painting over varnished wood with oil based then water based General decorating topics, questions and answers. find help, tips and advice on completing your decorating projects

[nancyellis]

HELP!
After applying knotting solution, we painted (previously varnised) wardrobes with an oil based undercoat- (recommended to us by local DIY store).
We then went to paint over this today with a water based undercoat because we want to be able to use a water based satinwood for the final finish.

However, the paint wouldn't stick onto this other oil based undercoat and just completely separated on the surface:(

So we tried painting a patch instead with water based satinwood paint and the same thing happened. What can we put over this awful stuff to be able to continue painting the wardrobes?!
Please help!!

[theshedman]

Hi, did you remove or at least sand the varnish before doing anything else to it. From what you have written it sounds as if you put the new stuff straight on to the varnished surface and if this is the case then you will get the problem you have said about. If you did rub it down there should be no need to put on another waterbased undercoat as a satin finish should stick to either.