Prep for paint?

[sandbag]

How do I go about this? My walls are exposed drywall with taped seams. I want to paint (at least Primer) this weekend, need a head's up as to what you'd recommend using... Yeah, I'm a newb, as this is my first home, and first time doing "house projects," haha.

- What grit sandpaper to smooth out the tapes?
- What type of primer?

Here's a pic of what I'm working with:

Thanks in advance

 

[twostory]

First you need to finish the drywall mud job. This was a one coat tape job done just to pass inspection. You need to fiinish the job, i.e. apply more dry wall mud. Then sand and paint.

If you do not do this now, it will be much more work to do after you paint it and say "damn, all the seams look like ****"

 

[babzog]

Agreed. My attached garage has the "pass inspection" mud job on the ceiling - one light pass, pop the tape on, call it a day. Most of the tapes have since fallen off.

Mud that sucker out well (use the full width of the float on the seams) - about another 2 good coats, I should think. Don't apply each coat too thick otherwise you'll just have to sand it off. Float the mud uniformly and smoothly - as if sandpaper didn't exist and you had one shot to make it smooth during the application (don't be **** about it though). Sand lightly with 120 between coats - just to even it out. Once the second coat is dry, sand lightly with 120 to take out the ridges and rough spots and finish with a light 220 sanding. If this were your house, you'd then go over everything with a light to check for imperfections and patch/sand as required, but all you want here is smooth.

Sanding screens are inexpensive and are awesome - they don't clog as much as paper, but they're real easy to overuse - go lightly!

Any reasonable primer would be good for this - go to Home Depot and pick up 5gal of Kilz. About $50 (in Can.) and it applies well. There's no advantage to using the more expensive primer from HD.

 

[e-tek]

Not something I'd want to do for your first home project - might turn you off projects forever!!!! It's a sh!t job that few men can do day in and day out and few others can do right the first time!!
I'm doing a big reno right now and just fired my general. Got quotes today for the mudding and taping (all of them at 30-60% of the quote he had!). Thought for about 5 minutes doing it myself -then I came to.

 

[Der Bugmeister]

After doing all the mudding and sanding in the garage, I was MORE than happy to let someone else do it in the house!

Definitely needs doing though, if you want a half decent looking job.

 

[babzog]

Oh, I wholeheartedly agree! Mudding is a huge PITA! Something like this is a small job for a drywall contractor - well worth the phone call.

There are skills I lack and would love to learn to do myself (such as replacing the clutch in my Civic - a big [to me], mysterious, scary job that's coming up in the next year or two) but others, like plastering and painting, while I can do them, I'm plenty happy to hire the pros to do it better and faster.

 

[tatra]

actually, i think this is the perfect learning project. after all it is just a garage and when you go to do the house in the future, you'll have the chops to do it with a little more confidence.........another option is to hire someone to show you the tricks of the trade..........i have had this fall into place on occasion and it is very much worth your time and effort.........and a 12 in knife can be very forgiving , as can a trowel and hawk..........one little hint for example, when you fill in screw holes, a little yellow food coloring will let you know what holes you need to sand as opposed to ones that are finih sanded already.........and get this thru your head , cuz it took me forever to accept, mud will get everywhere, and isn't that bad to clean up...........keep us posted......and good luck...........oh and after using the tools rinse and dry........they should last you a long time if cared for..............

 

[IH82BL8]

I think that if you put primer/paint on exposed tape it will saturate the tape and cause it to curl and peel.

I did this job myself. It's gruelling work, especially if you're a perfectionist. I'm still glad I did it because I saved between $1,000 and $1,500 for a 2-car garage.

I highly recommend a sanding screen from Lo's/HD. It's a hose that attaches to your shop vac and has a sanding pad on the working end that uses a screen (not sandpaper). This will capture 95-99% of the dust that sanding generates. If you're working in a garage that already has tools and vehicles in it you'll be gald you used this.

 

[Scotto]

How long has that sheetrock been up? In my garage it was up for 17 yrs - the whole time sucking in dirt and grease. It was a real bear sealing up to keep it from bleeding through. I tried 4 different primers and the water (latex) based ones didn't cut it (Zinsser and Kilz). 2 coats of Kilz (oil-based) were the only things that kept the brown sheetrock from bleeding through.

If you like to get your hands dirty then a garage is a great place to learn to mud (I did).

Here's my garage build thread:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26989

 

[billspit]

I think that if you put primer/paint on exposed tape it will saturate the tape and cause it to curl and peel.

I did this job myself. It's gruelling work, especially if you're a perfectionist. I'm still glad I did it because I saved between $1,000 and $1,500 for a 2-car garage.

I highly recommend a sanding screen from Lo's/HD. It's a hose that attaches to your shop vac and has a sanding pad on the working end that uses a screen (not sandpaper). This will capture 95-99% of the dust that sanding generates. If you're working in a garage that already has tools and vehicles in it you'll be gald you used this.

If you use this, you also need to check into the vacuum bags designed for this.

 

[JMURiz]

Once everything is smoothed out, use a drywall sealer, I got mine from home depot...seems to have worked like a charm.

I'm in the same boat as the others...I paid someone to hang/finish the drywall. They came in with a Porter-Cable 7800 sander and matching dry-vac and did a great finish job with not a ton of dust.

 

[MXtras]

I guess I have just done to much drywall in my life, because I think it's a super simple thing to do. Especially in the garage where dust wouldn't be a huge factor.

I say go for it yourself. There's no better way to learn.

Scott

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

I say go for it too...that's how I learned to mud. I do it so infrequently that I lose my touch and it takes me half the next job to get it back.

Anyone else notice that the original poster, "sandbag" posted 2 weeks ago and hasn't been back? 3 to 1 he only wanted to know what kind of primer to use, not to be told he had to tape and mud the whole thing so he just gave it a light sanding and painted it! Oh well.