# PPG Breakthrough for Built-In Wood Cabinets?



## chrisn (Dec 23, 2007)

LadeeDIY said:


> Hi, I completed all the recommended steps to paint a polyurethane coated redwood built in - Cleaned with TSP substitute, lightly sanded, vacuumed and wiped off dust w/tack cloth. Then, I primed with 2 coats BIN shellac-based primer. I let that dry for 3 days. It looked good, with no bleed through.
> 
> I painted a large test area with a Water Reducible Alkyd interior satin paint meant for cabinetry. It leveled fine and looks ok. After three weeks, it has not cured. My fingernail dented it easily today. :sad: Room temp and humidity are ideal.
> 
> ...


Please explain, I have never heard of anything like this. As to the Breakthrough, yes it would be a good choice.


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## mark sr (Jun 13, 2017)

> Water Reducible Alkyd interior satin paint


I assume that's a waterborne enamel. Might help to know what brand.


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## Jmayspaint (May 4, 2013)

chrisn said:


> Please explain, I have never heard of anything like this. As to the Breakthrough, yes it would be a good choice.




I assume he’s referring to a water borne alkyd like Advance, hence the slow cure. 

I really like Breakthrough for cabinetry. Dries fast, good leveling if applied right, and full cure in 7 days. 
If your in CA I assume you will likely only have access to the lover VOC variety. I haven’t used that version, but other than decreased adhesion capabilities (not an issue if you’ve primed with Bin) I haven’t heard anything bad about it. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## LadeeDIY (Feb 20, 2018)

Hi all, Yes, it was BM Advance Satin in White Dove. I read the rules to the group. It said no bad-mouthing a particular product. That is why I didn't say it. Excuse the confusion.

Have heard the same regarding the SW counterpart - very slow cure times. 

Yes, all I can buy in CA is lower VOC. Glad to hear that the lower VOC Breakthrough will work with the BIN shellac. The only ouch is the $78/gallon price.

If anyone has experience with the CA PPG Breakthrough & cabinetry, please chime in.


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## woodco (Jun 11, 2017)

I dont like the low VOC breakthrough. 

Advance, and any other waterborne alkyds will cure very slowly unless you do very thin coats, and wait overnight to recoat. They have to oxidize to cure, so if its too thick, it cant oxidize. 

Try Cabinet Coat. Cures hard as a rock very quickly. A little pricier though. Its also available at Benjamin Moore.

I actually recently did a huge house in Advance satin White Dove, and it got very hard, very quickly.


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## diypnw (Nov 5, 2017)

after a few online seach durapoxy by Kelly moore looks like a popular paint to use for cabinetry in CA. I have yet to try


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## woodco (Jun 11, 2017)

Durapoxy is a great choice for lower end cabinetry. It gets very hard, very fast, and it looks pretty good, and its easy to apply. Its basically the best straight latex you can put on a cabinet.


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## ChuckV (Feb 26, 2018)

Hello, new to this forum and seen the posting about PPG Breakthrough and thought I would comment as I'm completing a kitchen cabinet repaint project. While I'm not a professional painter I have many years experience under my belt when it comes to painting. In researching the best type of paint to use (there are several) it came down to drytime as there is no way my wife would allow the kitchen to be down for weeks while the paint dries. It was either BM Advanced or PPG Brealthrough. BM Advanced provides a better sheen but takes way to long to recoat and cure, the PPG is 2 hours to recoat. I just completed 2 coats in one day on 26 cabinet drawers and doors. Mind you I was rolling and brushing and not spraying. I really made an effort to get the smoothest finish possible. I realize I wasn't going to acheive a "factory finish" but got pretty close. As others have mentioned, you need to work quick when laying down Breakthrough. It has great flowability (didn't need to add water or Floetrol). This is the low VOC version of the satin Breakthrough. I was nervous when applying with roller but if you lay it down quick and not screw with it much it lays out nicely. The sheen is nice, it provides a soft glow sheen when the light hits it right. You have to use 2 coats using this product, I applied it over 2 coats of BIN white Shellac primer. This paint, when fully cured is rock hard. I missed some big drips that were in my enameled kitchen sink from the prior day's painting. Lots of elbow grease and coarse steel wool were needed to remove this paint. It's bonding is incredible. I'm pleased with the way the painting turned out. Thumbs up to PPG Breakthrough.


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## Toots (Feb 27, 2018)

I have spent the last few years going through the selection of available alkyd waterborne paints available and trying them out to see how they behave. I'll spare you the long details but, used correctly BM Advance is BY FAR the best as far as the end result you get. It produces an amazingly hard finish and levels much better than everything else. Our toddler has spent the last 3 years beating the heck out of her dresser we did with Advance and it still looks like I did it yesterday. That was the first thing I ever tried it on.

However, if you read paint forums, you hear people say they have problems with Advance a lot, including: not curing, orange peeling, dripping, sagging, etc. All of these issues are mostly caused by the same thing: putting it on too thick with a cheap brush. This paint definitely has a learning curve. When they say you need to lay on very thin coats they are not kidding,it should be in giant bold letters on the can. Sherwin Williams ProClassic alkyd for example is much easier to put on, but does not level nearly as well as far as leaving brush marks, and I say that even though I like ProClassic a lot as well.

If you are willing to take the time to learn to use it, I would still say Advance is my favorite cabinet paint. Just my opinion though. As others have mentioned, Cabinet Coat is a good product, but it also does not level as well. You will see brush marks unless your application is flawless. CC is also a BM product now, they bought out INSLX a few years back.


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## diypnw (Nov 5, 2017)

ChuckV said:


> Hello, new to this forum and seen the posting about PPG Breakthrough and thought I would comment as I'm completing a kitchen cabinet repaint project. While I'm not a professional painter I have many years experience under my belt when it comes to painting. In researching the best type of paint to use (there are several) it came down to drytime as there is no way my wife would allow the kitchen to be down for weeks while the paint dries. It was either BM Advanced or PPG Brealthrough. BM Advanced provides a better sheen but takes way to long to recoat and cure, the PPG is 2 hours to recoat. I just completed 2 coats in one day on 26 cabinet drawers and doors. Mind you I was rolling and brushing and not spraying. I really made an effort to get the smoothest finish possible. I realize I wasn't going to acheive a "factory finish" but got pretty close. As others have mentioned, you need to work quick when laying down Breakthrough. It has great flowability (didn't need to add water or Floetrol). This is the low VOC version of the satin Breakthrough. I was nervous when applying with roller but if you lay it down quick and not screw with it much it lays out nicely. The sheen is nice, it provides a soft glow sheen when the light hits it right. You have to use 2 coats using this product, I applied it over 2 coats of BIN white Shellac primer. This paint, when fully cured is rock hard. I missed some big drips that were in my enameled kitchen sink from the prior day's painting. Lots of elbow grease and coarse steel wool were needed to remove this paint. It's bonding is incredible. I'm pleased with the way the painting turned out. Thumbs up to PPG Breakthrough.


awesome! I have a similar size kitchen cabinets that I plan on getting started on. about many gallons of primer and breakthrough were used to complete this project? also what brush/roller did you use?

got pics? would love to see!:thumbup:


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## ChuckV (Feb 26, 2018)

Hi diypnw. I used a little more than 1.5 gallons of both primer and paint. The funny thing was after I had applied two coats (front and back of doors, drawer faces and fixed frames) of BIN shellac primer my wife and kids thought I was done. They looked great with just the primer. I believe this was because the leveling of the primer in combination with it's high viscosity lay's down like a lacquer paint. No texture after sanding the primer (400 grit) as opposed to some slight orange peel texture left by the 4" Whizz velour roller I used when applying the Breakthrough. I applied the primer using the best 4.5" Wooster 3/8" nap roller for smooth finishes. 
You will never achieve a totally smooth finish with roller and brush, you would need to spray the paint using an airless or HPLV sprayer.
Do note that this is not a weekend job. Prep is everything, painting is the easy part. I have well over 80 hours invested so far. Mind you I am very meticulous about my work. Hours and hours of sanding were spent. I did not remove all paint from the cabinets, rather I removed paint that I had slopped on 5 years ago with no prep other than washing the cabinets. Wrong move as the paint was delaminating/chipping everywhere. It looked good for the first few years but this paint had to be removed completely. I sanded down to the base paint (cabinets were painted once before with a good quality paint) and did expose some of the oak. Lesson learned the hard way. I had to do it right this time and in the end it was worth it. I will post some pictures soon, I got to reassemble and mount new hardware. Stay tuned! Good luck!!


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