Paint won't dry! Please help!?

Question

I primed and painted a birch desk with high quality paint and it looked great. After applying the second coat, though, the weather became extremely humid and rainy. It has been that way for three days and the paint won't dry. It feels sticky and looks like it has condensation on it. The weather is supposed to continue to be VERY humid and stormy and the desk is outside under the porch. What should I do to fix the problem? Should I bring it inside to dry? Should I try to soak up the condensation with a towel? Is my desk ruined???

Answer 1

Bring it inside to dry. Leave it alone until it dries then sand lightly and recoat. If it does not dry after being inside for a day or two email me and I will be able to help you save the desk. It is NOT ruined but it may not be a simple answer if it does not dry soon.

Answer 2

Personally, since you already know you'll have to repaint anyhow. There seems little reason to even waste time waiting for it to dry of its own accord. I'd get a 'scrapper' and start scraping off the paint. Once that is done I'd sand it with a 150 grit paper then move to the standard 220.
At this point I'd bring it in the house to paint it all over again. I would make absolute certain though, I am not putting thick layers of paint on. I'd make sure my coats is thin, just barely enough to cover, so if you're doing this by brush ( which I assume you are) the tip of the brush should be the only part that gets dipped into the paint - not the major portion of the brush.

I am not sure if this is even an issue of not but whenever I use paint I try to keep my products matched. If I use a water based primer then I use a water based paint, as well.
Maybe if you did mismatch that has part to play in the condensation on top.

Also remember whenever you are sanding wood to sand " With The Grain"

Hope it all works out for ya .. ..

Answer 3

This may be sending you in the wrong direction, but, some high quality paints are two parts, one part "paint" and one part catalyst. These two parts need to be mixed in order for the paint to dry. If the paint you used requires a catalyst and it was not mixed in the pain will never dry and the only thing you can do is strip it off and start over. I hope I'm wrong but three days is a long time to blame it on humidity.

Answer 4

Bring it inside, be patient , let dry completely, and if it still has to be painted with a third coat, try sanding with wet/dry sandpaper(220 grit) Latex semi-gloss paints will take a while to cure but they eventually will. But really you should have used an oil based finish. You may always feel as if the top is sticky with latex. They have latex based finishes that are quite good but they never tell you which one to use. 100% acrylic is the one. Just regular semi-gloss latex that you put on walls isnt the one you should use for painting a desk top. I hope that this has helped and that you can finish your desk and use it for many years to come .

Answer 5

Not sure if there's any difference in weight regarding liquid and dry paint.

Answer 6

At this point the top coat is probably reuined. Trying to dry it with a towel or anything will only leave fibers and a wierd texture. Your best bet would be to let it dry then gently remove the top coat. If your luckey the primer will be in decent enough shape you can just repaint it when the weather conditions are better.

Answer 7

don't apply paint in woods without paint thinner. Let the first coat dry and clean it with a sand paper before applying the second coat

Answer 8

Nah, not ruined, unless that really is water on it. Water will cloud the paint.
You should try to get it inside to finish drying. Air conditioners do a good job of drying out the air indoors, so that should help.

Answer 9

leave it until it eventually dries then sand off the ruined paint and start again with better weather conditions

Answer 10

blow on it