Chalk paint has seen exponential growth in its popularity over the last couple of years as more and more people realise that it offers a unique look and feel when compared to other paints. There’s nothing worse than painting a surface perfectly with your chalk paint only for it to end up scratched though so its not surprising that we see so many people asking how they can keep chalk paint from scratching.
As we only expect more people to reach out about preventing their chalk paint from scratching in the future, we have decided to publish this article to try and help as many of our readers as we can. There are a number of different techniques that you are able to use to your advantage to prevent your chalk paint from scratching off and causing problems and we will be covering what we feel are the best ones in this article.
Now, we know that we are going to be covering a number of sub-topics within the score of making sure that you don’t accidentally scratch your chalk paint and ruin it so we have added a table of contents below. It should allow our readers to quickly and easily skip to any section of the article that they need by clicking the sub-headers below to save time.
How To Keep Chalk Paint From Scratching Off!
The quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to prevent your chalk paint from scratching off is to take advantage of a chalk paint wax product. You simply add the wax on top of your chalk paint to form a protective layer and it will take all the bumps and knocks that would otherwise be taken by your chalk paint to prevent it scratching.
There are a number of different chalk paint wax products on the market that you are able to use to do with an they are all very budget friendly. We also have a dedicated article going over how many coats of wax you should apply to your chalk paint too that should be able to help ensure that you can prevent it from being scratched by adding just the right amount of wax.
Applying a layer of wax to protect your chalk paint can work very well both indoors and outdoors but due to the changes in temperature and exposure to the elements, wax is usually recommended for chalk paint that is outdoors anyway. We have a more in-depth article going over how you can seal chalk paint for outdoor use too as the process does tend to be slightly different due to the different conditions. The sealing process for chalk paint on outdoor surfaces should stop it from being scratched easily though.
Why Is My Chalk Paint Scratching Off?
Chalk paint is generally a weaker formula than other paint types and will naturally be easier to scratch off. Applying a single coat of chalk paint to a surface or using chalk paint on an unsuitable surface are two other common reasons your chalk paint can scratch off easily too.
The majority of the modern chalk paint formulas clearly say that they require two or more coats for the optimal look and feel on their label. As very few people actually read the labels of their paint, a huge number of people end up applying a single coat of chalk paint when painting and then end up with a number of problems.
We have an article going over how you can fix chalk paint that scratches off with your fingernail that may be helpful if you have already applied your chalk paint to the surface. As with most things, prevention is better than cure but people are often in a rush to apply their chalk paint, make mistakes, noticed that chalk paint is scratching off, and then have to fix it later.
Does The Type Of Chalk Paint Matter?
Low quality chalk paint formulas are common and they tend to scrape off much easier than the higher quality paint formulas. There are actually higher quality chalk paint formulas on the market that are cheaper than some of the low quality, easy to scratch formulas too.
Due to this, we usually recommend that you use a decent chalk paint where possible as it really does offer much better performance than the low quality paint formulas. Not only will it be harder to scratch off but it is also less likely to flake off while also usually having better color retention and being much less likely to flake in most situations too.
Even if you do end up having to pay more for a decent chalk paint formula to make sure that it won’t easily scratch or scrape off the surface, it tends to only be $5 to $10 more than the absolute cheapest formulas on the market. This can actually work out cheaper than having to fix poor chalk paint jobs too in many cases so it usually worth doing right away and applying a quality chalk paint to get the job done right the first time.
Will Chalk Paint Ever Be Scratch Resistant?
Although modern paint formulas for some of the other popular paint types have made great advancements when it comes to keeping the paint scratch resistant, this is unlikely for chalk paint. This is due to chalk paint naturally being much weaker than any other paint type, especially paints that contain gloss in them making chalk paint easier to scratch.
Although there are some more robust chalk paint formulas on the market that are advertised as being tougher, they usually offer little to no additional protection when it comes to scratches on the paint. This is why we just recommend that our readers go with the normal chalk paint formulas and try to apply multiple coats of the paint or use a wax product on the paint once dry to reduce the chances of having problems with scratches.
We have seen a number of people online suggesting that if you add various household items to your chalk paint and mix everything together prior to applying it that the paint will be scratch proof but this is not correct. The majority of the time it does little to nothing and in some cases can actually make the paint look much worse that it otherwise would.
How Do You Fix Scratched Chalk Paint?
The easiest way to fix scratched chalk paint is to just paint over the top of it with some new chalk paint if possible. This makes blending and repairs much quicker and easier while keeping the overall look of the surface the same once the new coat of shark paint dries.
We have seen people suggest that you try to sand your chalk paint down in the area with the scratch or that you try a paint filler product on top of the scratch. Although they could technically work with other paint types, the unique look and texture of chalk paint makes then stand out like a sore thumb.
This is why we recommend that our readers simply apply a small amount of chalk paint over the scratch to fix the problem. It keeps everything looking the same and is usually much easier to do than using some of the other suggestions that we see people making when it comes to scratched chalk paint.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over how to keep chalk paint from scratching to an end. We hope that you have found it helpful but unlike some other popular paint types on the market, chalk paint is naturally weaker and more prone to scratching so there is no magical solution that can totally prevent scratching. We have gone over what we feel are the best options for the majority of people in our article above as well as how to fix any scratches that end up on your chalk paint and they should be able to help the majority of our readers.
