Paint that has failed within a year of decorating

2 days ago
3 min read

Introduction

A customer rings eleven months after a job. The paint on a bathroom ceiling is peeling, or an exterior windowsill has blistered, or a hallway has patches where the colour looks different. They paid for a professional job and it has not lasted a year.

Paint failure has a limited number of causes and most of them are diagnosable from the way it has failed. The important thing is to work out which one before responding, because the answers range from clearly your responsibility to clearly not, and guessing wrong in either direction is costly. Diagnose before you reply.

1. Paint that has failed within a year has a diagnosable failure mode

The pattern tells you the cause. Look at how it failed, not just where.

Peeling and flaking in sheets

Usually adhesion: a surface not cleaned, not keyed, still damp, or painted over an unstable existing coating. Adhesion failure is normally preparation. Check what is underneath.

Blistering, cracking and staining

Moisture behind the film, movement in the substrate, tannin or nicotine bleeding through, or salts coming out of masonry. These point at the building or at product choice. Neither is fixed by more paint.

2. Establish whether the substrate was ever suitable

This is where the honest conversation happens. Some walls were never paintable.

Damp, condensation and unresolved defects

Paint cannot fix a damp wall. If a bathroom has no extraction, a coating will fail regardless of who applied it. Say so plainly.

Painting over somebody else's failing work

If you painted over an old coating at the customer's request to save money, that decision matters — and it needed recording at the time. Note it on every quote.

3. Go and look, and be methodical

An opinion formed over the phone is worth nothing. Go and see it.

Inspect and test adhesion

Look at the edges of the failure, check what is underneath, and see how easily the surrounding film lifts. That tells you the layer that failed. Take a photograph of the edge.

Ask what has changed in the room

New shower, dryer moved, heating off all winter, a leak. Environmental change is a very common cause of a coating failing later. Ask about the last year.

4. Respond according to what you find

Fair, quick, and without hedging. Decide when you are standing there.

If preparation was inadequate, redo it free

Insufficient washing, sanding, priming or filling is workmanship. Redo it properly and take the loss; the alternative costs more. Do it within the month.

If the cause is the building, explain and quote

Show what you have found, say what needs resolving first, and quote to redecorate afterwards. Repainting over an unresolved cause simply repeats the failure. Say that clearly.

5. Prevent it at the quoting stage

Almost all of this is preventable in writing. The quote is the protection.

Note substrate condition on the quote

Existing coatings, damp readings, a surface you are not confident in. Record what you saw and what you advised.

Say what you will not guarantee and why

A coating applied over an unknown existing paint, or to a wall with damp, cannot carry the same guarantee. Stated in advance, that is professional. Put it in the terms.

Conclusion

Paint failure is diagnosable from its pattern: peeling in sheets is usually adhesion and therefore preparation, while blistering, cracking and staining point at moisture, movement or bleed-through from the building or the product.

Establish whether the substrate was ever suitable, because paint cannot fix a damp wall or an unventilated bathroom, and note whether you painted over existing work at the customer's request. Go and inspect methodically rather than judging by phone, and ask what has changed in the room. Redo it free where preparation was inadequate, explain and quote where the building is the cause, and protect yourself in future by recording substrate condition on the quote.