Painting MDF crown moulding

sk8z

I've got roughly 140 feet of 4 1/2 inch wide MDF crown moulding that a carpenter friend of mine will be installing. It's the "paint grade" pre-primed stuff from Lowe's. Some questions:

1) What's the best way to go about painting it? I just assumed I would pre-paint the pieces in my garage prior to installation, but my friend said he would paint it after it was up. He said it would likely get scuffed/marked up during installation and would need to be touched up anyway. Sounds like a lot more work doing all the painting afterwards.

2) If I do pre-paint it, should I brush it on or spray paint it on?

3) What sheen do you painters use for crown? I was thinking either semi-gloss or satin. It will be going in a foyer and kitchen where the walls are satin (I think...either that or eggshell) and the ceiling is flat.

sirwired

1) It is very common to do one finish coat on the ground, and then a second on the wall.
2) If you have a real airless sprayer, go ahead and spray on the off-the-wall coat. But if the only sprayer you have is some hand-held gadget from BigBoxCo, use a quality brush instead.
3) I personally use Gloss Waterbourne ProClassic from Sherwin on my trim, but SWP sheens tend to run a little flat, so it might be between a semi and full gloss with other brands. Satin is somewhat flatter than most trim is usually painted. You can certainly paint with satin though. With trim, the main concern is usually durability and cleanability. This is obviously not an issue with crown.

SirWired

Jeep

We did one coat on our trim then when it was up we did the second and yes your friend is right it will get marked and you will want to fill the nail holes and corners before the final coat. Get a good quality brush and brush it on or you will get drips and runs if you are not used to spraying.

sk8z

I purchased a couple gallons of the SW semi-gloss extra white proclassic waterborne enamel over the weekend. I was going to start painting the moulding, but was wondering if I need another coat of primer on there first. I read an older thread on this board that advised priming this MDF stuff...even though it's already pre-primed. Is this additional step necessary, or will two coats of paint be fine?