Hello, I am thinking about going after residential re-sprays. Just the thought of all that light good paying work is getting me excited, To be honest I have only done two. One fifteen years ago, one eight. I know the people. Both were sprayed with pre-cat and still look good. No moisture problems even around the dishwasher.
I plan on marketing myself as a pro and charging accordingly. I feel I owe it to the people to use the best finish. I have sprayed a ton of pre-cat but never CV. I believe any decent pre-cat is going to be functional and look good for 20 plus years based on my limited experience. It is easy to spray, cheap, and durable. Why should I switch to conversion varnish? Thanks

I had just the opposite result with Precat when I did my own kitchen. Glad I used conversion varnish on the other kitchens I built. It's going to be a rare customer than doesn't mind the out gassing of either of those finishes in their homes.

I was thinking only solvent based when I made the comment about off gassing. Maybe you are referring to water based.

Hey Joel,

I 100% would not use pre-cat for this purpose.

I have personally seen many mid to high end kitchen totally ruined by using pre-cat, even "decent" ones.

I've pretty much only had the opposite experience of you - most kitchens i've seen redone were originally done with "good" pre-cats, and rarely done with "good" CV.

Despite what you say, there is often a ton of cracking/peeling around high moisture areas pretty quickly.

A number of these kitchens have no-overhang + inset cabinets. For these, every pre-cat install i've seen started having issues pretty quickly.

I can believe that in a full-overhang, non-inset, low moisture, kitchen that pre-cat can survive quite a while.

Overall, i'd offer that if your view on pre-cat (fast enough, cheap enough, durable enough) was correct, the industry would not have moved on :)

Thanks for the responses. I guess it's time to switch at least for kitchens. One more question though..have you had any problems with CV sticking in a re-finish situation? Thanks

Joel
I refinish kitchen cabinets
I use a white vinyl primer then use a CV like the MLC Turino
I catalyze the WVP like the instructions suggest

"WVP,I put that $#!& On everything!"

As far as pre-cat vs post cat
I think it depends on the product you use and if it is applied correctly
I get calls sometimes when a homeowner needs their cabinets touched up
I recently visited one that I personally installed the cabinets about 10 years ago
Cabinets are from Kraftmaid
Lots of paint peeling/rubbing off
Mainly on the sink base
Other areas not as bad but rubbing through on doors near the knob/pull
I know for a fact that Kraftmaid uses a CV but I'm not sure what brand
But that's not the only time I've seen this with Kraftmaid
I've used pre-cat on kitchens before many times
I used MLC Magnamax or Magnaklear
I never had a problem
As I stated before, when refinishing cabinets and not sure what's on it
I always use white vinyl primer

Thanks mastercabman! Good tip.

What is an equivalent water based product to white vinyl sealer?