Painting - Which is it?

I thought that you could paint oil on latex and not latex on top of oil. My reasoning was that oil is greasy and nothing will stick to it....that was until I spoke to a person in the store, who said the opposite. Now I'm confused! Ah! Could someone please tell me the correct answer and hopefully a new way to think of it so that I'll always have it straight? Thanks.

Basically the store person was correct
Often an oil-based primer is needed for a latex paint

I'm not sure of a good...mnumonic (sp?) device for remembering that

And technically you can do either, but it's not always a good idea :)

Thankyou! Guess I'll have to turn my head around on that one! LOL!

Although oil primers are often prefered for latex top coats you seldom want to apply latex over an oil finish [without proper prep/primer] The exception is exterior paint. Exterior oil often weathers enough where it is ok to paint over with latex.

You know, I never would have guessed that this question would be answered this way. I figured you would either answer one way or the other. Now I see that there's more too it than meets the eye about paint. I guess I wasn't far off with atleast half of the equation being right when I mentioned that latex won't stick to an oil FINISH....but I didn't know that you could actually get perferred results by inter-marrying them (Oil based primer preferred for latex top coat)
My problem is, that when faced with different surfaces, I'm not sure what kind of paint I should be using for that particular surface. I know one thing for sure, I won't be using tremclad in the house anymore...ugh! LOL! :wall:

My problem is, that when faced with different surfaces, I'm not sure what kind of paint I should be using for that particular surface.

You can always ask us ;)

I know one thing for sure, I won't be using tremclad in the house anymore...ugh! LOL! :wall:
What's a tremclad? Is that like a henway?

A henway is a little more than a lobster roll at Bill's Seafood just west of you.

Dick

Tremclad is an oil based paint and smells! Probably not familiar to you because I'm in Canada.

A henway is a little more than a lobster roll at Bill's Seafood just west of you.

Heh, heh...

Tremclad is an oil based paint and smells! Probably not familiar to you because I'm in Canada.
Thanks
Tremclad=smelly Canadian oil-based paint
Thanks missyclare
Now I learned something too
:)