Oracal Peeling

[stickerhead]

Maybe someone out there can help me with this...... A local sign company hired me to install Oracal Removeable calendered vinyl on interior painted walls that had a 2 week curing time (according to the contractor) before the graphics were applied. These graphics were installed 5 months ago. Now they are peeling off the walls. The sign company and the customer want to know why. From what I remember of the graphics, there was a liquid laminate on the people, but no laminate was used for the 16" stripes that went around the store.
Some of the images that have peeled, make it a perfect opportunity for someone to peel it even more which one of the pictures will show. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rushworks graphics]

were the walls freshly painted? freshly painted walls need to outgas for awhile before you apply anything to them....just a guess.

 

[iSign]

funny... I looked at the thread title before I clicked on it & was sure it said "orange peeling" which I took to mean something to do with paint having a textured finish, weather intended or not...


and then I saw the pics & thought... oh, the color orange... and something to do with vinyl peeling...

and now i get it that the orange is the wall... and the post title was "Oracal" peeling...
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but, I have to ask... is the wall flat? is there any orangepeel texture?

I had to redo an expensive job once, when a client said their walls were flat, and the job was on another island, so a site inspection would have been costly... but I got there with calendared vinyl... and even though it was not a "removable" product... it removed itself almost overnight... and I went back with cast vinyl & the job held up fine for over a couple years now

 

[sfr table hockey]

You said the walls were painted and had 2 weeks to cure.

What kind of paint? Latex or Oil? I know latex takes a long time to cure even though to the touch it dries faster than oil. Not for sure but something like 6 months for latex.... someone else can chime in here.

Do you know how long the graphics sat after being printed before install?

Also notice that the cutout is right to the edge of the print image, no white space. Edges can tend to curl if the print was cut right after printing and not leaving a bit of unprinted edge.

 

[MikePro]

Oracal Removeable calendered vinyl on interior painted walls. These graphics were installed 5 months ago. Now they are peeling off the walls.

there's your problem. you get what you paid for.
You're using a clear water-based removable adhesive, and all it needed was a little bit of moisture in the air to attack your adhesion, loosening it over time, and naturally calendared material tends to shrink... resulting in ideal conditions for edges to curl.
i only use cast materials on wall graphics that I intend to last. For like $1 more per sq.ft. you add YEARS to the product. Upsell your client next time, or at least make them aware that for cheap product you yield cheap results. I print, loosely unwind the core to breath and outgas for at least a day, laminate, and voila! Zero failure. Needing white around the edges is nice, but not required if you take the time to properly prepare your graphics.

edited: Also, if you DO go economy... shop for PERMANENT adhesive. I use MacTac 5828P and its held up, outdoors, for 3-4 years no problem. PITA to remove, but I deal with that when it comes to it... i usually end up just applying over it anyways. I still won't use it on wall murals, as stated above.

 

[toomeycustoms]

Which oracal vinyl? I have a roll of the 3268 and have trouble with the edges curling even if I leave a 1/4" white border and let it outgas 24 hours. Looking for a different removable wall media.

 

[speedmedia]

I wouldn't say that is your bad, it is either the type of paint used of the fact that they used some cheap vinyl not meant for this application. Happens all too often!

Now instead of saving money on this project they have to re-do it and eat the cost. Stupid!

Kurt

 

[HulkSmash]

It's not your fault. It's the cheap vinyl.

 

[stickerhead]

Wow...... After I posted this we lost power to our whole block due to a thunderstorm.

@iSign: There was a texture on the wall where they used latex paint.

@ SFR: It seems weird to me that the cut-out images are peeling, but not the 8' x 40' mural where the prints were cut to the edge.

@MikePro, Speedmedia, Coloradosigns: I'm not a huge fan of Oracal, but this company doesn't listen when I tell them it's not a great product. When I see some of the stripes peeling off the walls an hour after application and point it out to them, they shrug their shoulders and say "no one will notice". The job is for a "non profit organization", so I guess that's another reason they went cheap

I'm really not familiar with liquid laminate. I'm curious if that would have anything to do with some of the peeling. You know, like how you paint a wood board on one side and the board curls.

Thanks for the comments!

 

[SamFeatherston]

It's not your fault. It's the cheap vinyl.

Using that logic: the expense of the vinyl should over come the suitability of the substrate. Unfortunately its not that easy.

Here are some links which discuss wall graphics:

http://www.oracal.com/products/_docs/prod-bulletins/WallGraphicApplicationTips1.pdf

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/...E3E02LECIE20S7I6_nid=5XSBJ7XM9ZbeZ5XD8VSJMWgl

I hope these links help.

Sam

 

[Mosh]

removable vinyl, well looks like it works!

 

[CanuckSigns]

There seems to be about 1 thread a month around here that have to do with removable wall graphics peeling off the wall, generally all the complaints are about the vinyl based "cheap" removable media.

9 times out of 10 the manufactures guidelines of leaving a 0.75" unprinted bleed around the vinyl was not followed.

Usually the solution to this is to use photo-tex, it's a bit more money, but you can print right to the edge and it will not curl, also it's a fabric so it won't shrink like the cheap calendered vinyl will.

if you have to use the cheap removable vinyl media, follow the manufacturers advice and leave an unprinted edge.

 

[thewvsignguy]

Not to sound like a broken record but I have said it before the Oracal 3268 wall vinyl does not and will not work. We tried it with several different combinations, different printers even the oracal recommended print/cut procedures like leaving up to a 1/4" boarder but it's the oracal wall film that is the problem.

We use the Avery 2601/2611 wall film and it works great without laminating and we cut to the edge without any lifting or edge curling.

I just read that Oracal has a new and improved adhesive for this film but I'm not wastin' the $100 to try it. We found what does work and we are sticking to it.

It's nothing in the paint, printing, out gassing, laminating, or application process it is the film itself. Good luck!