Tips for Painting Drywall

LESLIE: Now we’ve got a drywall question from Toby in Connecticut. What’s going on?

TOBY: I’m working on several rooms and I have drywall put up and what I’m interested in discovering is what’s the best product to put on the walls as a primer. I’ve seen several different brands and oils and latex and kind of curious what your opinions are what the preferred product would be.

LESLIE: Are you painting or are you wallpapering?

TOBY: I will be painting it once the primer is up.

LESLIE: Well, I think any sort of – depending on the room, I think any sort of primer like a KILZ or a Zinsser primer, whether they’re water-based or oil-based. If you’re dealing with a bath or perhaps you’ve got a moisture situation, an oil base is going to be a better primer and then a latex topcoat. But those are probably the two best brands as far as coverage. And is there anything special when you’re dealing with raw drywall, Tom, that would make it a better primer?

TOM: No, I think if it’s raw drywall you’re probably fine with latex. You don’t have to use oil. Oil is very effective if you have, you know, an unknown wall surface or maybe it’s really dirty; really smoke-stained or something of that nature. If you have a real tough stain you can use oil but with just raw drywall, I think a latex is fine and you’re very smart to put that on because what’s going to happen is that’s going to give you a nice, even base and you will actually see an improved finish for the topcoat of paint because you’ve primed. A lot of people try to skip that but that’s really a foolhardy thing to do. You need to put a primer on …

LESLIE: Well, you’ll spend twice as much on paint …

TOM: Absolutely.

LESLIE: … trying to get the coverage.

TOM: And the primer makes the paint stick. Remember, primer has different qualities than the topcoat. It’s really there to adhere well to the surface and give you a nice, smooth finish, that’s not permeable, for the top paint to adhere to.

TOBY: OK. So simply follow any of the manufacturers’ recommendations and that should get me the desired finish.

LESLIE: Mm-hmm, and if you’re going with a deep, dark color, go ahead and get a tinted primer because that’s going to cut down on your topcoat coverage.

TOBY: Right. OK. Excellent, thank you.

TOM: You’re welcome, Toby. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.