in it if i wanted. Nonetheless i applied a coat and tried to get a smooth layer. However the paint was so thick that a skin formed on the paintwork and the paint underneath looked trapped. I installed the pipper anyway and scraped the paint off yesterday. I'll sand it down on Saturday and i've put the tin inside the house so it can warm up. It looks a right mess and i learned a lesson (or two)

My question: is it too cold to varnish as well? I have a little bench that i want to varnish however i'm not too keen on my recently developed system:
1) apply finish
2) swear
3) scrape off
4) do it again later

 

[theartfulbodger]

I'm having a similar issue. Garage attached to house. The varnish I'm trying to use is cold and cloudy and lumpy. Looks more like semolina than varnish :shock:

 

[Chataigner]

I'm not an expert, but I have had similar problems due to temperature in an unheated workshop. It seems that some, if not all, finishes have a limited temperature range in which they work correctly.

A recent example is a water based clear polyurethane that was not happy in the cold workshop, so I brought it inside and worked in the hall way (normal household temperature). So far so good, but I then hung the parts in the boiler room to dry thinking warmer means faster, less chance for dust to settle on it. Big problem, it dried fast OK, so fast that the brush marks of even a very fine brush had no time to level out. The work looked terrrible.

Tried again, at the maker's suggested 18-22 deg. Perfect.

 

[Dodge]

Why not use a pre-cat or acid cat lacquer - These are cellulose based and are nowhere near as temperature reliant as polyurethane and oil based varnishes.

Can be brushed or sprayed.

Rog

 

[cornucopia]

A general rule for most finish's (water or oil based) is not to apply them at 10c or below but even then for some its too cold- i always try to paint at no lower than 14 or 15c

 

[bugbear]

In the good (yippee! I've got TB!) old days, workshops were unheated. Apart from the finishing area, which was hence popular for tea breaks!

BugBear

 

[Mike.C]

It does not really help your immediate problem, but for future use why dont you tap into your house's heating system and run a radiator in your shop. One rad should not add much to your fuel bills, and you can have it on when you need it for overnight drying of paint or varnish.

cheers

Mike

 

[mbartlett99]

Hi

Not sure if this will help but I've been forced to do quite a bit of yacht varnishing in very cold conditions and there are a couple of things to help the process.
1) Use a painters kettle - a bucket filled with hot water with your varnish tin in the middle - helps the varnish flow out.
2) Use an accelerator - additive for cold weather. Not sure where you'd get it in the UK but google some yacht chandlers.
3) Use an obscenely expensive and thoroughly lethal product like Awl Clear with cold weather accelerator.

One problem there's no way around is very cold air hitting the applied surface and turning it milky/matt - depends on the product used. Hope thats some help for the future.