Thread: Paint Surface CHecking

Some species, such as Douglas fir and Meranti are well known for surface checking. Meranti can be stopped completely with a thin sheathing of cloth, set in epoxy. Douglas fir needs a thicker sheathing and there's no guarantee it will stop the checking.

If the surface just has a few coats of epoxy, then is painted, there isn't sufficient reinforcement in the epoxy to prevent the checks. Meranti very often will stop checking with just an epoxy coating, though usually you'll have to apply a thickened layer to hide the blemishes.

There are other species that do this as well, but since you're an American Clint, I figured the two common species here would be what you're attempting to cope with.

Without the cloth, you'll continuously chase down surface checks. There is one product that I know that will permit the surface checks, but still stay attached. This is truck bed liner. This stuff is a two or three part polyurethane that will absorb the movement under it and stay stuck. It will not hide the newly formed checks, but it will stretch to keep them covered. It goes on thick (at least 30 mils) so it's heavy, but it does work very well. Color choices and gloss retention are limited, but custom colors can be mixed by most manufactures. Some of the formulations can be over coated, others not so much. This fairly new breed of polyurethane is over taking the industrial coatings industry. It has a very long life span, which recoups it's high initial cost and it's durability is unmatched. It's just not very shiny.