My client hired a finisher for her paint grade cabinets. This is his plan.

All the wood will then be sanded, and two undercoats will be applied.
The wood will then be re- sanded and all open joints will be caulked.
STEP 3: Two coats of the customer’s colored lacquer will be applied to
all areas. The entire cabinet is sanded & 3 coats of clear finish are applied.

Never had any finishers use clear over colored. Is this ok?

7 coats of finish

I rest my case.

I'm with Adam - what crazy system requires 7 coats for a cabinet door?

I do see clears used over pigmented sometimes, but it's pretty rare and usually for some good reason.

There is no obviously good reason to do it here, and unless you are careful with what you use, you are going to shift or mottle the color/etc

Bob,

Back in the day, using primarily nitrocellulose - lacquer - I always clear coated over opaque/paint. The reason was that nitro was so susceptible to damage that the added clear coating served as a protective barrier albeit a weak one due to the chemistry involved.
These days with the readily available cv's (conversion varnish) and 2pk's (conversion urethanes) the inherent chemistry is vastly superior in terms of chemical resistance and abrasion. Using these coatings, lots of folks and production companies no longer use a clear coat for added protection.
I still do. Call me old fashioned, or whatever, I firmly believe a final clear coat not only adds a protective barrier, but also
imparts depth to the painted product.
To your situation.
- Find out what coating system this painter is using.
- 2 primer coats these days is not standard, dependindg on the quality/condition of the white wood( unfinished/raw) product, as well as species of wood. I.E. if the wood is poplar then 2 primer coats might make sense. soft maple is the go to wood for paint grade projects.
- Some folks will typically apply 2 coats of paint without a final clear. I typically apply 2-3 passes ( for me, 1 coat ) followed immediately with a final clear - essentially a wet on wet. This is with cv's or 2pk. Dry milage remains within manufacturers specs.
- 3 clear coats does appear, on the face of it, excessive. Again what coatings system is being used? And ask for at least 2 samples: 1 with the proposed system, 1 with 1 clear coat, 1 with just paint with cost differences. Ask painter to justify 3 clear coats, judge the results and decide.

Why? Are you subcontracting the finisher and responsible for their work? If the customer likes the finisher's work, it's between them.

IF the total film thickness of the finish - all 7 coats - is more than 5 dry mils, then, it's not "the best practice." If the total film thickness of the fibnish is between 4 - 5 dry mils, absolutely it's fine.

How many coats of lacquer are sprayed on a Steinway piano? Orrrr, how thick is the finish before the finish cut down and hand rubbed? It's about 10 dry mils, nitroce4llulose lacquer, not polyester.

My answer applies to lacquer, precat, post cat, the all of those.

Stay within the parameters that I mentioned and you're good to go. That said, ordinary lacquer usually doesn't make for much of a durable topcoat for cabinetry. It's usually meant for residential furniture (not office furniture and not institutiobal furniture) and for instruments such as guitars and pianos.

The advantage of using a lacquer system is that lacquer is so forgiving, so easy to work with, so easy to repair, and so easy to reverse.

There's nothing wrong with basecoat/clearcoat finish systems if they're applied properly.

Regarding previous comments here about the number of coats, no one asked about or mentioned anything regarding how much thinner is added to the coats of lacquer. Lacquer by uitself doesn't have much of a solids content, and it's solid content is reduced significantly if you add in your lacquer thinner. All this affects how many coats it takes to achieve your targeted dry mil thickness.

There you go.

I do it all the times
However I don't follow the same schedule
I have my finish technician to tint my primers to the desire color and then top coat with clear
The reason I chose to go that route is because I do a lot of repaint on kitchens and bathrooms and when spraying vertical sections ,the clear is more forgiving than pigmented top coat
I don't get much sags
So I do 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of clear
For my clear coat I like to use Krystal from MLC
CV has a higher solid content so no need to put more than 2 coats

Master,
You are spray Krystal on re-paints in the field or bringing the cabs to your shop?

MarkB

I spray on site
I take all the doors and drawer fronts to my trailer that I converted to a spray Booth
I use zipwall to seal myself in the kitchen/bath and spray the cabinets
So any vertical sections are my challenge!

I would say it is quite common to spray clear over coloured with compatible materials.
Not common to have so many coats of material. My question would be why? Material is not cheap and labour is even worse.

I agree with rich c. Let him do his job. Will your client pay you for what you are doing? If yes then follow the shenendoah instruction.