Paint with primer built-in

[Fhunter1]

I am finishing up the interior of my garage and starting to plan the paint. The garage is partially old work and partially new work. About half new drywall and half old.

I basically have finished the drywall and insulation on the garage beyond what the builder originally did, which was just the minimum to meet code.

As the weather is changing up here in the Detroit area, I am going to be pushed to get this painted before the weather gets too cold. I originally thought I would prime everything in Kilz2 and then 1 coat of paint. If there was time and the coverage demanded it I would do 2 coats of color.

I stopped in at one of the big box stores this morning to get primer and asked for a paint reccomendation. They reccomended one of the BEHR exterior paints that has primer built in and can be used down to 35 F rather than primer and then paint. It would save a few bucks, buit I would rather not scrimp on the $$$ and have an issue.

Does anyone have experience with the paint and primer in one "can"? I understand it requires 2 coats so I might save on not doing the primer.

How is the coverage? Can you really paint down to a sustained temperature of 35F.

I have a ventless heater I can use to help keep the temperature up, but the extra mositure will slow the drying time of the paint.


Any thoughts, pointers, opinions? all are appreciated.

Does anyone

 

[Finley]

i tried it in my garage, but the supposed "semi-gloss" looked more like eggshell finish after it was done, i ended up covering over it with a cheap can of white semi.

 

[pseudorealityx]

From my friends who do this stuff for a living, for the extra few $, go to a real paint store, and do primer and paint. Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, etc.

 

[mad57]

From my friends who do this stuff for a living, for the extra few $, go to a real paint store, and do primer and paint. Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, etc.

I agree that behr paint *****..WATERED DOWN ****!!!

 

[djd99]

I was very impressed with valspar from lowes, I redid my living room a couple weeks ago and only used 1 coat. I was very surprised, I did my game room with behr (home depot) and 2 coats still bled through and even needed a third. So give valspar a try through lowes.

 

[Fhunter1]

Keep the thoughts coming.

The more I think about it, I'll probably go for primer and paint. I'll prime with the Kilz2, but I still need to figure out the regular paint.

Temperature is still concern for painting in the garage. I doubt I can keep it at 70F without lots of moisture so likely I can sustain around 50-60 F without much of an issue. That was one of the reasons to try the exterior paint with primer. 1) to save time and 2) the temperature flexibility.

Any other reccomendations for paint? I've used the usual good brands, Pratt and Lambert, Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, etc. I've always been pleased with them, but have little experiance with Behr. The preimum grades of Behr as supposed to be good, but who knows?

 

[Gary S]

Primer is paint and paint is primer.

If you need two coats, then why not use any cheap paint? My garage is OSB. I painted it with one coat of oil base to seal the glues and inks into the OSB, and then covered it with one coat the cheapest latex white gloss paint I could fine. I got excellent coverage.

 

[jj3]

I recently did some of my garage (chair rail trim) and cabinets using the Behr flat black paint-primer combo. It is an interesting creature, substantially thicker than normal paint.

Overall I like it a lot. Really only took one coat and dried quickly, but I wasnt near 35, it was more like 60.

I did all the walls with basic paint, Behr's Dolphin Fin grey flat interior on the upper section and Glidden's candy apple red flat interior under the chair rail. Turned out pretty well, but the basic paint did take 2 coats.

just my .02

Stay good,
JJ

 

[mad57]

I was very impressed with valspar from lowes, I redid my living room a couple weeks ago and only used 1 coat. I was very surprised, I did my game room with behr (home depot) and 2 coats still bled through and even needed a third. So give valspar a try through lowes.

Once again i agree buddy bought valspar for rental home and it did cover great. ive always been partial to benjamin moore.

 

[kartracer23]

I was at an ACE a few weeks ago, and they had the instruction sheet for the BEHR primer/paint taped to the desk. They had all the do's & don'ts highlighted. It was kinda funny. By the time you finish reading it, you realize that the only place it's supposed to be used is on a surface you wouldn't prime anyway (perfect paint with just a small color change).

 

[SpeedCoach]

i did some painting back in the day.....and maybe the technology has improved....but if we're talking virgin dry wall I'd urge you to do straight primer followed by your top-coats. The primer dries so fast anyway that you can probably paint around the space and by the time you get back to where you started you can switch to paint. Maybe take a break between primer and paint to have a beer and you'll definitely be good to go.

 

[Jaguar Fan]

My mom lives in a cheap tract home completed about 3 years ago. The spec for interior paint is one that is combined primer/paint. This is for inside the house. I'm not impressed - when there is a mark on the wall, and you take a sponge to it, the paint comes off leaving bare sheetrock.

 

[mad57]

One idea what ever primer you use get it tinted to exact if possible or close to your color your using ..will save you tons of time. Now big box will tell you they cant do that b.s.!!

 

[BMWWW]

If you're worried about needing more than one 'color' coat, take this hint, and tint the primer to a similar color!

I too would reccomend a strict primer + paint. I also have worked with all types of paint, and I don't buy into Moore's = better paint.

Some colors will always need more than one color, and I'll leave it at that. You're paying premium for durability ect ect, but not for coverage.

 

[BMWWW]

One idea what ever primer you use get it tinted to exact if possible or close to your color your using ..will save you tons of time. Now big box will tell you they cant do that b.s.!!

DOH! +1

Beat me to it

 

[tcianci]

Get a good brand of wall paint, Ben Moore, Sherwin Willaiams, Pratt and Lambert, etc and just put 2 or 3 coats over everything and be done. The primer/paint stuff is a gimmick that only shows that in most cases you dont need a primer at all. If you have staining, like rust, tannin, or water stains, then you will need a good stain blocking primer like BIN or other shellac based primers. If you just have a couple of spots that need priming, hit them with the stain blocker in an aerosol can or some silver/aluminum spray paint. Priming is important when you are dealing with compromised surfaces such as stains, and water damage, disimilar surfaces that you want to make look the same and addressing adhesion issues. As far as tinting primer toward the final color, it's wonderful (if you're the guy selling the paint) all you end up with is some primer that's the wrong color to use anywhere else on the next job, so next time around you end up buying more primer. The one exception that I will always warn folks about is using deep reds. These paints will have you cursing unless you lay down a base coat of a meduim grey. The reds will cover in just a couple of coats if you use the grey base. I would suggest just using a good grade of paint and applying as many coats as needed to obtain good coverage... less brush cleaning, less roller cleaning and less paint waste. My garage was finished with a skip-trowel plaster and it has 2 coats of Glidden semi gloss on it. It's been there about 10 years now and looks like the day it was done.
My personal experience with Behr paint has been only so so, but again I have used their flat or eggshell interior wall paints with no problems. I had a job where we were trying to save the customer some bucks by using Behr interior satin on some primed molded masonite doors...3 coats of Behr later they still looked like hell. I went out and got a gallon of Ben Moore satin Impervo and one coat on the rest of the doors and they looked great. Painting has 2 sides... the cost and the labor. Often you can save some of the labor by investing in the slightly more costly, higher quality procuct.

 

[mikeyp]

Just my thought which usually dont mean much but am in th process of finishing my new home now only about 2 weeks from being done. Last weekend a buddy and myself painted the entire house from bare sheetrock to finish, used valspar pva primer from lowes and had the guy tint the primer like the paint color. The primer color came out only a shade or 2 lighter than final color and only need one coat used 2- 5 gal buckets of primer and followed with 3 5 gallons buckets of the actual paint color rolled thick. The house is 1600 sq ft so I was happy with the coverage , this was using the valspar 2000 contractor series paint and there is no heat yet in the house so the warmest we could get it was about 50 degrees if we were lucky so just my thoughts

 

[jshillin]

Don't go for the primer/paint in one can gimmick. Get some drywall primer, it's not to expensive. You can get it tinted, just do get it tinted the exact same color, just a few shades lighter. If you get it the exact same color as your paint, it makes it much harder to see if you missed a spot. Some people will say it doesn't matter if you miss spots because it's the same color, but it's easy to spot the difference in the sheen.

 

[Tyrol67]

I used exterior,since I was told it was necessary due to the temperature extremes in the garage. Made sense. It will also go on down to 45 or 40. I used Ben Moore and was happy with it.

 

[Fhunter1]

OK, I'm sold. Good primer and then a better or best paint to save headaches all the way.

Only one question left, interior or exterior paint for the garage. Looking for durability to clean it up when I make a mess and to handle the temperature swings.

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Coach James]

I use a primer&paint in one red barn paint from Lowes for a lot of things I paint putside, i.e. fence posts, dog house, swing set etc. It works fine and has held up well. For inside I either use just paint or seperate primer then paint.

The rental offices in our building I just paint with a contractor grade white. If it doesn't move, it gets painted white.

A buddy has several rental houses and he paints all of them with Wal Mart's store brand paint and has no complaints.

Coach

 

[dodgepolara500]

Interior paint should be fine. As for the primer, I always like PVA sealer on the new drywall. It will prevent the tape joints from showing later. It makes everthing even and prevents the finish paint from soaking into the drywall. In my opinion, it is better than a primer coat of finish paint since you will use a less costly primer and you can probably get away with one finish coat.

As everyone says, Behr ***** and is made for clueless homeowners. Use a paint from a large commercial paint retailer. You never see a Pro use Behr.

 

[bluesman2a]

I have OSB on the interior of my shop. I used Kilz2 latex primer and Valspar exterior latex semigloss. I'm very happy with the finished product.

OSB is a b!tch to paint, soaks up a LOT of paint. The Kilz2 covers well, and the semi-gloss gives a surface that is wipable/cleanable, and I think it reflects a bit more light.

 

[35mastr]

I use good quality paints and primers from Kelley-Moore paints. Never had any issues with them.

They are not cheap by any means. But you only have to do the job once.

 

[aabirdman]

One of these days your hoing to hate yourself. You never put water over oil.Eventualy the water base latex is going to lift. Your only saving grace is that it's on OSB, the texture of the OSB wll hold it on for a while.

 

[Scotto]

How "old" is the old sheetrock that's been up? When I finished my garage there was some drywall that was unpainted for 18 yrs. What a ***** it was to keep the dirt from bleeding through. FYI, the Kilz2 is nowhere near as good as the regular Kilz stuff or Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3. I ended up having to use 2 coats of the better primer, but that's mostly because I was painting it white.

 

[FastEddieG]

I'd stay away from the primer built-in stuff. It's like peanut butter and jelly, or mustard and ketchup, you can try to sell them together, but it isn't the same.

Didn't see any PPG stories, so here's mine. We hired a union painter to paint our 2 story family room before we moved in earlier this year. The previous owners never painted it so it was the sprayed on antique white builders coat still.

He's partial to PPG/Pittsburgh and I had him order me some extra gallons so I can do the other rooms at my leisure. I was impressed with it, and the price after his discount made it that much more appealing to me. He said his company made the switch a few years ago and haven't regretted the decision. Menards sells PPG, but I go directly to the store now.

And +1 for tinting primer to your paint.

-Ed

 

[Fhunter1]

Hello again,

Old work as painted years ago so I am not too worried about the dirt/coverage. The new stuff has been up about a year ago and I just finished it up last night.

Time to paint now. I'll look at the regular Kilz for primer.

 

[bluesman2a]

One of these days your hoing to hate yourself. You never put water over oil.Eventualy the water base latex is going to lift. Your only saving grace is that it's on OSB, the texture of the OSB wll hold it on for a while.

Not sure if you were commenting on my job or not, but if you will notice, I used Kilz2 wich is LATEX primer and then covered it with a LATEX topcoat. As for performance, it's been on there for a little over a year now with no problems.

 

[Donn]

OK, OK I know I will be flammed for this but here goes - Wallmart paint has had high marks from Consumer Reports on several occasion. I have used it and a Brand they carry of "self priming" paint (McKloseys). I have used the self primer on the ext trim of my house (100+years old) with little prep work (powerwash) and it has held for 6 years now up here in Minnesnowta. It is much thicker paint and I have only used the semi-gloss white, but it is a good product IMO.