Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After reading the reviews of this product I was terrified to use it, but really wanted a dry erase wall. So I called the Rust-Oleum customer service line and asked them a number of questions based on the reviews I'd read on Amazon. Here's what I learned to make this product work successfully. 1. The number one reason for product failure is expired product. End of story. This paint is only good for one year from date of manufacture. To determine the manufacturing date, look at the number printed on the bottom of the large can. Let's say it says 83219R. The representative told me to disregard the first and last digits and look at those in the middle. This paint would have been manufactured on February 19, 2013 (year is first, then month, then date). If it's more than a year from manufacture return it because it will fail. I realize this contradicts another excellent review that said to look at the last digit on the bottom of the can. It's possible that Rust-Oleum changed their numbering system and may do so again. When in doubt, call. I also would not purchase this product online because you can't personally check the cans (sorry, Amazon). The first cans I bought at Home Depot were indeed expired and when I exchanged them for newer product Home Depot put my expired cans back on the shelf and pretty much ignored what I said. So some other poor sap is going to have a dry erase wall from hell. I would suggest checking every can before purchase, period. You can hold a summoning and bring Michelangelo himself back from the dead to paint your wall, but if the product is expired it will suck regardless of who puts it on. 2. The second reason for failure is using the product too long after mixing. It's only good for 60 minutes after mixing the two cans. Period. If you start to get clumps, bumps or whatever it's been out too long and will fail. Don't put it on the wall, call Rust-Oleum and pitch a fit. I used a disposable paint tray and did the cut-in work last so that the freshest paint was rollered on to the largest portion of the wall. I discarded the disposable tray when I did a second coat so that there was no product older than one hour mixing with the fresh product. The fresher, the better. That seemed to work really well. 3. Rust-Oleum says that two coats is sufficient. I disagree. When I had put two coats on my wall it was evident that the coverage was uneven so I added a third coat. This seemed to work. A fourth probably wouldn't be amiss, either, but I was honestly getting tired of this whole saga and decided three was enough. So far, so good. 4. Use the rollers that they recommend. If you don't, you get bubbles, sticky drips, etc. When using the recommended rollers it went on exactly as described. I got the wrong roller when I went back for the third coat and had to re-do it with a foam brush to get rid of the bubbles - tedious, to say the least, but I deserved it for taking a shortcut. So follow directions. 5. Once it's dry use the recommended markers - no low odor! We used expo traditional markers and they were just fine. The expo remover is also helpful in cleaning off completely, when you just erase it does leave a faint mark. My 8-year-old can clean the wall just fine, and the fact that he cleans anything is a miracle enough to give a positive rating. 6. It is not necessary to skim coat, sand or otherwise reconstruct your wall prior to painting. (Reference previous comment regarding Michelangelo.) I simply painted the wall with a good primer and applied the dry erase paint over that. Your wall can be as smooth as a baby's backside but if your paint is old your writing won't erase, you will be pissed off and come to Amazon to write a scathing review. You don't have to kill yourself with renovations to make it work! After the wall had cured we tried drawing on it and it worked fine. My son is drawing super heroes to his heart's content without the mess of a chalk wall. They erase beautifully and he moves on to the next theme. So, success!! I gave this product four stars because I believe Rust-Oleum needs to seriously examine their packaging and consumer education. It needs to plainly state how to identify if your product is expired. This isn't a fast moving product so it's very likely stuff on the shelf in your store is going to be expired and the product is getting a bad reputation because people are using old paint. They also need to train their front end people (Home Depot, Lowe's, etc.) to pull old kits so that more people have successful experiences with fresh kits. They also need to stress not mixing old paint (more than one hour old) with new paint. So don't pour your new mix into your old tray with remnants of the previous kit. It's more complicated than the chalk paint and their packaging and directions need to reflect that, but don't. So yes, we have a totally cool dry erase wall, but I practically had to get a Master's Degree in Dry Erase Studies to ensure it was successful. It's worth it if you plan ahead and make sure you're getting the right product and using it as directed. Good luck! ****UPDATE**** 1/28/2015 I've had the wall for a year and have had very few problems with it. If you leave something up for a long time it doesn't easily erase with the eraser but comes off without difficulty using Expo cleaner or Windex. Different colors of markers are harder to get off, like purple - but again, Windex removes everything so it's not an issue. I'm really happy with this purchase. There are no stains and it looks fantastic. UPDATE FEBRUARY, 2016 Here's a picture, two years on. Any smudging can be removed with the expo cleaner or Windex. It looks a little yellow because I took the photo after dark. Honestly, I'm pretty happy with it! FINAL UPDATE, AUGUST 2020 This year we finally decided to paint over the dry erase wall! It has served us well, although the last two or three years it had developed some hairline cracks in the surface. They didn’t seem to change the wall’s ability to be wiped off at all, though. It performed extremely well to the end! To paint over the wall, we had to first scuff it with a sander. Happily, my son is now old enough to do some of this home improvement stuff himself and that was his job. It took him about a day because it was hard to break through the surface of the wall and I don’t think paint would have stuck to the surface without preparation. Once he had scuffed the wall, we skim-coated with joint compound to make absolutely sure the scratches were covered and we once again had a porous surface for paint to stick to. I’ve added photos of that (very dusty) process to the gallery. We then painted with a paint/primer combination from Behr. It looks really good! I’m sad that he’s aged out of the dry erase wall, and I can definitely say it was a very good investment. I’ve got a picture of my son with the former dry erase wall in the background. It’s the wall behind the computer desk, it turned out nicely, no problems with the paint sticking. Good luck to all of you, and thank you for all the upvotes over the years!