Literally translated, additive is an addition. It’s something you add to another substance to make it work better for the job.
You can have additions anywhere.
Including food.
I used to work in the meat industry and there are also additives to make the meat last longer.
The additive that is widely used there is brine.
Additives in paint
Also, there are many additives in a paint.
Paint consists of 3 components.
A dye or also called pigment, a solvent and a binding agent.
In addition, an additive is added.
This is about 2% of the total liquid.
An additive can be an accelerator, which ensures that as soon as you are painting, the paint dries faster on the surface.
The additive only works for a certain amount of time.
When the paint is dry, it is finished.
Additive is also a hardener, a retarder, provides extra shine and that the adhesion is better.
You will not be able to continue working faster without this additive.
Additive with many possibilities
I will hereby list a few additives that I use a lot and that can prevent a lot of problems.
The first additive I use a lot is floetrol.
Floetrol is a retarder.
If you want to paint a ceiling with a latex, you often see deposits.
This has to do with the open time of the latex paint.
An open time is the time of application and drying.
Because you add this to your latex yourself, you have more time to roll it out and so you prevent deposits!
The second additive I often use is owatrol.
When you paint outside you often have to deal with rust.
When you treat this rust well and then paint it again with an addition of owatrol, you prevent rust formation in the future.
Another advantage is that owatrol makes the paint smoother.
A third additive that I mainly use outside is a hardener.
This ensures faster drying of the paint.
You can already use this at temperatures above 5 degrees.
I personally use it because I see through rainfall radar that it’s going to rain that day and then put a hardener through it.
There are also paints that already contain additives.
They are also known as finishing paint.
Has anyone ever used an additive?
Do you have a comment?
Then leave a comment below this article.
You can comment under this blog or ask Piet directly
Thank you very much.
Pete deVries.
@Schilderpret-Stadskanaal.
I'm Joost Nusselder, the founder of Tools Doctor, content marketer, and dad. I love trying out new equipment, and together with my team I've been creating in-depth blog articles since 2016 to help loyal readers with tools & crafting tips.