# Paint sticking at door/jamb



## Corcoran1 (Feb 13, 2008)

I recently painted all my wood doors as well as the frames/jambs. Now when I put the doors back up and closed them, when I reopened them part of the paint from the jamb stuck on the door. I primed/sanded/prepped both surfaces and used latex paint. Did I use the wrong kind of paint? Should I have let it dry longer? Any way to prevent this from happening again?


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## slickshift (Aug 25, 2005)

You may not have let it dry long enough (you don't say how long)
It really should cure also (1 to 3 weeks)
Some paints are more prone to it than others (you don't say what paint)
If you used a paint that tends to transfer, sometimes a top coat with one that doesn't works as a fix


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jun 17, 2008)

Corcoran:

In a nutshell, either your paint simply isn't fully dry yet, or you used a relatively inexpensive PVA paint instead of a top quality PMMA paint. If you get all hot and sweaty, and stick your head against the door frame, and your hair sticks to it, and the rest of the door frame doesn't feel that sticky, it's probably cuz you use a PVA paint. You can correct the problem by either scraping that paint off and putting a better paint on, or painting over it with a better paint, depending on the clearance between the door and frame.

Here is a blurb I posted on a different DIY forum I used to (and prolly still will) post on that should answer lots of yer questions:

Sorry that all the word "paint" is highlighted. I found this old post with a search engine that does that.  Also, this guy referred to latex paints as "LB" paints and oil based paints as "OB" paints, so I kinda went along with it. :yes:

Here's what you need to know about latex *paint*s:

A. Latex *paint*s typically use one of three kinds of plastic for their binder:

1. polyvinyl acetate - also called "PVA" is the plastic resin from which white wood glues are made. PVA resins (formulated to be harder and less sticky) are commonly used to make general purpose primers and "budget" priced interior and exterior latex *paint*s. This kind of *paint* will call itself a "vinyl acrylic" *paint*.

2. polymethyl methacrylate - this is the same plastic that Plexiglas is made of. If a can of *paint* says that it's "100% Acrylic" it just means that the binder resins in it are made of Plexiglas. PMMA is more expensive than PVA, and generally you will find PMMA resins in higher quality *paint*s and ALWAYS in *paint*s specifically intended for use in bathrooms, kitchen & bath *paint*s and as primers over fresh concrete.

There are many different kinds of PVA and PMMA resins, and they;re used for making everything from clear acrylic floor finish to nail polish to grout sealers to LB *paint*s. About 90 percent of the LB *paint* on the market in North America is made with PVA or PMMA resins.

3. styrenated acrylic - This kind of plastic has a high shine to it, but it yellows with age and doesn't have as good resistance to UV light from the Sun as the previous two plastics. Sherwin Williams "ProClassic" line of *paint* is an example of a *paint* made from styrenated acrylic resins. Styrenated acrylic resin *paint*s are more popular in Europe for some reason, don't ask me why.

B. NOW, as touched on, each of these plastics has different properties, and that means that *paint*s made from them will have different properties. PMMA *paint*s will dry to a harder film that is more resistant to moisture, UV light and alkalinity. PVA *paint*s, just like white glues, are much more susceptible to moisture. PVA *paint*s don't adhere to damp or moist surfaces as well, and they lose both their hardness and adhesion in wet or humid conditions. Also, PVA *paint*s have a residual "stickiness" even when fully dry called "blocking". That is, PVA *paint*s generally have poor "blocking resistance", meaning they remain slightly sticky even when dry. That's because adhesion is something that's simply hard to engineer out of the PVA molecule. It allows you to make great wood adhesive, but it causes problems in *paint*s.

When you say "Latex *paint*s never really dry.", it just tells me most of your experiences with latex *paint*s has been with inexpensive latex *paint*s (or PVA *paint*s). Better quality latex *paint*s don't do that.

If you're wanting a latex primer or want to paint a ceiling, then PVA paints are fine. However, they do have that residual stickiness and they do lose their adhesion when wet, so they also cause lots of problems. People paint doors and windows with them and then complain that the door or window sticks to the frame. People paint their shower ceilings with them, and the paint then peels off. (And this problem is generally misdiagnosed as being cause by poor prep work) Really, PVA paints are fine to use if you know the potential problems, but you can avoid lots of paint problems by paying a bit extra and using top quality paints which will almost always use plexiglass resins for their binder.
Quote: 
Any advice here? you asked 
​Yes. I'd say you should spend a few evenings snooping around this web site:
http://www.*paint*quality.com

That's the web site of the Paint Quality Institute, which was established and is funded by the Rohm & Haas Company who are the largest manufacturer of PMMA resins in North America. They make the PMMA resins for most of the latex paint made in North America, so they know vastly more about the chemistry of paint than companies like Pratt & Lambert, Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams who simply buy the acrylic resins, blend them with pigments, add additives, dilute with water and serve in one gallon containers.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jun 17, 2008)

The computer told me the post was too long and to shorten it to 10,000 characters, so I cut and copied the last part of it into this next post which deals exclusively with the COLOUR making decision:

And, finally:
C. Also, tell your wife that bright colours look nice, but they're not very resistant to UV light. Tell her she'll have far less fading if she were to choose an "*inorganic*" colour, like mustard yellow, reddish brown, chocolate brown, raw umber, white or black. That's cuz all these colours are made by pulverizing coloured rocks into a fine powder and using that powder to tint the *paint*. Rocks are good at being opaque, but they're even better at being old. Anything that's 300 million years old has to be extremely chemically stable or it would have decomposed by now. That extreme chemical stability means that rocks don't fade from exposure to UV light from the Sun like synthetic chemicals do (which is what the *pigments* in red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple and magenta colourants are made from).

NOW, that last paragraph is ALMOST true. For the past dozen or so centuries artists have been making their *pigments* from pulverizing coloured rocks like ochre, umber, sienna (which is actually named after a village that still exists in Italy where the surrounding rocks and soil are a mustard yellow colour) and charcoal (which ain't a rock). Nowadays, the *inorganic* colourants used in the *paint* tinting machine are the same chemicals found in coloured rocks (iron oxides with impurities that make them change from a mustard yellow to a burnt orange to a rust colour to a chocolate brown to very dark brown (called "umber")), but the fact that the iron oxide and added impurities in them is man made and a synthetical product doesn't change it's characteristics. It just makes the supply of such *pigments* more reliable (cus they don't have to come from politically unstable areas) and of higher colour consistancy and of more uniform particle size (so as not to affect the gloss of the *paint*). However, if someone asks me why synthetic iron oxide isn't affected by UV light from the Sun, I can only answer "I don't know" (cuz I don't). But, when I explain to people that the exact same chemical is found in rocks that are 300 million years old, and therefore extremely chemically stable, they intuitively seem to understand that that chemical stability would manifest itself in less fading when exposed to Sunlight. And, of course, if rocks faded from Sunlight, they'd all be faded white as a ghost by now. The fact that the little village of Sienna is still as mustard yellow as ever is proof of the extreme chemical stability of these iron oxide compounds.

And,
D. Every kid that has ever played "hide and seek" outdoors knows that most rocks are opaque. Most people, however, don't know that the *pigments* used in "organic" colour (which are the colourwheel colours, or red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, and so on) look like tiny lumps of coloured plastic (with varying degrees of transparency, depending on the kind of pigment) under a microscope. *Inorganic* *pigments* look just like coloured rocks under a microscope. As a result, you generally get better hide with "*inorganic* *pigments*" (pronounced "pulverized rocks") than you do with organic *pigments*, because all of the iron oxides are opaque, but many of the organic *pigments* are fairly transparent. (That last statement assumes all other factors are equal.) Also, they can add more coloured *pigments* to an oil based *paint* than they can to a latex *paint*, so a pretinted oil based *paint* will normally hide better than a pretinted latex *paint* of the same colour.

(Tinting *paint* at the point of sale in a *paint* tinting machine is a whole nuther kettle of fish. The carrier fluid in the different colourants is glycerine (so that both oil and latex *paint*s can be tinted with the same colourants) and glycerine affects film formation in latex *paint*s completely differently than that of oil based *paint*s. So, latex *paint*s are more restricted on how much you can tint them at the point of sale. If you add the dry pigment right at the *paint* factory, you can add more dry pigment of any colour to a can of alkyd *paint* than you can a can of latex *paint* before you have problems.)

Sun Chemical is the biggest name in organic pigments used to make colourants for tinting paint:

http://www.sunchemical.com/performancepigments/

Unfortunately, Sun Chemical's web site isn't really set up to help DIY'ers like us learn more about organic pigments.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jun 17, 2008)

And now you, Corcoran, know more than most people working in paint stores about latex paints.


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2008)

All very good information. Unfortunately I've seen several 100% acrylic paints of high quality, such as Duration and Accolade, go on in similar situations and remain sticky enough to cause the same issues for several days. They do cure out and loose the stickiness over time but it isn't always as quickly as you'd like. I still like oil when I've got tight fitting doors and windows.


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## mark942 (Feb 2, 2008)

Corcoran1 said:


> I recently painted all my wood doors as well as the frames/jambs. Now when I put the doors back up and closed them, when I reopened them part of the paint from the jamb stuck on the door. I primed/sanded/prepped both surfaces and used latex paint. Did I use the wrong kind of paint? Should I have let it dry longer? Any way to prevent this from happening again?


Did you paint the top and bottom edges of the doors?


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## sirwired (Jun 22, 2007)

The ideal coatings for things like doors, windows, and shelving, that are prone to sticking (also known as "blocking") are Waterbourne Enamels. These coatings have similar properties to oil-base enamels, without the hassle (and yellowing) that oil-base leaves you with.

The two most common that folks here use are Sherwin Williams ProClassic Waterbourne, and Benjamin Moore Waterbourne Impervo. (FYI, the Behr "Premium Enamel" is NOT what I am talking about here...)

These two coatings, when cured, form a hard "shell-like" coating that does not stick. They do take a little while to cure though, 1-2 weeks is pretty standard if your house is not humid.

These coatings are not as easy to use as a wall paint but they are far better for this use than a wall paint. Search this board for "ProClassic" for more information on how to apply it.

SirWired


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## slickshift (Aug 25, 2005)

sirwired said:


> The ideal coatings for things like doors, windows, and shelving, that are prone to sticking (also known as "blocking") are Waterbourne Enamels.


:thumbsup:

(though I still like the alkyd enamels, today's premium wb enamels are great  )


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## Corcoran1 (Feb 13, 2008)

mark942 said:


> Did you paint the top and bottom edges of the doors?


I did the top edge, just with one coat, but the doors don't touch at the top or bottom. 

There is a lot of great info here, thank you so much. I think I just didn't let it dry long enough before I shut them. I'm not even living there yet so I will touch up and keep them open for a few weeks, see if that helps. If not I'll try that other paint.


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## mark942 (Feb 2, 2008)

The reason I asked if you painted the top and bottom edges of the doors is because if you didn't, the doors will swell as the weather changes.If you have tight fitting doors to begin with and you do not paint both edges, the door will swell and you will have doors that will cause you troubles in the long run.


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