How Do You Determine If Paint Is Latex Or Oil Based?
Painting the exterior of your house is a big investment in time and materials. Choosing the color is the fun part, but you need to know if the existing paint is latex or oil based. If your house is already painted with latex paint, you’ll need to repaint with latex paint. Putting oil-based paint over latex paint is not recommended for exterior surfaces because the oil-based paint does not adhere well to latex. If your house currently has oil-based paint on the exterior, you may repaint with either oil based or latex. If you’re painting an interior surface, you may apply oil based or latex paint over one another with no compromise in quality or performance. Look at the surface of the paint. Latex paint will show marks from the roller or brush used to paint the surface. Oil-based paint shows very few, if any, brush or roller marks. Touch the paint. Try to dent the paint with your fingernail. Latex paint will dent easily with your fingernail. Oil-based paint is harder and will not dent as
