Poor gloss retention

Possible cause

• Use of an interior paint outdoors
• Use of a lower quality paint
• Use of solvent-based paint in areas of direct sunlight
  

Solution

Direct sunshine can degrade the binder and pigment of paint, causing it to chalk and lose its gloss. While all types of paint will lose some degree of lustre over time, lower quality paints will generally lose gloss much earlier than better grades.

The binder in top quality acrylic latex paint is especially resistant to UV radiation, while solvent-based binders actually absorb the radiation, causing the binders to break down.

Surface preparation for a coating showing poor gloss retention should be similar to that used in chalking surfaces (see Chalking).