What do you guys think?

[cleoent]

I've got a simple 2 car garage (425 sq ft), that right now has un painted, un textured sheetrock (or is it drywall? Its brown) up on the walls. The seems have been taped. It was like this when i bought the place. Today I'm thinking about primering the walls, do you think it will look ok with no texture or anything? I've painted a lot in my time, but i've never painted somethign like this.......

Thanks!

[sca037]

I've never seen brown drywall ('sheetrock' is a brand of drywall ;-) so it makes me think that it has been up and unpainted for several years and attained its, um, patina over time.

Personally, I much prefer untextured paint on all wall & ceiling surfaces......because seeing it makes me think it's been used to try and hide some flaw ;)

Brian

[Luckydevil]

cleoent- post a pic if you can so we can see what you are talking about.

[weimar97]

There are two sides to sheets of drywall, the front and the back - it sounds to me that your garage has the backside facing out. (there just might be a brand or two that covers the drywall in brown paper, but I haven't seen it...)

It doesn't hurt really, the major difference between the front and the back is that the front has tapered edges to allow for the added thickness from the mud/tape on the seams. I've been told before that the back isn't as "resistant" to dings, hits, moisture, etc as the front side - but take that with a grain of salt.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by textured drywall. Does it look like "ceiling type" of texture? I wouldn't really want any kind of textured finish in a garage because that would just provide an excellent place for dust/dirt to find residence. Too hard to clean as well... If possible, and if it were me, I'd sand the texture down (or use skim coat) and then primer/paint.

HTH...

[marktheshark]

Many, many years ago I used to do rehab carpentry in inner city Cleveland. My past experience has shown me that very old drywall used to come in what you could/would call a "brown" paper finish.

I'm sure it has darkened over time. It was also smaller than the 4x8 sheets we know today..

[holland_patrick]

I would paint it with a gloss paint they would brightin up the area and you can clean it easier

[Wile1Coyote]

What you have there is old Drywall\sheetrock that has been up long enough to absorb enough moisture from the air to change the mineral content of it and change its color as well. How do I know. My garage has it too. My home was originally built in 1978, I bought it in 2000 and it was already brown out there. I have spent the last two summers painting it one wall at a time. Almost done now other than the ceiling, to cover this stuff you will need to use a very good stain blocking primer, oil base. I used Sherwin Williams Pro-Block. We started with a latex primer\stain blocker and found it didn't get good adhesion to the drywall. Basically because of how your drywall has been for the last # of years it is very very dry and is much like a sponge, if you use a latex based primer it sucks the moisture out of the primer so fast it doesn't dry right, the oil base dries much slower and I found adhered a ton better. The other problem I had and I hope you don't for your sake, was that the taped seams which had been mudded were very very difficult to paint as the old mud flaked right off as the roller ran over them, basically is was so dry that it was like a powder. It was a real problem and I had to repaint several areas to finally get even results. After you get it primed be sure to let it dry thoroughly and then it should be paintable very easy. I had to do two coats of semi-gloss over the primer to completly hide that brown color, I did one spot behind where a cabinet was going to be with just paint as I was out of primer at that point. It ook six coats of semi to cover the brown!

Good Luck and email me if you have any ?s I'll be happy to help, I know I wish that I could have had someone to ask questions of, the whole process was a real pain.

Jon

[jstbecauz]

There is also a product called KILZ that works real well. It is a primer that you would use first to hide or to put on a base coat. It is very thick but it works great.

[gb387]

There is also a product called KILZ that works real well. It is a primer that you would use first to hide or to put on a base coat. It is very thick but it works great.

I have use that too works very well and yes it is thick!

[Kevin54]

Seal and paint but DO NOT texture. If it is textured any you will regret it. Also make sure the ceiling is sealed and painted. When we moved into our house the ceiling in th egarage was finished and textured. It looked super. After a couple of years the joints in the ceiling all cracked and the tape is coming loose. I had a drywall person doing some repairs on the wall and asked hiom about the ceiling. He said that when it was first done and textured that it was never painted. If you are familiar with texturing, they use thinned down topping compound and it is very porous. With the winters and the snow falling off of vehicles in th egarage and them melting it created quite a bit of moisture in th egarage. and would soak into the drywall. Then with th efreezing and thawing cycles of the unheated garage it would expand and contract the joints until the tape finally gave out. The only two ways to repair it now is either drywall over the existing drywall and have it finished either smooth or textured again and paint, or redo all the seams and have the ceiling "popcorned" and then paint. One is just about as costly as the other.

Kevin

[dodgecharger-fan]

I was going to ask if the colour was in the paper only..

I have rock on the walls in my furnace room that has brown paper.
It's designed for a plaster skim coat. It seems this is the way to go for plaster walls these days - easier and quicker to install than lath, but solid enough (it's thick) to hold a plaster skim in place and not crack.

[NHCharger]

I've been in construction for 20 years. Sheetrock will darken up if it's not painted. The other guys are right. Prime it with Kilz or the Sherwin Williams primer/stain blocker. Then paint the walls. If there's any mold make sure you get rid of it before you prime.

[cleoent]

for some reason i didn't get any emails saying someone had responded to this thread! DOH! Thanks everyone for all of your input.

This past weekend, i primered and painted the garage. It looks fantastic. We didn't put too much effort into it (we did not mud the taped seems, so you can see the tape etc) but it looks a lot better then it did with the brown walls. I used a semi-gloss paint, the color Navajo white. Took about 6-7 hours total, but the garage has been completely transformed. When i get home from work today i'll post before and after pics.

Thanks for all the input!