Canvas coating question

[felix5616]

I print on breathing color lyve canvas and spray coat with clearstar C coatings. Is there any advantage/disadvantage in coating the back of the canvas after coating the image?

[langier]

Just spent the last year and a half coating close to 800 large canvas. The only advantage I would guess in coating the back deliberately is to the seller of the coating. That said, using my Daige EZ Glide coater does coat the back of the media a little, though not too much.

In doing it by hand for smaller print runs, I certainly don't coat other than the image and can't think of a good reason to coat the back.

[bill t.]

For installations in high humidity areas like bathrooms and hot tubs, I usually put a thick coat on the bare Gaterfoam backs of my already mounted prints.  Have had no feedback from such customers.  Assuming no news is good news those pieces may holding up OK in those problem locations.  Use plastic moulding.

I suppose you can hermetically seal a stretched canvas with enough coating on each side.  Maybe that would prevent sagging or tightening in installations subject to wide humidity swings.  Or maybe that would create as yet undreamed of problems.  At the very least it would probably glue the folded corners of the canvas the bars, given enough time and no matter how dry the coating.

[darlingm]

Also, true Gatorboard is not acid free.  I'm going to start doing some Gatorboard mounting soon, and am planning on coating the back of the canvas to hope to prevent any issues that may arise from this.

[Peter Le]

Also, true Gatorboard is not acid free.  I'm going to start doing some Gatorboard mounting soon, and am planning on coating the back of the canvas to hope to prevent any issues that may arise from this.

     Just adhere your canvas to Gatorboard with Miracle Muck and you have an inert barrier between them....

[bill t.]

I agree on the barrier comment.  Not much chemistry can occur in a dried glue plane that is itself sealed from moisture on both sides.  If you want to be totally acid free, try Lamin-All from Drytac, which is just like Miracle Muck but "pH Neutral."  I think sodium bicarbonate may be involved.

I have to guess that a bare canvas substrate would glue a lot more securely than a coated one.

And BTW, most glossy canvases are fairly acidic in their own right, although the labels on the latest boxes of Epson's Exhibition Canvas Gloss now state that it is "Acid Free."