Wall primer not smooth.

John Kuryloski

In our new home the drywaller primed the walls. For some reason the primer is not smooth but has a slight pebbly tecture which is noticrable in some light and places. Even with two coats of paint the walls are not smooth. Are there any products available that would smooth out the walls?

joecaption

It's called sand paper.
If it was rough after priming that's when it really should have been sanded.
There is no magic cover mistakes paint.

Matthewt1970

What Joe said. Even if you think you have the cleanest paint in the world, sand beteen coats. A pole sander makes really quick work of it.

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Latex Primer: Good for Drywall, that's about it.
Behr Paint: The plastic buckets are good, that's about it.

Brushjockey

^ all of that- a bit more explanation. If the primer was just sprayed on it would hang on the dust and the sanding and be rough. If it was rolled on it would also raise the nap of the wallboard paper a little, particularly where it was sanded. It in both cases needs a pole sanding before finish coats.
Usually all it takes.

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ltd

imho a slight stipple texture is desirable ,of course with out being up close a personable to see whats on your walls ,i cant say for sure.

chrisn

Because tha "drywaller" did not clean the walls before priming, then did not sand after priming. Drywall guys hang drywall, painters paint.

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jsheridan

A lot of new construction painters are not the most conscientuous. I've seen guys go through with sprayers prior to cleaning the sub floors and just blow floor debris all over the walls along with the primer/finish.
I would take some eighty weight paper and sand them down. You might use a sanding pole, but I think it's more effective to take a full sheet of paper, fold it in four, and go to town by hand. Now you're right on top of the wall where you can sand and feel your results as you go, and you can adjust the pressure to what's needed. A sanding pole keeps you at a distance. Whenever you're sanding anything, one hand sands and the other is constantly feeling for what needs sanding and the results you're getting. IMO, a sanding pole is good for general scuffing and hitting here and there spots without the need for a ladder, not this type of work.

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ToolSeeker

Just my $.02 but a roller with too deep a nap could have caused this also.

Gymschu

Sanding drywall is becoming a long lost art. Like everyone has said, applying the primer actually raises the "grain" of the wallboard and when it's dry it is fairly rough. Many old-fashioned paint companies had their painters actually sand the walls BY HAND with 220 grit paper. Tedious for sure, but highly effective. After sanding the walls were then vacuumed to remove the dust......again very tedious but it left the walls smooth as a baby's bottom. After the first coat, sand and vacuum again. Thankfully, someone invented the pole sander and the circular pole sander which speeds up the process considerably. For fussy clients I have even used the electric sheet sander.

Of course you can limit the roughness of the wallboard by brooming off the drywall dust BEFORE priming. You still have to sand after priming but at least you have removed about 80% of the dust on the walls.

ToolSeeker

Sanding it's self will rough up the paper some and give this effect. Need to light sand between primer and paint also.

Canarywood1

Could it be that they orange peeled before paint???

chrisn

I am glad I never had any clients THAT fussy.

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Gymschu

Oh, they be out there, Chris. Had a fusspot about 12 years ago. He wanted the walls smooth as glass. Anyway, he was pleased with my work until one day he let out a war hoop and came running into another room I was painting and said, "come here right now this wall is all messed up." "Just look at that", he said. I literally needed a magnifying glass to see a tiny brown spot where a fly had left a spot on a bedroom wall. I sanded off the spot and then he made me repaint the WHOLE wall. Needless to say, this went on the whole time I worked on the house, ugh.

chrisn

I know they are out there, I had one "lady" go over one of my papering jobs with a 7 inch magnifying glass and hand me 2 pages of about 100 different " flaws" she wanted fixed.I packed up and left.

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Brushjockey

I just finished a townhouse repaint that had been HO painted a few times.
You could lacerate your hand running it over the Behr semi infested walls, covered with boogers ( technical term..) and roller fuzz.
It wasn't the client but me that made me get out my porter cable electric sander and trim that stuff down.
Couple of coats of Ultra spec lo luster ( they wanted to save money, i wouldn't do Behr..) and was looking pretty tidy .

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"It's better to come here with questions before you screw up than to come here after and ask how to fix them."- JS