Holds sticking to paint

Last year I finished building a home wall outside, which included lots of painting. I chose a latex-based paint, and I mixed texture into the semi-glossy topcoat at a ratio of 1 lb to 1 gallon. After a couple layers of primer and a thick gritty topcoat, things looked great. It was probably a month or two later before I started putting holds up.

Unfortunately, despite the texture, the paint is bonding with the back of the holds, effectively gluing the holds to the plywood. With some violence, I can pry them off, but they usually take the paint around the bolt hole with them. It doesn't matter if I put the holds on 2 weeks ago or 6 months ago, they all tend to stick. Maybe I should have used more texture (although 1 lb to 1 gallon was what seemed to be recommended). Maybe I should have used oil-based paint. Too late now.

Holds stick to the paint, despite the texture.

As a quick fix, I put a layer of masking tape on the back of each hold. The paint won't stick to that, but it's slow and annoying to have to do that to every hold. It's especially annoying when it comes time to clean the holds and I have to remove and reapply the tape. Maybe I should just use PAM.

If I could put down a clear topcoat of something that will stick to the semi-glossy paint but won't stick to holds, that'd probably be my ideal choice, but I'm not sure what product that might be.

Perhaps one of you has solved this problem already. Suggestions?

(Thanks)

As a former house painter, I'm wondering if you used oil-based primer. Water-based primer tends to sit on top of bare wood whereas the oil-based sinks in. In your pic, it looks like the primer came right off with the paint.

Obviously not a solution to your problem now. You're kinda screwed outside of replacing all the plywood or sanding/stripping it all down to bare wood, which only a fool would do.

Maybe talk to a paint shop? They might have an idea of what coating you could apply on top to meet your needs. Just try a sample spot 1st.

my holds do that too and my woody is in my garage. I also did a mixture, i used sand and paint. the only problem was if you popped off a hold and your knuckles or finger tips dragged a along the wall it would give you a nice little "road rash" type of skin shredding. So I took the time and scraped all the sandy bumps off my wall and it did make it alot better. Only after I spent all this time and energy doing all this did I come across the best advice about building a woody. --- "if you can smear on plywood you can smear on anything" so next wall I build I wont even bother painting it. (Only maybe if its outside like yours to protect it.)

Happens all the time to me,,,,I know I just am not patient enough to wait out 3 warm sunny days of paint drying before I put up the holds. I just live with it, and if the next hold put up in place doesn't cover up the mess, I end up doing a take-down of a section of wall, and repaint all the tic marks over. My wall is totally exposed to elements all year round, so some seasons I need to repaint the entire wall. I've done maybe 5 repaints of the whole wall in over 19 years. Most of the time it's just patch up, touch up paint over bad spots or where the hold has taken the latex paint off the wall. Some textured areas have held up with no repair since 1989!!!, fully exposed to weather changes of over 120 degrees of heat and cold.

Thanks for the replies.

Primer is water-based. The guys at the paint shop actually picked out the original paint. Still, maybe they'd have some good advice. (Unfortunately, it's 2 hrs driving to reach a place that sells paint.)

Yeah, if it were indoors I would not have bothered with paint. But it's outdoors and exposed to morning fog and Pacific Northwest winters. Picture slugs, moss, mold. The wall is very popular with the tree frogs.

You know... I thought briefly of shellac, and I'm glad to hear you recommend it. I don't really care if it's slick in places. In fact, I'd probably just paint it on around the bolt holes, so it wouldn't even cover most of the wall. So far I think this is my best shot, so I'll probably give it a try!

I waited several weeks (heck, was it 2 months?) before putting holds up. I do think that the wild temperature and humidity swings here have a tendency to really compress the holds onto the wall while also probably making the paint softer in the heat of the day. Not much I can do about that I guess.

Have you thought of putting something on the back of holds (other than tape)? Maybe the shellac/polyurathane suggested above, or some sort of grease like vaseline?

cut out a piece of waxed paper and place it under each hold before bolting it down.

I have access to a sprayer and spayed varnish on my wall and then sprinkled sand on it then sprayed a second coat and sprinkled more sand. My wall is inside so don't have the elements to worry about but the holds do not stick and the sand has held up good. I think the sand I sprinkled on the second coat has rubbed off but the sand in the first coat is still there and gives plenty of traction for smearing. As long as you find a suitable outside product it should solve your sticking problem.

Shellac is an interior primer and not meant for outdoor use. While it will stick to anything and anything will stick to it it is brittle and will not flex well with exterior heat/cold.Exterior latex paint is flexible and soft, depending on quality.Heat will make it softer.When you tighten a bolt onto latex it can do just what happened to you.An oil base paint will dry harder but you can still have the same problem.Adding grit to the paint may be a combatility issue depending on what you dumped in the paint. Live with it or strip it, lot's of fun there.

The problem is simple, you should have used a two stage epoxy paint with a silicite sand sprinkled on the wet surface and then covered with a second coat.

40 years in the construction renovation business, here's my 2 cents worth of advice, your base coat is fuc..d, try applying a unibond adhesive/ primer over the entire surface then repaint with the 2 stage epoxy paint or let the unibond dry and see if you can accept that as a finished surface.

Thanks everyone for weighing in.

Good to know that shellac may be too brittle and not hold up outdoors. I suppose I could still do a test spot.

Vaseline sounds a little messy. I imagine it might also reduce the friction too much.

Wax paper would work like masking tape, but I think tape would still be more convenient.

Rolf, that's a bitter pill to swallow, but I think you may be right. That may be a summer project at some point. Hopefully your post will help some future MP reader with big plans and a fondness for painting.

In the meantime, I've determined that (surprisingly) the dishwasher cleans the holds without actually removing the tape from the backs. So I may stick with the masking tape for a bit longer.

Thanks again.

I am building a wall this summer.
For the textured backing I am gong to use Herculiner roll on bed liner.
I am thinking that will hold up well.

You can put a barrier primer over the existing coating and re- coat with something else but the problem will still be there as the coating has a bonding issue with the .Component epoxies are nasty coatings.

Jeff J wrote:I am building a wall this summer. For the textured backing I am gong to use Herculiner roll on bed liner. I am thinking that will hold up well.

How did it go? same problem?

How can i give it a soft sandy texture but still keep the wood color?.

Hi all,

I want to give my wall some fine texture but still leave the wood color.

Can i add sand or shark grip to the primer?.

i´m thinking of applying a normal first prime coat and in the second coat, add fine sand (or shark grip) steering constantly.

will it work?

I know this post is super old, but we built a home wall to get through the covid pandemic and had this same issue.  We found that applying a thin layer of chalk to the back of the hold stopped the paint from sticking.  I'm curious if this works for others.

If you spray wd40 on the holds before you put them up they don’t stick to the paint. and if you don’t let the paint dry before you put holds up they will stick easier.

You've got several issues all going here it seems at once. How to make a texture on your own for painting the panels.  .How to keep holds from spinning. How to keep holds from NOT sticking to the texture or paint job on wall.    
I'd never add WD40 to my wall anywhere, for fear it would make stuff slick and spin that I don't want to.   A dab of Vaseline jel stuck in t-nut hole will keep it from rusting when panels are outdors all the time.   And keeps bolts turning nicely without rust.   over tightening causes most 'sticky' problems to both textured walls or paint.   Instead of overtightening to keep from spinning add a 'keeper' screw instead.  most newer companies making holds now days either have one drilled out and ready, or an obvious indentation where you can drill to make the hole. Or you just pick a good spot to drill one on your own. A short small screw will usually do just fine , entering only a quarter or half inch into plywood to keep from spinning.   And if you can't get any drill to go through the really strong or thick hold,  you can just place hold in most logical position where you know your downward pull will cause spin, and put that short screw into wood just UNDER the hold on the downspin side.   Cover up screw head with a piece of tape if it could end up slicing a finger when grabbed.   Easy to remove and re loacate hold as needed too  

As far as paint and texture coming off:   We all tend to be in a hurry to place holds and get on our walls, so be patient and let that paint or texture dry really good before adding holds.  IF it sticks to back of hold, and even pulls off some wood,  you just use a wood chisel by hand to scrape it off,  Maybe get lucky and shave off the whole wood and texture piece that came off and get it glued back on to wall.  Otherwise just repaint all the 'scars' one fine day as you change out lots of holds  and again, let it dry good this time too.   Overtghtening I think is main issue for why texture gets stuck to back of a hold and comes off when you move it.  Some textures do it more than others.  Or colors.. We had a wall with purchased Nicro texture on the pre made panels, abut 10 ore more years ago now.  The orange color seemed to be the one that always stuck to holds and needed more patch up, paint overs than our yellow or blue panels did.  

there is a big difference between paint that is dry and paint that is fully cured. Most paint and coatings take 30 days for a full cure.

Kevinmurray wrote: there is a big difference between paint that is dry and paint that is fully cured. Most paint and coatings take 30 days for a full cure.

That's probably true.'Cured' is the word,  My paint seemed 'dry' to the touch.   Even waited two days in nice 70's temps for it to dry,   Forced my finger across paint and not a smear .  But sure enough as soon as the holds were on it,   stickies' happened.   Think the hold kept paint a bit more airtight, and not in sun.  Rest of open wall kept having direct sun to dry out, and the hold offered a total different temp and condition under it for that paint.   I never had peels months later on new placements, They were always on those first holds put up within a few days of paint job, and we all do it cuz we want to get out our walls to climb and not just 'watch paint dry' for weeks.