I’m a professional decorator who’s just had a little issue with Valspar. In fact, I’ve calculated my economic loss to rectify the issue will be about £430; new materials, fuel and consumables, plus additional labour. I only quoted £400 for the job to start off with!!
So far, I’ve shelled out on their paint, consumables and fuel, plus wasted two days, this takes me to the £400 quoted. With the additional above loss, it’s going to stretch me.
Valspar boast a superior colour matching service, and all I did was ask them to match a Tikkurila colour for me. The colour is close enough, but the actual paint had no body to it. I applied 6 coats, and I still wasn’t happy. This paint had no coverage at all and it showed a lot of imperfections such as flashing etc.
I appreciate this was always going to be a difficult colour to work with, but six coats and a base coat isn’t acceptable. Especially for a paint which boasts to be made for professionals and demands a premium price. Considering the finish, I’m afraid to say, I’m less than impressed. There are serious problems with Valspar V700 Emulsion!
You’re only as good as your last job! I’m sure Valspar will deny that it is anything to do with them, but I think they have over-promised when they say they can match any colour. I’m sure if you’ve tried to get certain colours from more established brands, they will not have a formula, or advise if you’re cross tinting between bases, as they’ve come across these problems (not all colours can be tinted to certain bases for a plethora of reasons;- light fastness, flashing, coverage etc – don’t ask me why I’m not a chemist!).
If it doesn’t go in in four coats, it shouldn’t be mixed, nor should it be sold as a “trade paint”.
It’s our reputations at stake, however we must rely upon the advice and expertise of the suppliers to facilitate our businesses. Sadly, this appears not to be reciprocated, as their profit protection for their shareholders comes first.
I’m sure this will be divisive, as I’m sure that most of you all will not have had an issue. Nor am I attempting to besmirch the name of Valspar (a very well-established US brand, however the U.K. has different legislative standards e.g. VOC etc) as I’m sure we’ve all had issues at some point with other brands. However, being self Employed, it hits us first, it inconveniences your customers, it damages your reputation and knocks your confidence a bit.
I’m hoping that they will hold up their hands and take it on the chin, as I feel I have so far!
My apologies for the grainy pictures below-
A Different Decorator on a Different Job – Problems with Valspar V700 Emulsion
I know it’s a slightly different product, but I bought the Valspar V500, followed the manufacturers advice to the letter in terms of prep and drying time between coats. I finished applying the 2nd coat of the colour at the end of the day, after allowing 3-4 hours between 1st and 2nd coat (manufactures guidance is 2-4). I then went to bed that day feeling a sense of achievement.
I woke up the next day to check the room and found my wife standing there in tears. All the paint had cracked like alligator skin. Also flaking and peeling in places. Not happy, but luckily Valspar have a Guarantee for peeling, cracking and flaking.
So I reached out to Valspar, but they said I had to contact B&Q. I did just that, but B&Q wanted all sorts of ridiculous information. They then said it was either an issue with damp (walls were fine, no damp issues at all) or I didn’t allow enough time between coats (even though I followed manufacturers advice). I was offered a gift voucher to cover cost of more paint!!!!!!!! I’m really not happy as its going to cost me a fortune to get the walls skimmed and then prepped. So, I insisted they raise the problem with Valspar and asked a rep to visit.
Lip service from Valspar, who agreed that it was not a damp issue and the prep was perfect, but simply assumed that I applied the paint too thick and/or didn’t allow enough time for 1st coat to dry. Regardless of the fact I’ve used the same materials and approach to 2 other rooms with almost perfect results. I had also gone over my prep with a builder friend of mine who’d never seen the result in over 30 years.
So the offer is still a gift voucher and they are not interested in standing behind their guarantee. I’ll never touch Valspar paint again and the customer service is really poor as they simple don’t care.
BOOOOOOO Valspar!!!!!!!!
Problems With Valspar V700 Emulsion – To visit Valspar’s website, click here
I thought I’d chip in with this, as I’ve also had problems with Valspar V700 emulsion. Although in general terms I think the overall quality is good; you can’t use it in strong colours like red or dark blue. It’s like the base can’t take that much tint.
It’s strange really, because Valspar is owned by Sherwin Williams, who are the biggest paint manufacturer on the planet. You’d think making a red emulsion should be within their capabilities. It clearly isn’t though, even after half a dozen coats of Valspar V700, a dark read still doesn’t look solid.
All the normal colours are fine. Opacity is good, it’s a durable emulsion and the overall finish is good. The only problems come with deep bases.
Hi I too have had problems with valspar paint. Fortunately for me I am not a decorator and have only used it in my flat on embossed (l that’s the term) wallpaper. I decorated jun 19 and several coats later managed to get a finish that still looks patchy to me but not so noticeable to guests. My bigger problem though is the smell and ill health I’m suffering from the paint, since the weather has been warmer. I even have a brain scan coming shortly due to my headaches. I have Googled and found this to a widespread problem. My questions are, as professionals have you come across this before and am l being slowly poisoned
Our batch number is 81289 51816674 TM1 1128 & 81289 51816674 TM1 1125
I’d be interested how you get on with B7Q and Valspar.
Can you share your batch number?
I’ve also had problems with Valspar paint in 2018 and now again in January 2019. The same foul smell which varies day to day in ferocity. We’ve been experiencing abnormal headaches too and wonder if this is related. Zero response from Levi at Valspar. They offered “as a gesture of goodwill” to refund the paint costs. However we not have to not only treat the existing walls in some way, but to repaint also. This is going to cost a small fortune to put right. In all my years of painting and using various paints, this has only happened with Valspar. I’m awaiting to hear from B&Q…
Hi mike
I too have had a problem with Levi at valspar. He told me he would refund the cost of the paint but not the money for painter and the cost of the rectifying paint.
I have contacted trading standards who have advised to claim against the shop the paint was purchased from. I am in the process of doing this now. Your feed back would be appreciated.
We had a similar problem with Valspar paint and the hideous smell. B&Q were actually quite good at the time as BBC Watchdog and The Times newspaper had both reported on the issue. B&Q gave us new materials that were supposed to ‘seal in’ the horrible smell and stop the headaches/ bad health we were also suffering (me pregnant at the time!). However two years on, the smell has been seeping back through and I can’t stand to be in our bedroom unless the windows have been wide open. We contacted B&Q and Valspar again who now want nothing to do with us and have said we are an isolated issue…doubt very much that we are. We paid a reputable quality painter to apply the sealant and paint that they supplied to us so nothing we could have done incorrectly!
I have just decorated my daugthers bedroom using Valspar V700, albeit we are not professional decorators, we have painted enough rooms in our years to know that the paint used was awful. It took several coats and still looks patchy. The lighter pink we used has eventually started to look slightly acceptable, albeit you would have though painting onto cream walls, there shouldn’t have been any patches. It did take about 3 coats though.
Now onto the feature wall painted using Sporty pink, looked beautiful when poured out of the tin, but a complete mare to work with. Again totally transparent and patchy. The wall has now had 3 coats and still has patches.
I am going to have to go back to B&Q to complain about this and see what solution we can come up with to paint the feature wall and not have any patches.
I can honestly say it’s the worst paint I’ve ever worked with. Painting onto a cream wall a dark colour, the last thing I expected was it to be practically see through and when you ran the roller over it to add more paint, it actually had the opposite effect and was like an eraser rubbing it off!
I have also had problems with Valspar paint, every colour I have bought is not the shade on the card, I spent two days changing paints around which have cost me £400 pounds in builders costs, I went to B&Q bought a tester liked the colour, went back to buy the v700 and it was completely different from a nude colour to bright yellow DO NOT BUY VALSPAR I WANT A REFUND !
I purchased Valspar Tropical sunset for a feature wall, unfortunately the wall is a feature for the wrong reason. I have similar issues where the emulsion does not cover evenly and despite regular mixing, the cutting in lines and a colour bleed are noticeable. Very disappointed and will be discussing with B&Q.
I have purchased Valspar trade white emulsion and a week later our bedroom smells like a load of cats have urinated in there.!!! Any suggestions I read this was supposed to of been sorted back in 18. I’m on to B and W but to think we will have to do the room again is a nightmare
Painted my alcoves with valspar grey shade onto a light colour and 3 coats later it us still patchy, never had this happen with any other make beore. Extremely disappointed.
Where do I even start?! Firstly I wished I read the reviews before applying this useless paint on my freshly plastered walls!!
The whole paint has gone bubbly and flacky within an hour or so. All the walls need redoing again and it will take ages to have them looking as they were to start with.
It’s just simply cannot believe what it did to all the walls!!
Unfortunately I had not seen these complaints before shelling out £49 on Valspar V700 paint. I have just finished trying to paint with it and its an absolute nightmare, very thick and gloopy! If you go over it again it rubs off and leaves it looking a right mess. Don’t know about the smell as its only just gone on and waiting for it to dry to see if I can rectisy it with another coat. very very disappointed. Use something else.
Same here, it’s a right nightmare wasre of time and money, l painted the wall and when l painted over the previous brush stroke it took the paint off.
Hi we too are having problems with Valspar kitchen and bathroom emulsion we are now on our fifth coat and still patchy know having to go and get another 2.5 ltr tin which now will have cost us around £80 up to now for covering three walls one of which as cupboards on it dreading painting feature wall hope this will cover better with it been a dark colour which I paid £27 for so disappointed that to paint four walls as now cost over £100 😱
Bought the valspar my husband decorated the bedroom he was losing the will to live the paint was a nightmare to put on and now the smell in the bedroom is bad like cats urine we have used this paint on many occasions without any problems also bought a tin for the living room which will not be used I am going to contact customer service about this to much money to lose
Yes! This exactly. I moaned on FB, they promised me someone will contact me but it’s so annoying to redo a job you had allowed 2 days for and I haven’t got one wall done properly yet. Got 2 tins of the stuff, I don’t even want to open the second tin. Thick, gloopy and peels back off it you go over it with a brush or roller.
First time purchase of V700 Valspar paint (Sept 2020) I had the colour matched and mixed at B&Q, disappointingly, the end result colour, was nothing like the colour I had chosen? However, after painting a sample patch on my wall at home , the V700 valspar patch dissolved the previous 5 layers of paint underneath the patch? What on earth, is this paint made of, to chemically react this way, to a previously painted wall? I now need to ‘fill’ the affected area, to ensure I have smooth wall. I do not recommend this paint and am hugely disappointed with my purchase.
I have the same problem, our main bedroom absolutely smells of cat urine when the sun shines through, I purchased the paint from B & Q Bedford Interchange they told me to contact Valspar direct. After many emails back and forth with their customer service I feel I am still being fobbed off. I was told to purchase a dulux product and to apply within an hour this was at my own expense. Valspar could help me if I had the receipt for the paint, it was nearly 6 months and investigating my house including digging up plants from our front garden thinking it could be these that were giving off the smell before I discovered it was the emulsion on the walls, I told Valspar this and who keeps receipts for a can of paint after 6 months.
Warning Do not risk buying Valspar products.
I have used Valspar wood and metal on my interior doors and stairs. The paint is peeling like latex. The work was done by a professional and everything else he has done is impeccable. He has contacted Valspar and is waiting for a response. I am going to try B&Q as well.
Mine is the same! How do we rectify, prime and repaint?!
I have had a difficult time too. It is interesting to hear that so many others have complained to Valspar and not achieved a resolution. Their paint is substandard and their customer services are woeful. The smell from the paint does not go, even after using the recommended sealant and Dulux emulsion. The whole process has been a total pain.
Wish I’d seen these comments before! I’m on my 5th coat of a customers bedroom walls and it’s so embarrassing. They chose the paint and granted it’s a dark colour but 5 coats is ridiculous. I’ll definitely be getting in touch with Valspar. Job should never have taken this long.
My husband is now doing our kitchen, he is complaining that its glupy,it does say not to water down. After reading all reviews am now getting worried as its not a cheap paint like others wish i had read these before.
Just used Valspar on my sons bedroom. I so wish we’d seen these comments. Very very patchy after three coats and could do with another. But I am not spending any more money on this totally inadequate paint. An array of impressive colour cards belies the fact that it takes numerous coats of this transparent gelatinous paint to cover adequately. A large company like B&Q should be listening to their customers and withdrawing this product.
Peeling paint. Eventually got refund after proof of peeling paint whether over Valspar, Leyland or Crown undercoats, on lining paper, caulk, new or old plaster. 2 different batches. Had to scrape back all paint and three of us wasted two weekends. This paint turns undercoat to chalk. Not fit for purpose. Not a pro but a keen diyer for over 30 years and never had issues like this before.
Hi, I just wondered if you could tell me the name of the shade of pink in the pictures? I’m always looking for pink paint this bright but so far valspar haven’t been able to get close!
Do not buy unless you want everything you put up ,including pictures will get stuck to this sticky paint ,I have been decorating for nearly 40 years ,I got a mix at B&Q ,I never realised they used Valpar, it was always Dulux trade ,anyway I got my mix and painted over paintable wallpaper and the paint is still sticky after 3 years ,to get the pictures extra off I will have to force them of taking the wallpaper with it ,I bought a silk mix ,the mix was the colour I wanted to my regret.I am going have to redecorate, but I will use only Dulux or crown paint ,I have never had any problems with these.
I’ve been decorating for 25 years and I’ve recently done a customers full house (walls and ceilings) with Valspar and every room has cracking and peeling and the only way i got rid of it was to sand/scrape down and use zinsser BIN on the affected areas before painting again, it just doesn’t sit right on other paints, mainly where it was new plaster and i used another watered down paint as the 1st coat. I don’t know what’s happened to valspar but this never used to happen. Absolutely awful now and won’t use again, ever!
Awful paint The perfect White emulsion flaked off after drying it pulls the paint off the wall when applying and is very patchy an absolute nightmare to use..I have had to seal the wall and hopefully this last coat stays on.again wish I had seen this forum before but this crap £45 for 10ltrs
We’ve just spent/wasted 2 weekends painting the living room, v700 paint it’s awful, peeling paint everywhere on flat walls and corners. Newly plastered walls which were primed and dried correctly now ruined. Returned to B and Q where we purchased it but they are not interested-yet they sell this stuff. Really upset
We got some exterior masonry paint mixed in store. We had the house scaffolded and paint applied.
Less than a week later after some rain the paint is bubbling and now flaking and cracking.
This is supposed to have a 15yr guarantee and it lasts one week. Absolutely shocking.
I paid a decorator to paint my living room in an aqua shade (Valspar). After he left I noticed several patchy areas & blaming him for not being very good I bought more of the same paint to go over the walls myself. 3 coats later it is still patchy! Wasn’t the decorators fault at all but the quality of the paint
Had trouble with B and Q / Valspar paint recently.
Awful odor after painting.
Valspar have offered vouchers for new tin of Valspar plus £80 towards the cost of a sealer.
Refused offer as I won’t use Valspar again and they can pay for the cost of redecoration as far as I am concerned.
Have given them seven days to pay or my solicitor (covered on my household legal insurance) will take them to Court.
BTW, have been told, by a competitor’s paint manufacturer, that Valspar paint is made by Crown Paints in UK for B and Q
How did you get on with getting a response? We have a similar issue and we are considering legal action as well.
Wish I’d read this sooner too 🙁
Just finished my 2nd coat and it looks streaky… thought it was my poor DIY skills or a bad roller choice but i’ve never had this issue with Dulux Trade.
I regretting my lazy decision to go with what was in B&Q.
To be fair, the Valspar base coat was good… its just the v700 seems so watery/weak in comparison.
Hopefully I can get the colour matched with Dulux and then paint over…
Wish me luck!
Here’s a good one (2/7/2021).
Purchased Valspar one-coat exterior sealer CLEAR, 4 year guarantee on fences. Applied per directions. approximately 6 months after application noticed some areas of decolorization. Now 2 years later the entire exterior large fence is discolored and “flaking” forcing me to completely remove the Valspar finish and apply a new, another brand’s, paint. Valspar’s remedy is to refund me the one 2/3rds empty can that I still had in my possession. They base this 1 can on “since I did not keep the purchase receipt nor the empty containers…except the one”, All the pictures, Batch number from the retaining can, obviously their product but NO on the 4 year guarantee! I imagine it cost me 12 hours to remove their old finish, 5 cans of a new vendor’s paint, and then installation again….and their FAIR solution is the refund of 1 gallon of their prouct!
Bedroom painted 2years ago with Valspa emulsion and found it faded very quickly, put it down to bad workmanship with decorator. Had my lounge painted last year with Valspa and again it has faded and become very patchy. Can’t understand B&Q selling this substandard paint as they must have had many complaints with this paint. Never had any trouble with Dulux mixing paint.
I had the misfortune of using the “premium “ valspar v 700 Matt emulsion colour was Kentucky blue grass a deep deep green. I knew it would probably take 3 coats but 5 coats !!!! Client bought the paint I told her i could get it mixed in the trade shop I used so it would be trade quality but she was adamant colour wouldnt be the same. In fairness the deep bases are not always as accurate so I went with the valspar bad mistake. £49 for a 5 lt tin is not cheap but the product is very inferior to trade quality. Avoid at all costs
We’ve had so much trouble with this paint. Our small toilet was done around four months ago and still smells awful. The coverage of the colour pieces of eight was absolutely diabolical. We took it back to B&Q and complained as it had taken four coats and still looks uneven and patchy. They replaced it with another colour as by that time we’d had enough of gold. We chose princess heartbreak for our lounge. Got it home and started the usual process of decorating. Filling cracks rubbing down and undercoating. The first coat bubbled. We waited the correct no of hours between coats. Some bubbles pulled back but others stayed. Further bubbling occurred after the second coat. Some bubbles are huge others tiny. My husband contacted Valspar and was told it must be either that the wall is damp or it had something on the surface that has reached to the emulsion or that the sun was on the wall. This happened on all walls painted some much worse than others. My husband asked if we need to buy another type of undercoat ie primer and was told no. There shouldn’t be any need to prime. Eventually they offered a voucher to cover the cost of the 5 litres which he agreed to. We went to replace the paint at B&Q only to be told that the V700 has now been replaced by Premium. Also the paint colour had changed. No more princess heartbreak just heartbreak. When we explained the problems the woman said that they’ve not had any complaints. Strange but that’s where we got all the paint so far and we were told by one lady that they’ve had a problem with smell and that had been sorted. They need to realise it hasn’t. We started the lounge again after rubbing all the blisters and bubbles out and hay presto it’s done the bloody same again. You can imagine we’re just about sick of valspar paint and even though we used it and was so pleased with it a number of years ago and thought we’d use it again we won’t ever touch it again. A friend of ours said the same. Brilliant a few years back but utter waste of money and time now. What do we do now apart from pull our hair out and start again we don’t know.
Interesting to read the above
Comments. Bought Valspar premium from B&Q. Colour mixed to Farrow & Ball Old White. I am not a professional but have always painted my property and have never had a problem with Dulux or Johnson’s paint. Prepared walls and applied as recommended. After 2 weeks some areas feel tacky to touch and the paint is peeling. Not sure how to proceed. Do us a primer and then repaint with a different brand or do I need to remove as much of the paint as possible? I will be speaking to Valspar and B&Q.
B&Q Valspar water based gloss still sticky on all of our boat’s plywood locker tops 3 weeks after application with correct undercoat. I’ve painted for years and no what I’m doing. It’s a product failure. Can’t put the newly upholstered boat cushions in until we fix it. Think I’m going to blowtorch and sand and start again. Sheila perhaps we should each reference this thread in our complaints to B&Q so they can’t fob us off with an isolated problem answer. I want my money back. Is like compensation too but realise I’ve no chance. Do not buy this overpriced valspar paint. It’s useless and in the unlikely event it ever did dry – 40 degree heatwave 3 weeks after it went on and that didn’t even make it cure hard! – it will clearly not be able to withstand any wear and tear.
I too have numerous problems with valspar premium ,not covering after 4 coats , skimmed plaster wall ,left 10 days in well ventilated warm room , two mist coats 60/40 at least 24 hr between each coat ,started to paint with valspar for my top coats 4days later , very poor coverage, every brush mark every roller mark showing leaving very patchy walls , 1st coat left a couple of days, 2nd coat same process and third ,new tin then bought as coverage so poor , 4th coat ,still very patchy and could be scratched off,started to research on line ,oh dear numerous reports of same problem,still doubting myself ,I then applied a coat of zinsser peal stop after much research on line ,excellent no longer able to scratch off ,rub off the valsper ,couple days later applied zinsser 123 primer sealer to be extra sure applied 2 coats over couple of days ,again excellent coverage and finish . Right I thought done everything I can so continued topcoat after a few days with newly opened tin valsper after doubting myself not paint ,big mistake . After 4 coats leaving at least 24 hr between coats coverage awful ,patchy attempted 5th coat and stopped after doing small area as still not fully covering .Researched more on line , there is a plethora of reports on line from professional decorators and experienced DIY individuals complaint of same problems . Also reports of valsper using any and every reason to not take responsibility blaming the customers ,b and q responding in same way ,no refunds only if not happy with colour and a very convoluted process but still having to use their paint at the end of it . Long story ,I know ,I have been painting in many old / new property’s over 42 years different textures ,types of walls am not professional , I have never experienced this problem in all the many different makes of paint I have used ,it has been a very costly ,time consuming ,frustrating experience ,do not use this paint .I will be approaching valsper and b and q re a refund but hold little hope after reading so many complaints of same problem and no refund given ,even valsper testing the same batch as had been used by a customer reporting back to them …no problem with it !!! They have a real problem on their hands but refusing to acknowledge it , if I get a refund I will post back on this forum.
Do not buy
We bought premium Premium Valspar New York City Winter for bedroom walls, that had been thoroughly prepared.
The first coat was difficult to put on as the roller would pull off its own paint if you went over the same area, as you do when you lay off/ even out the coat. So I switched mid job to a shorter pile to try and minimize this problem.
I had extra sanding to do to attend to the roughness caused by the above.
After waiting two days, I applied the second coat. This time, blisters formed, all over the place- including in the roller tray ie it is the product reacting to itself.
I have tried, removing blisters, filling (as some are deep and left patches missing) sanding and repainting. I have done this seven times. But now the walls are flashed (side on you can tell where it has been recoated as it is shinier,) plus there are still lots of blisters, inc. new ones, that keep reappearing. My 5L tin is nearly empty and now my walls are worse than they started and I have lost the best part of a week.
If other people are not having trouble then the paint must be inconsistent, or they have stock standing on the shelves for too long. Not worth the money and certainly not worth the time.
I won’t go into this too much but I had blisters on my walls too, I ot my money back as I was totally willing to go to the small claims court for the paint and my time. I got my money back.
I still liked the colour so I purchased valspar trade paint and this also blistered but I discovered that it doesnt liked to be worked so one brush stroke with the correct amout of paint has worked for me, it blisters but the trade paint is a much better matt finish and doesn’t have the slightly shining plastic coating cealing the moisture and blisters in.
I won’t ever use again