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How to fix Dulux Renovation Range benchtop "orange peel" effect?

Terrible finish on the primer coat.

Very 'orange peel' like effect. We are very disappointed with this result, but I am concerned it is a prep issue.

For most of the benchtop and splashback tiles: we cleaned thoroughly with sugar soap, and gave a quick sand with 400 grit orbital sander. Wiped down with wet cloth after wards, twice.

This benchtop is 30 years old, has some surface wear and could be some pretty baked-in grime.

We have also patched a hole in the benchtop left from the old sink (new sink is smaller), this involved a new sheet of melamine covered chipboard.

The paint on the new melamine turned out fine, anywhere I had to sand the old benchtop quite heavily when making this repair also seems fine.

Is this a prep issue? Do I need to heavily sand the whole benchtop, and tiles?

The paint seems worst near the stove, suggesting to me that oil or other contaminants in the laminate are the culprit?

First pic: overall finish

Second pic: near stove

Third pic: new melamine covered chipboard

Fourth pic: splashback tiles

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Lilbug

Dried pics

Going to try sanding it back with 180 until wood grain texture is gone, polish up with 400, and repaint.

Might get some orbital swirls, if tactile will probably try smoothing further.

EricL

Hello @Lilbug

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about the Dulux Renovation Range.

I'm sorry to hear that you did not get a satisfactory finish on the surface of your melamine panel. I suspect that it could be due to heavy oil and grease contamination on the surface of the melamine panels. The primer has drawn back on itself instead of spreading evenly over the surface. This reaction is often a sign that the surface still has contaminants on its surface and is preventing the primer from properly adhering to the surface.

I agree with your analysis that it might be necessary to sand the surface heavily and wash it with products that will strip the oil and grease from the surface of your panels. I propose testing a small section with lower grit sandpaper and washing the surface with detergent and water to remove any trace of oil and grease on the surface. If the primer lays flat and does not draw in on itself then it would be safe to conclude that the surface still had contaminants on it and that extra preparation is needed.

I've forwarded your photos to the Dulux Service Team so that they can provide some feedback as well. As soon as they respond, we'll let you know.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

MitchellMc

I want to sincerely apologise for the delay in following up with you regarding your Dulux Renovation Range project @Lilbug.

You were entirely correct in your assessment. When there are issues like the orange peel effect on a benchtop or splashback, it is often caused by surface contamination or uneven adhesion, and the usual approach is to sand back the affected area and re-coat. I can’t say for certain what caused the issue in your situation, but your observations about oil and grease contamination near the stove make sense.

I did contact Dulux about your case, and they confirmed that a sanding and re-coat procedure is typically the way to achieve a smooth, even finish.

I’d really like to know how your project is going and whether you were able to resolve the issue. Please let us know if you need any further advice or assistance; we’re here to help get your benchtop and tiles looking their best.

Thanks again for your patience and for sharing your experience.

Mitchell

Lilbug

Sanding back took a while, but the primer went on ok.
No major issues with the colour coat, but the clear coat went terribly.

Initial issue was working the paint too much, seems you have less than half as much time to rework compared to the colour coat otherwise the roller lifts the coat and it becomes very rough.
Had to sand that back - we did score a free second tub of paint since the instructions are wrong on the tin AND on the Dulux site, and there is another post on this forum from someone at bunnings specifying better instructions, and when i called the Dulux help line they said basically the same thing. This seems to be a known issue so probably worth communicating better.

Second clear coat when on and didn't have the issue of roller marks, got a new issue though - lots of bubbles.
In an effort to avoid reworking the paint we were using more of it, the latest diagnosis from Dulux is that we used too much paint which allowed the bubbles to form when laying the paint, even when using minimum re-working (though any late reworking made EVEN MORE bubbles). This we have not been able to confirm since we were done painting before they opened again on monday.

It seems to me that with the correct instructions, which are actually quite simple, you could more reliably get an even coat with a clear finish - why the Dulux video dumbs things down so much that you are basically guaranteed to get a bad result is so deceptive it is grounds for a full refund frankly.
It's so bad that I had to coerce my wife into even letting me sand between coats to knock the bumps and bubbles back, because the instructions didn't mention any sanding which implies you should NOT sand.
Unfortunately my wife is 38 weeks pregnant, we did not have time to wait days for a Dulux response (closed over weekend) and most paint section employees (tried two bunnings on both days) had very little knowledge of the product, or painting in general seemingly since no-one knew why we were getting bubbles (too much paint according to dulux). We have had to forge ahead with our bubbly mess.
The bench is now drying, and i will need to attempt to sand and polish it after the fact to an acceptable finish due to the issues we had, this will take at least 8 hours, probably more.

Here are some learnings which you may consider having team members communicate to anyone who buys any renovation range products (it would help with the Colour coat as well but is MANDATORY for anyone buying the clear coats)

Advice / troubleshooting in no particular order, that could have prevented most of our issues:
- Watch the Dulux video, the amount of paint on the roller is probably good advice (too much may cause bubbles) but it is NOT an exhaustive guide (more like marketing material)
- If you are getting bubbles in the clear coat, you are probably using too much paint; use less and rely on multiple coats for clean coverage (just having a trouble shooting section with stuff like this written somewhere would have saved us a TONNE of remaining work).
- work in small sections, e.g. 2 roller widths wide, and 60cm deep for a kitchen benchtop.
- DO NOT go over the clear coat after being laid; roll paint up, roll back beside that first roll, lay off betwen the two rolls and the previous section, move on. Do NOT go back for touch ups or it will ruin the finish - wait for it to dry and sand it back before the next coat instead.
- do not cut in separately to rolling, do it in EQUAL sized sections just before rolling; if the cutting in is done only a minute or more ago, the roller may lift the paint where it overlaps the cutting in, causing a rough finish.
- Maintain a wet edge! plan the roller direction and any turns for the whole bench ahead of time to minimise any overlap with anything except your last wet edge - difficult with a U shaped benchtop but can be at least minimised.
- Dont be afraid to sand between layers to smooth it out and knock back any high points - use fine grit (400 was enough for me mostly); the clear coat will gum up the sandpaper very quickly, recommend waiting 24 hours if any significant sanding is required and WET sanding instead - can do a whole benchtop with one piece of sandpaper this way.
- Any undesireable texture in the finish will be sealed in or compounded over subsequent layers, if you see something you don't like try to soften it before re-coating (especially important after finishing the colour coats before starting the clear coat)
- Keep a fresh roller aside, replace the roller if it is looking worn at all. Possibly worth recommending a new roller per coat for the clear coat though this should probably be tested.

Below: First clear coat - rough from going back to roll paint that had begun to cure, suspect this happens in less than 60 seconds, maybe less than 30.

Lilbug

In order to salvage our result, I will be attempting a polish of the clear coat using sandpaper, and possibly automotive cutting and polishing compounds, though I was hoping to avoid that.
Bunnings does not sell this sort of thing, so I would be going to supercheap or something.

For anyone else thinking of doing the same, the plan is:
1. Hand WET sand with sanding block or 'large hand sander' to start with - 400 or 600 grit

- Note: waiting a minimum of 24 hrs for wet sanding is required - i will be waiting 2 or 3 days to allow a better cure before beginning the finishing process (can't install the sink until after 7 days anyway)
- Idea is to flatten out the top coat, removing high points and bubbles until we get to the main surface of the coating where some inevitable orange peeling will have occurred.

- Using pretty fine sandpaper to minimise chances of creating scratches that are too deep to reasonably resolve with finer grits later.

2. Continue WET sanding with finer grit - moving to 800 and 1200

- May switch to sanding without a block depending on results, so the the whole surface can be sanded rather than just the high points (do not want to risk sanding the whole top flat and cutting through the clear coat to the colour coat)

3. Clean and assess

- If it looks to be good, keep going to finer paper until an acceptable finish is achieved or no improvements are being made

- Have 2000 and 3000 paper to move to if it helps

4. Polish with some kind of cutting or polishing compound (note: not food safe? don't put meat on your counter tops though)

- if the finish is not good enough after 3000 sanding, find and use some kind of buffing compound, probably 3m or some kind of automotive liquid polish.

- Will probably use a buffing machine

All of these steps will be performed on a smaller bench section that is separate to the rest of the bench to test results before we start on the main section.

Will try to remember to post results.

MitchellMc

I’m really sorry to hear about all the issues you’ve experienced with your project @Lilbug. It sounds like it’s been a very frustrating process, and I completely understand how challenging it must have been, especially with time pressures and trying to get a smooth clear coat finish.

Thank you for taking the time to share your detailed experience and all your learnings. I’ll be passing your feedback directly on to Dulux and our team so that they can consider clarifying their instructions and guidance for future customers. Insights like yours are really valuable and can help improve the support and information available for this range.

I hope the wet sanding and polishing approach helps you get a finish you’re happy with.

Mitchell

Lilbug

Finished polishing, it is a significant improvement but not perfect due to the suboptimal paint application with not enough sanding between coats.

Wet Sanding Process:

Sand with 400 until surface is even or close to what you want, use a sanding block or hand sander.

If there are significant low or high points use your hand instead of a block or you will sand through the clear coat trying to get it flat.

Use enough water for the paper to glide easily; if it catches or gets suctioned to the surface, use more water.

Next sand with 600 or 800 until it no longer feels rough, indicating the scratches from 400 are gone. Do not sand too much.

Keep stepping up the grit, sanding until it feels smooth with that grit.

Use circular motion and light pressure.

Go from 600 to 800 if you used 600, then go to 1200, 2000, finally 3000.

After 2000 you should be very careful what you wipe off the water with, paper towel can cause light scratches, use microfibre cloth.

Do a final sand with 3000 with very light touch and circular motion.

Now we can move to polishing.

I used Turtle Polishing Compound and a hand held foam applicator from Supercheap.

Dampen the applicator, get some compound, and start a small section (30x30 cm or so).

Apply decent pressure, but not enough to overly deform the foam applicator.

Circular motion is good, but you can also go in straight lines, alternating periodically to go perpendicular to the last direction.

As the compound starts to dry, ease off the pressure and use a light touch over all covered areas to finish.

Get a wet cloth to carefully wipe the area clean, dry with clean microfibre cloth

Repeat as needed.

I got a high gloss with this approach, but there are some surface irregularities due to the poor roller technique which cannot be polished away.

I would suggest that if people are struggling with the rollers, you suggest they switch to large brushes instead and polish the result. Where we used brushes to cut in there were no bubbles, so the sanding and polishing process produced a flawless result.

It would also probably be less work to sand flat.

Photos in the next post.

Lilbug

Approximately how it started

After 600 grit

After 800

After 1200

After 2000

After 3000

After polishing

After final polish

Bottom middle of bench, you can actually just about see my phone, taking the photo.

Here's a different angle showing what you would normally see when in the kitchen.

EricL

Hello @Lilbug

Thank you for that update, the finish looks amazing.

Eric

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