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what am I doing wrong?

2050 Views 7 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Matthewt1970
argh.. I just finished priming a 10x11x8' room (approx 500 sqft paintable area)... it took me 5 hours, and 2.5ga of Zinssers 123 primer. The room was previously painted a light off-white color, but we had the whole house retextured with a light orange peel... so I'm hoping this has something to do with it. They floated all the drywall, and then sprayed on the orange peel, and now I just finished priming a room.

Here is what I am doing in general:
- Using a 2.5" angle brush to cut in the all the wall/ceiling edges and closet/door trim
- The door trim and closet trim wasn't retextured, and it was previously painted with an oil-based paint, so I lightly sanded and primed all of the trim with the brush. The primer applied A LOT easier on the trim; again, I'm hoping it's because of the texturing
- Roll everywhere else with Wooster 1/2" roller cover. I immerse the roller completely in the primer bucket, then roll against the tracks a few times to event out hte paint, and then apply in a W pattern on the walls.

After all of that, I'm left with a half bucket of primer and wondering what I'm doing wrong...
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Sorry if I didn't make it clear.. I have read everywhere that 1ga of primer should cover 4-500 sqft, and I am using double that.
well it should....under IDEAL CONDITIONS, which you did not have.
not your fault.....

DM
k, guess I thought newly textured walls was as ideal as it gets... guess I was wrong :)

One more question; is primer supposed to go on as evenly and smoothly as normal paint? I see tons of lines after the primer has dried... but I applied my two coats of BM Regal and it looks fine. Just wondering if I should expect the same even-ness with the primer..
I generally see thru primer
Primers main objective (I think) is to make sure that the cover coat can stick to whatever is under the primer
That primer is soaking in and sealing the surface. If you were to put a second coat of primer on then you would probably see the right square footage on coverage.
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