Paint not drying?

[ViperStrike]

I'm having a bit of a problem with my Cab.
I primed it last week with Kilz primer, 2 coats with no problems. It dried real nice and I left it for 2 days.
Then I painted it black with 2 coats of Behr Satin Enamel paint.
After 3 days the surface is not fully dry. It is tacky to the touch and will leave fingerprints if I touch it for too long.
It's driving me nuts, I'm ready to finish this thing but I can't till it's dry.

I had it in my Garage with is very cold right now and we have had snow recently so I guess the humidity is high as well.
This morning I moved everything to the furnace hoping that will help.

Anyone seen this before? Any suggestions?

[paulscade]

I live here in Florida (very humid)... I had the same problem as I painted my cab in the garage too.  It was still tacky after a full day/night of drying.

I, very carefully, brought the cabinet inside (in the AC)... the tacky'ness was gone in a few hours and it dried completely overnight.

Humidity was the problem for me!

[nuka1195]

you didn't buy the paint at lowes did you?

my friend bought black paint from lowes, don't know the brand. it took months for most of it to not feel tacky.

[ViperStrike]

I got this stuff at Home Depot.
I did some digging and from what I understand it has to do with a few factors.

1. It was very cold in my Garage.
2. It was humid.
3. Dark colors take longer to dry.
4. Any latex paint that is glossy can have this problem.

Now I wish I used oil based paint.

It's been next to the furnace all day, hopefully I'll have a nice surprise when I get home and it will be dry.

[richms]

In my experience, oil based takes longer to dry then water based, the best to get is lacquer paints - none of that turps crap in it, just pure volatile lacquer thinners with its very fast dry and cure times. Touch dry in 20 mins - hard in a day, sooner if you heat it up. Yeah, it costs more but not having to redo it from dust settling in it with the long hardening time of turps based paints is worth it.

[Blanka]

You must paint at room temperature and <50% humidity! Normally a paint dries pretty good on the exterior too, but a garage is often the coldness of exterior, with the bad ventilation and humidity of a basement.
Use similar paint for primer AND final coat: both oil-based or both water based.
With alkyd-based paint (oil), wait 1 WEEK before the next layer, 2 coats in a row is too much. One week might sound sucky, especially if you want 3 layers, but believe me, 3 weeks is crap compared to the lifetime of the cabinet.
Normally an alkyd paint should be dust-dry in 3 hours, and water based paint in half an hour.
Never buy paint at a "Home Depot" if you really care about the final result. Go to a pro paint store! Even the total paint is cheaper as it handles and covers better.

[richms]

I don't think its ever below 50% humidity here, and my water based stuff still dries and cures just fine.

I got a water based metallic paint that I rolled on to my last cab and it was ok except for when it started to dry and I was still rolling it.

[ViperStrike]

I moved it to the boiler room and it dried fine 24 hours later.
It's already in the house and finished. It's not tacky at all anymore and it looks great.