Learn me painting a room

In reply to SVreX:

Wow, it worked so well you lost 10-years along the way!

- How many coats of primer do we need You are looking for even coverage. I'd consider 1 cut-in, and 2 rolling.

- How perfect do we need to be with coverage/cutting in? How perfect do you want the job? If you are going to do a sloppy prime job, don't bother. Just skip the priming and go straight to the paint. Kind of like skipping the sanding, bodywork, and cleaning before painting a car.

- Does brand/quality matter all that much with primer? Yep. Crappy paint is, umm... crappy paint. Cheap paint usually has less pigment and more water.

petegossett wrote: In reply to SVreX: Wow, it worked so well you lost 10-years along the way!

Right!

Or maybe it made me prematurely senile and I forgot my age, and I should stop listening to that crap!

When you are prepping/ masking, I'd run a strip of masking tape on the top edge of that stained wood basedboard, sticking out into the room (perpendicular to the wall with only the back edge stuck to the top of the baseboard). It will act as a shield for the paint splatters when you are rolling.

Alternatively, you could have your wife follow behind you as you are rolling with a wet rag, wiping the drips up. They will clean easily while the paint is still wet, but look like crap if you ignore and splatter all over the baseboard.

I said wife becasue she will probably be more patient than you.

SVreX wrote: When you are prepping/ masking, I'd run a strip of masking tape on the top edge of that stained wood basedboard, sticking out into the room (perpendicular to the wall with only the back edge stuck to the top of the baseboard). It will act as a shield for the paint splatters when you are rolling. Alternatively, you could have your wife follow behind you as you are rolling with a wet rag, wiping the drips up. They will clean easily while the paint is still wet, but look like crap if you ignore and splatter all over the baseboard. I said wife becasue she will probably be more patient than you.

Actually, I'm the patient one of the two of us. By far. I'm expecting I'll enjoy this; she will hate the detail work.

I was planning on masking all the wood, and taping paper down to catch the splatter. Will probably still do that, but will also be using the shelf trick thing.

With the primer, does the brand or anything matter, or are they all basically the same? Meaning, I'm not looking to cheap out, but would like to buy something that isn't overly expensive if there is another of the same quality for cheaper.

If your new color is much lighter than the old color, I would consider priming. Otherwise skip the primer. Absolutely primer bare drywall if you care if it looks good (I didnt primer my garage, and it shows, but its a garage so whatever)

Good choice on Benjamin Moore Paint. It costs more, and it is totally worth it. I have tried all the high end behr and valspar paints, and Benjamin Moore blows them all out of the water. Much better coverage with less paint, the paint drips and runs way way way less, it is so much easier to paint edges with a brush.

Spend a little money on nicer brushes. I dont buy the best but I dont buy the worst. I like the stubby 2" blue hawk brand brushes sold at lowes, I think they are $7 a piece and the handle is short so its easy to maneuver for painting around trim and edges. I go with the mid range rollers as well.

Canvas drop cloths are where its at. A lot easier to deal with than a cheap plastic sheet.

Learn to paint all your edges without taping anything off. Just take your time and figure out your technique. Youll be a pro after a room or two and you wont waste time taping E36 M3 off only to have the paint seep in under the edge of the tape anyway.

I just painted this room a month ago, I didnt tape off a thing and painted sharper edges than the previous owners did, and its obvious they tried to tape everything off. This is a 20x15 room, no primer, went from green to blue and only used a HALF GALLON of Benjamin Moore paint. I could not believe I didnt use more paint.

(disclaimer: I painted every room in our old house, some of them twice. with the cheaper box store paint.)

I'm not sure I am a good one to recommend primer. I've always had pretty good luck with builder's grade primer/ sealers.

HOWEVER, I am almost always painting new drywall, I spray, and I sand between coats.

The stuff is a little thin, but it has great bonding characteristics. It's not as good at hiding stains (which is not what I am usually doing, but you are.)

Wait for someone else's feedback.

failboat, how many coats did you use? And do you know what line of Ben Moore you used?

Regal select eggshell finish. I would call it one coat.

I can't add much more than the others, but definately spend the time going over your walls and ceilings and doing any repair work a few days before you paint. You don't want to be held up waiting for repairs to dry. Fill, sand or scrape any imperfections before you even consider painting. Its amazing the things that will come thru your final coat. Use your hands to feel for imperfections, there my be alot more than you can see due to that mottled effect.

In terms of a primer, ppg or Sherwin Williams should have a good 3 in 1. Something that primes seals and undercoats. If you do any filling, spot prime the filler first, then prime the whole wall including spot primed areas. Filler over existing paint is more prone to pinholing than filler on new/raw areas.

Wash your walls and ceilings with a mild dish detergent in warm water mix. Avoid sugar soap completely. If you're not fastidious in removing the sugar soap solution you'll end up with little sparkly imperfections in your final coat.

As others have said, use quality brushware, cheap stuff often drops lint and bristles. You don't want to put in a bunch of effort only to have it looking crap due to having a ton of brush or roller debris in your paint.

With ceiling whites, consider a ceiling White with a small amount of black tinter in it, it helps prevent yellowing and stops it looking so stark.

Cheap paints are usually cheap for a reason, lower pigment counts, poorer quality resins, lower specific gravity, some even use recycled products such as reclaimed pigment or recycled water wash

failboat wrote: Regal select eggshell finish. I would call it one coat.

Good stuff. We have used it in our whole house. But going by the picture I would definitely prime the walls first. The different shading might be hard to cover evenly otherwise.

Also agree with what the others have said about brushes and rollers.

All good stuff here and I just have a couple things to add: If you are looking at any special wamodyne new fangled tool that claims to be able to make the job easier and faster, just note the price, put it back on the shelf, and put that $ towards better brushes. People have been painting stuff for thousands of years and if there was a better tool everyone would already be using it.

That said, often times you can get a little plastic cup about the same diameter as a paint can and 3" or so deep, with a little metal bar that crosses over the center. That little bit of plastic and metal holds just about the perfect amount of paint for cutting in with a brush, and the metal bar lets you scrape the excess paint off the brush without filling up the sealing groove on the paint can. It's the only thing that I'll buy or bring myself beyond a good brush if I have to paint away from home.

Also, you are going to get good with the paint you use, but that doesn't mean you will be as happy with other paint. My experience with box store paint was that one house brand was thin and went on very light but dried quickly and never had a run. A different brand covered much better but was very thick and had to be spread out a lot to keep it from running. While the one brand was clearly better paint for me the other was easier to use. Once you get how to use the paint you choose worked out stick with that brand.

And one good reason for priming, especially for a first timer, is practice. Buy a couple of rollers in a each of the two shortest naps (1/4 +3/8?) for the primer. If it is the same brand as the paint you can decide if you are more comfortable with more paint per roll and spreading it around more or going back for paint more often. There are pros and cons either way, and you will have to try both, with your own paint and style, to find the best fit for you.

I've used a bunch of different paints over the years and was very impressed with Benjamin Moore. I'm also thankful it isn't sold around here, it always smelled like cat urine to me.

I like Sherwin Williams paint a lot but as noted above that has a lot to do with what I started out using. Once upon a time I was a Triple A Student Painter (TASP) regional manager. We painted a lot of houses in the New England area and I always used Sherwin Williams.

It can't be emphasized enough, buy the best tools available. nothing will drive you crazier then a roller cage that squeaks and wobbles and a brush that has a few bristles putting paint on the trim while you try to cut the walls. Good tools = good results.

I'm certainly no expert, but I've definitely done enough painting in my short lifetime to have learned a few things. SWMBO and I have been back into the swing of it lately at our new place, and we're just finishing up the first room this week. I've used everything from the super cheap E36 M3 in my college residences, to the really high end paint/primer combo stuff from Behr, SW, and a few others.

I honestly wouldn't bother priming, but from what I've heard, if you're going to prime you should match brands with your finish paint. The newest paint/primer combos are truly like magic. We used Sherwin Williams Superpaint in the first room we've done so far in the new place and I cannot speak highly enough of it. A bit spendy for sure, but honestly, factoring in time, amount of paint actually needed, and quality of the finished job and the difference in cost is negligible. Also, they seem to run a lot of deals, so keep your eyes open. Going from a blue/lavender to a much lighter beige, it was a legit one coat to cover. I did a second of course just for the sake of durability and being thorough, but it would have looked perfectly fine in one. Seriously cannot recommend this stuff enough.

I try to use quality brushes and rollers. Purdy makes a hell of a nice brush. For roller covers, I like a wool/poly blend, rather than 100% poly as you will usually find in the "contractor grade" rollers. 3/8" should be about the right thickness for drywall. Use quality tape as well. Frog Tape has worked well for me but IIRC 3M makes some decent stuff too. Be careful applying tape if the humidity is high, it sometimes won't adhere properly. Also, if you masked more than a few days prior to painting, go around and press all your tape down again because it can tend to start lifting up just a bit. Pull the tape off immediately following your final coat, while the paint is still wet - less chance of taking paint along with it.

Don't lay the paint on thick (still trying to teach SWMBO this), use thin coats and it will still cover just fine if using quality paint. I'd highly suggest doing a very thorough masking job. Though often the most time consuming part of the process if there is a lot of trim involved, I have yet to see an amateur painter that can leave decent lines without masking. When rolling, I was taught to go in a semi random pattern (as opposed to regular vertical stripes) with lots of overlap to prevent leaving lines at the edge of the roller stroke. Not saying that is the only effective technique, but it has worked well for me.

In reply to mtn: I find painting a peaceful thing. I used to paint for side jobs - also I'm married to Martha Stewart and she likes to remodel and paint a lot.

Datsun310Guy wrote: In reply to mtn: I find painting a peaceful thing. I used to paint for side jobs - also I'm married to Martha Stewart and she likes to remodel and paint a lot.

Still paint for side jobs?

mtn wrote:

Datsun310Guy wrote: In reply to mtn: I find painting a peaceful thing. I used to paint for side jobs - also I'm married to Martha Stewart and she likes to remodel and paint a lot.

Still paint for side jobs?

Perhaps the income ain't what it used to be after that whole insider trading thing got shut down

• Remove all switchplates, HVAC grilles and light fixtures.

• Fill all dings and nail pops with MH Readypatch.

• Caulk every inch of trim that meets the wall with inexpensive water-based vinyl or vinyl/acrylic caulk. White or clear, it doesn't matter. But this is the step that separates pro looking from amateur looking jobs.

• If painting over old or unknown paint, I prefer to prime.

• If painting over oil-based paint on trim, prime with a shellac-based primer like Zinsser BIN. Clean brushes in denatured alcohol followed by commercial strength ammonia.

• Buy a very good 2-1/2" angled sash brush - it'll cost the better part of $20, but you never need another roll of masking tape. You'll use this to cut in perfect, razor sharp transitions between walls and trim or ceiling.

• Paint the ceiling first. I really like Benjamin Moore Muresco ceiling white.

• Paint the trim next, and overlap a little on to the walls. I've always found Benjamin Moore semi gloss Regal in the imaginatively named "white" to work well with everything.

• Get a quart of Flood Floetrol, and add it to all paint, especially your semi gloss trim paint. It makes paint flow out like magic.

• I brush all trim w/ a 2-1/2" sash and 3" conventional brush.

• I'll roll semi gloss on interior doors so long as they're all going to match texture.

• The working order: fill/sand/caulk/roll ceiling, overlapping walls, brush trim, overlapping walls, cut edges of wall color where it meets ceiling and trim, roll in walls, roll in add'l coats as needed.

• Eggshell is infinitely easier to keep nice than flat. Semi gloss de-emphasizes surface imperfections on trim. Caulking makes it all look clean and seamless.

• If you divide the cost of cheap paint vs. very good paint over the life of the job, it's inconsequential, and the good stuff is a relative joy to work with and lasts longer. When we put house number one on the market our agent said "It's great it's recently painted - it'll save you so much having it painted" to which I said "I did this 8 years ago".