Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

Two wrongs don’t make a right: But they can turn a $100,000 paint job into $250,000  

There’s a rule that paint inspectors live by: when you look at the exterior concrete walls of a high rise condo or apartment building, don’t assume the paint is planning to stay there. Even though it can look intact to the naked eye, there may be little or no adhesion between the coating and the underlying wall, and any stress applied to the paint film – such as applying a repaint coat – may cause immediate and dramatic failure.  

That’s because the same error gets made again and again at the new construction phase — and if it’s not caught and corrected at the first repaint, the price of fixing the problem can escalate dramatically. 

The Case of the High Rise Repaint:
It had been 9 years since the initial construction and paint job, and it was time to freshen up the finish. The owner awarded the bid to a qualified painting contractor whose bid noted that there were bubbles and blisters in the existing paint film that they believed were the result of high moisture content in the concrete. Their bid stated that they would remove all bubbles and areas of weak adhesion and if the bubbles reappeared, “they would be repaired once the cause is identified.”  
 
This type of language alone should have thrown red flags all over the bid and the project. The first rule of maintenance repainting is: when the existing film exhibits obvious evidence of failure, don’t write the repaint spec or even think about starting the job until the cause of the existing failure is determined AND rectified: otherwise, there’s a very good chance that whatever caused the initial coating to fail will cause the repaint coat to fail, and you’ll have thrown a lot of money down the drain.  
 
Nevertheless, the project went forward. The paint supplier and product were selected; a coating approved under MPI #40 Latex, Exterior, High Build applied at 10-12 mils. The manufacturer’s 5-year warranty required them to do a site review to evaluate the surface prior to painting. The manufacturer’s reps submitted multiple reports that noted the same existing blisters and adhesion failures — but they didn’t contact the owner to discuss the problem and how it could impact the warranty. Another red flag.  
 
The contractor then proceeded with the job: he prepped the surface by doing a thorough power wash to remove dirt and contaminants, and then applied the specified coating.  
 
When several tenants complained that the new paint visible from their balconies showed signs of significant bubbling and blistering, this paint inspector was called in.  

What the Inspector Saw:

The inspector looked at two balconies, noted the paint bubbles and blisters, cut them in half, and found the edges could easily be peeled off in sheets down to the bare concrete surface. On the back of the sheets of paint were telltale signs of concrete dust. 

Applying adhesion tape as described in ASTM D3359 elicited the same results, easily removing both the original coating and the new coat down to bare concrete, again with substantial evidence of dust and contaminants on the back of the paint film.

The bare concrete also showed considerable dust and laitance. These were poured-in-place walls, and with poured-in-place, the vibration required to consolidate the concrete can push water and fine particles to the surface, creating a weak, nondurable thin cover called “laitance.” Laitance must be removed during initial surface preparation or failures like this can occur.  

 Sacking Havoc...Again:

It was also apparent that the concrete had been sacked during original construction to fill bug holes and surface imperfections. The considerable dust on the bare concrete surface suggested that the sacking material had deteriorated over time. In our experience, if you peel the coating off and see a lot of dust stuck to the back of the film — and when you touch the bare substrate underneath and get concrete dust all over your hands — you’ve got either a sacking or laitance problem, or both.  
 
This is by far the most common failure we find on exterior high-rise concrete walls. It begins thus: the same vibration that leads to laitance can cause air bubbles to be trapped at the form face, resulting in the tiny voids or holes in the concrete surface we call bugholes. Most architects and owners consider these holes unsightly and request sacking be applied to fill them. We understand the desire for an aesthetically pleasing wall surface, but keep in mind that it takes a great deal of skill to apply sacking material properly; all too often, sacking creates a weak layer of poorly-adhered concrete, and failure to remove these weak layers prior to the initial paint job can lead to failures like the one described here. 

Painting Over Mistakes:

The inspector also noted hard edges in the existing film that had been overcoated with the repaint finish, which suggests the painter had likewise seen the blisters, picked at the failed areas, stripped off the blistered paint just as easily as the inspector had, and then simply coated over the area. This is not a recommended protocol: if you the painter can peel the blistered film off the surface in sheets down to the bare concrete, stop what you’re doing and inform the owner, because continuing the job is the painter’s version of walking in the valley of the shadow of death.  

It is unclear to the inspector whether the contractor had failed to report the problems he saw – or if he had reported the problems to the owner, and the owner had chosen to ignore them.  

The Inspector’s Diagnosis:

The inspector gave this report to the owner: the problem appeared to have started when, prior to paint application in the new construction phase, the wall surfaces were not cleaned properly, so the coating was applied over poor quality sacking and laitance residue. These contaminants created a barrier that impeded adhesion between the substrate and the coating. The lack of adhesion was evidenced by the bubbles and blisters present when the repaint job was bid. When the new coating was applied over the existing film, the stresses exerted on the existing film by the new film as it shrank in the curing process led to the widespreadbubbles and blisters the tenants were now complaining about.  
 
So now, the owner had what was essentially a coating time bomb on his hands. The lack of adhesion was almost certainly widespread over the building — not just on the balconies the inspector examined — so the blistering was likely to grow as freeze/thaw and other stresses are exerted on the coating.  

How to Fix the Problem:

The inspector recommended that the coatings in thepoorly-adhering areas be removed in their entirety; the surface cleaned to remove all dust and laitance material; and the affected balconies recoated edge-to-edge.  
 
Hand and power tools can be suitable for coating removal in these situations where the adhesion is so poor. If pressure washing is utilized either for paint removal or to clean the surface of dust and laitance, remember that you are wetting the concrete, which can create a new problem for coating adhesion. Moisture meter readings should be taken in the same area both prior to power washing as well as afterwards, to assure that after washing, the concrete moisture level is back to its original state prior to coating application – and under no circumstances should the coating be applied the same day as the power washing.  
 
And the coating manufacturer’s warranty? We assume it will not be forthcoming since the coating performed properly: it was perfectly adhered to the existing film, which is essentially what the paint manufacturer is warranting. When both the new AND the old coating peel from the surface, the warranty is highly in doubt.  
 
In dollars and cents, we estimate the total cost for the job would now be $250,000, which is quite a few ticksabove the $100,000 the owner originally planned on.  

How to Fix the Problem: 

The inspector recommended that the coatings in thepoorly-adhering areas be removed in their entirety; the surface cleaned to remove all dust and laitance material; and the affected balconies recoated edge-to-edge.  
 
Hand and power tools can be suitable for coating removal in these situations where the adhesion is so poor. If pressure washing is utilized either for paint removal or to clean the surface of dust and laitance, remember that you are wetting the concrete, which can create a new problem for coating adhesion. Moisture meter readings should be taken in the same area both prior to power washing as well as afterwards, to assure that after washing, the concrete moisture level is back to its original state prior to coating application – and under no circumstances should the coating be applied the same day as the power washing.  
 
And the coating manufacturer’s warranty? We assume it will not be forthcoming since the coating performed properly: it was perfectly adhered to the existing film, which is essentially what the paint manufacturer is warranting. When both the new AND the old coating peel from the surface, the warranty is highly in doubt.  
 
In dollars and cents, we estimate the total cost for the job would now be $250,000, which is quite a few ticksabove the $100,000 the owner originally planned on.  

Lessons Learned : 

#1: Don’t Create the Problem In the First Place  
The first “wrong” in this case was committed at new construction: the painting contractor performed insufficient or non-existent surface prep. And it appears no professional coating inspection was utilized; paint inspectors are keenly aware of the need to remove all dust and contaminants from the surface prior to painting, so hiring an inspector for the job could have assured proper prep was done.  
 
Furthermore, if the painter is facing a newly sacked concrete wall, doing a test patch is an absolute must; apply a coat of the selected material over a sacked area, allow it to cure, and then do an adhesion test. Most often, you’ll either get a rating 5A – perfect adhesion – or 0A: coating peels right off the surface with a load of fine concrete dust on the back. So consider this: a $100,000 paint job can fail because no one spent $35 on a role of adhesion test tape.  

#2: Don’t Just “Paint Over It”  
As we said in the beginning: always determine the cause of failure before writing the repaint spec, let alone doing the job. It appears this owner and contractor allowed work to start and continue with the knowledge there could be an escalating problem.  
 
On the other hand, a professional paint inspector could have been called in once the first blisters were noted and had the problem diagnosed in less than an hour, as follows:  

• 1:00 pm – 1:05 pm: Inspector pulls up to building, greets the owner, and exchanges introductions and pleasantries. 

• 1:05 pm – 1:10 pm: Inspector takes elevator to the 9th floor, knocks on condominium door, and is escorted to the balcony. 

• 1:10 pm – 1:20 pm: Inspector leans over, sees blisters in the coating, cuts a few in half, and removes sheets of paint like they were wall paper. Inspector pulls out adhesion tape test kit, makes the required cuts in the film, applies adhesion tape, pulls it off, and finds zero adhesion and a load of dust on the back of the tape. 

• 1:20 pm – 1:25 pm: Inspector goes back down elevator. 

• 1:25 pm – 1:55 pm: Inspector spends 30 minutes explaining to the owner why his paint is peeling and what steps should be taken prior to applying a new coat of paint. 

It’s not always this simple but often enough, it is. After seeing so many failures like this, we find it interesting that contractors, owners, engineers, and architects can spend a year or more developing specifications and bid documents, and let paint jobs for $100,000 or more, but will hesitate to invest the roughly $5000 extra on coating inspection to assure the paint is going to perform as expected.  
 
It’s a shame because in new construction, you’ve got all the tools to do the job right the first time and assure maximum life expectancy from the applied coatings. But in repaint work, all parties involved – the owner, the paint manufacturer’s rep, and the contractor – are required to walk in and fix what could be the careless – and costly -- oversights of the team that came before them.