The prep for painting UPVC is the same for ABS and other common plastics.
Cleaning
The first stage is cleaning the UPVC. Depending on how dirty it is, this may first involve hosing the UPVC down to remove dirt, or soft washing it. This will remove tough build-up and debris like mud, bird droppings and squashed bugs.
Once the surface appears to be clean to the naked eye, it is wiped down with either a solvent-based wet wipe or a microfibre cloth sprayed with a solvent-based cleaner. This removes contaminants from the surface. The solvents evaporate but leave behind a little bit of residue, which acts as an adhesion promoter.
Masking
No matter how carefully paint is applied, if the masking isn’t on point then the whole job will appear amateur.
Masking is an art form. Just as anyone can buy a paintbrush, anyone can buy a roll of masking tape, but it takes care and patience to make good use of it. We’ve used a wide variety of tapes over the years. We like FrogTape, ScotchBlue and 3M Blue, which come in a variety of thicknesses for different surfaces.
A significant amount of plastic film is also used. This is made from polythene, a 100% recyclable material. It’s used to cover brickwork and the UPVC itself, with masking tape used to fix it in place and cover up nooks and crannies.
That’s it!
The next stage is painting. Our process sees three coats of special solvent-based exterior UPVC paint applied. We don’t use a dedicated primer because we don’t need to. The solvents in our paint act as the primer on the first coat with perfect adhesion. This means we use less product (better for the environment) and can complete jobs a bit quicker than average without sacrificing quality.
Fancy a quote?
Call us on 0800 037 0658 or email us at info@bespokeupvcsprayers.co.uk. We can provide a rough quote on the phone or a detailed one in person.
