Painting over builders grade paint

ryan16

Hey guys,

Been lurking around here for awhile & learned quite a bit (I'll be using good brushes, rollers & paint).

The walls in my house were sprayed with builders grade paint & it looks like crap - some areas have runs & other areas feel like sandpaper.

I was planning to lightly sand the walls before painting.

Do you suggest I reprime the walls? If so, what kind of primer do you suggest?

Bob Mariani

you do not need to prime again. Primer is to seal the surface. This is done. Sand as you suggested as well as clean with water and TSP....

slickshift

I'd prime
If you hired me I wouldn't do the job w/o re-priming
As it's cheap paint, and possibly inadequate and quite thirsty, and possibly chalky, it's a good idea
(you don't want to find out later that simply re-painting wasn't adequate, and confidence is high that it won't be)
In fact, if I found excessive chalk while sanding (very possible here), I'd prime with a specialty primer (Zinsser's Gardz)
Other than that, a basic primer should be fine, and will ensure you don't run into problems while applying or later on

sirwired

I would re-prime too. Since this is new surface, I don't see any need to clean w/ TSP, or even scuff-sand. A wipe-down with a damp rag to remove dust should do the trick. The damp rag will also tell you the condition of the paint; if it seems like your rag is pulling the paint off like stripper, then yes, you need some Gardz on there.

SirWired

mazzonetv

I'll echo what another poster mentioned. Builders usually use the cheapest line of paint they can get and the walls could certainly be "thirsty". Priming is always a good idea to ensure uniformity in color and sheen for any paint job - especially if you are using eggshell, satin/pearl, or semi gloss paints. In addition, general rule of thumb is that primer is cheaper than paint so you would rather the wall suck up primer at 15-20 bucks a gallon than paint at 30 a gallon. The other option, and my favorite, would be to use a product like Ben Moore's Aura which is self priming. Two coats of Aura, no priming necessary, one hour recoat, and awesome coverage and durability. The stuff runs $50 a gallon but it beats priming and then two topcoats - much cheaper labor and materials in the long run.

good luck whatever you decide!

Faron79

Yep...Slick wrote the good words here!

Builders-grade paints are like painting over quicksand.
They're also chalking-prone.

ANY primer is a light-year better than NOT priming in this case.

Faron

torpainter

prime or use a self-priming paint Benny moore and other have one
I have started with a good quality eggshell on a builders home and soon realiazed it had just been painted with two coats flat,no primer I used a lot op good paint up gettiing it up to snuff.

ryan16

Thanks for the suggestions. I ended up lightly sanding the walls & priming with Zinsser. It was a lot of work, but made quite a difference. Ready for top coat now but....

We bought sherwin williams duration paint. Its a deep base rust color (not my choice). It says to prime with P5 primer. Do you think I should use the P5 primer to cover the Zinsser primer, or am I crazy?

torpainter

you are good to go

sirwired

Yes, I would prime with the P5-tinted primer. Really, you could have skipped the Zinsser, since you need a tinted hiding primer, but what's done is done. If you do not lay down the tinted primer, you will have difficulty getting the deep color to fully hide, and you might need extra coats of paint. Given that SWP primers are about half the price of Duration, I think this is a no-brainer.

You don't need to do any more sanding though... just lay on that tinted stuff.

SirWired