Priming new drywall

[ForceFed70]

I've got about 3000sqft of new drywall to prime and paint.

Was about to setup my airless sprayer when the drywall guy told me that I would need to back-roll the primer. Something about the dust and getting good adhesion with the wall.

I have used my compressor with airgun to blow off most of the dust, but I suppose that there could still be some dust left on the walls.

If I've got to back-roll anyway, might as well just roll it on in the 1st place.

Opinons?

 

[Nowater]

I frown on people using airless inside-I tried it only once. I suggest a five gallon bucket of primer with a wire screen that fits inside the bucket and use a roller. It will go faster than you may think, IMHO.

 

[ForceFed70]

I frown on people using airless inside-I tried it only once. I suggest a five gallon bucket of primer with a wire screen that fits inside the bucket and use a roller. It will go faster than you may think, IMHO.

What's wrong with the airless inside? Seems to be the method of choice for the pro's.

 

[Nowater]

Primer will go everywhere, so one must mask off what should not be primed. One needs a mask suitable for the primer. Expect primer to get on all areas of you as well. I dont want to be adversarial, it is your decision, but by the time you deal will all the drawbacks, I think you could just roll it out. Let us know how it goes, either way, OK.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Is the drywall guy talking about primer overspray when he says dust ? I could forsee that being a problem spraying inside.

 

[rogsmart]

Roll it. You'll get far better adhesion and coverage. Plus you'll have way less masking and cleanup to do.

You mentioned that the Pros spray. Which is true. But the reason pros spray has everything to do with getting it done quick. Unfortunately it has very little to do with the quality of the finished job in most cases.

Roll it Dude. You'll be much happier with the results.

 

[Provincial]

I just had about 10,000 sq. ft. of new drywall painted. The fellow used an airless sprayer. It made a real fog in each room that he was spraying at the time, but not too bad just outside that room. Strong paint odor throughout the building.

If you are using latex paint, you should be fine if you use a good respirator. If you wear glasses, use an old pair and wash them often.

We used a paint that had a primer built in. It was a little thicker and we had to rent a commercial airless pump in order to sparay it. A larger nozzle on the standard pump may have done it, but we did not have time to go purchase and try one. The paint was more expensive, but since it saved one coat of paint and quite a bit of time, it was worth it.

 

[Daedalus]

For 3000 sq ft I would not hesitate to spray if the building is bare. That's 300 linear feet of 10 foot walls. If you gotta tarp a whole lot of ****, then maybe not. I've sprayed smaller and would do so again vs. brush/roller.

 

[RW-7]

If you don't mind masking, using an airless and back rolling is best.
I like to use this method for these reasons;
Using an airless will help blow any left over dust off, and get a better adhesion. Back rolling will help fill in any imperfections, Small air bubble holes in the mud, or scratches from sanding. PVA primer is best for drywall / latex paint. Its fairly inexpensive as well.
If you are worried about over spray, visit your local paint store and ask for a smaller tip for your airless gun (like a 4-11.) This will take a little more time, but keep the over spray down. Another trick for less over spray is using a wand extension for your gun and getting your tip closer to the wall. This takes some getting used to, but once I started using one I never went back .

 

[BWS]

ROLL TIDE!............wait,wrong commercial.

Roll it,and we have a sprayer,its for slam-bam commercial BS.

Just take your time,and as posted above...it'll go pretty fast.BW

 

[darkk]

We did a 30x48 2 story addition and sprayed and backrolled one 30x30 second floor loft section. It still left a fuzz that needed to be sanded off before paint. We rolled the rest of it. Came out much better. It didn't take that long either. Used a lot less paint also. Lots of waste with spraying.

 

[Mmfh]

Can someone tell me what "back rolling" is? Have I always been a front roller? I've done a fair amount of painting, both with my big Graco, and of coarse with brushes and rollers. I believe I've heard the term "back rolling", but what exactly does it mean?

Mm

 

[Reg1952]

I beleive its rolling out the paint that you just sprayed on to get a nice even finish.If you have to roll after you spray I think I would just roll it on to start.

 

[rburke65]

Back rolling....I believe....is after you spray paint, you take a paint roller and work the paint, smoothing it out, eliminating any runs and possibly, working the paint into any cracks or crevices of the OSB or t-1-11. It just smooths it out and makes it ever in appearance. As always.....IMO

 

[Al Bundy]

Spray + back rolling = more work. Just get a 12 inch roller and get it done. I primed and painted (two coats) my garage over the course of three afternoons. The hardest part was moving all my **** that was in the way including a car.

 

[RW-7]

Can someone tell me what "back rolling" is? Have I always been a front roller? I've done a fair amount of painting, both with my big Graco, and of coarse with brushes and rollers. I believe I've heard the term "back rolling", but what exactly does it mean?

Mm

Back rolling is the process of using a paint roller to go over the surface that has had paint applied with a sprayer. This does several things; It smooths the finish and leaves an even coat, it also helps fill in gaps and cracks in heavy texture areas, or leaves a nice stipple on flat walls.

 

[ForceFed70]

Thanks guys.

Think I'm going to roll on the primer and spray the finish coats.

This is an new and empty building, so not much to mask off. No light fixtures, no overhead doors, etc. I would only have to mask off 3 small windows and 2 man doors.

 

[csp]

I would hazard a guess that the "back" in back-rolling comes from the fact that you go back over the area already sprayed.

 

[rlitman]

Spray + back rolling = more work.

That all depends on how much you're covering. Most of the time spent rolling is spent going back to the tray to load up more paint. If you're doing a whole house, with one guy spraying, and another following up with a roller, that can be really fast, but I don't think one person can spray a room, and then be done fast enough to back roll it before its too dry to roll.

If you really want to save time, get an extra wide roller.

 

[Michaelhoot]

I'm getting ready to do a 24 x 30 freshly sheetrocked room with 15 foot vaulted ceiling. Did my homework. Picked up a used Graco X5 sprayer for $125. Most of the work is in the masking but the masking products they have today really make it much easier. No brainer. I hate painting with a brush and a roller.

 

[pcmeiners]

Primer will go everywhere, so one must mask off what should not be primed. One needs a mask suitable for the primer. Expect primer to get on all areas of you as well.

If you use a toy airless such as sold in HD or lowes with the incorrect pressure and tip, yes you will have primer all over; yes you must mask. As to speed, an airless can prime coat a a very large garage or a 2 story home in one day, try that with roller (after masking).
As to paint adherence, if one does not get the dust off the walls with latex you will have problems, it also affect paint adherence with a roller. That said I use oil/alcohol based paint for a prime coat with an airless, far superior adherence than latex primer with any application method, especially on taped Sheetrock.

 

[acer66]

If you roll it I would get an 18” wide one.

 

[97tj-neil]

Thanks guys.

Think I'm going to roll on the primer and spray the finish coats.

This is an new and empty building, so not much to mask off. No light fixtures, no overhead doors, etc. I would only have to mask off 3 small windows and 2 man doors.

I did the exact opposite when I painted our house. Sprayed the primer and rolled the topcoats.

This was new construction - at that point electrical was at rough in, and the floors were OSB subfloor only. The house is just under 3,000 sq. ft. total, 2 stories. I spent one evening after work masking all the windows and I stuffed a paper towel in each electrical box to cover the wires. The next evening I sprayed the primer - walls ceiling and trim, with no back rolling. I did the whole house in 4 hours.

My wife wanted different colors in many rooms and an accent color wall in several as well. It didn't make sense to me to clean the sprayer that many times. I also feel I got a better finish by rolling the walls.

 

[allinon72]

I just dealt with this my basement - 1200 sq ft. Bought a fancy sprayer and was ready to go to town. Unfortunately I spent more time getting the hang of the sprayer and masking than just rolling it in the first place. Not to mention the setup time and cleanup time and annoyance. I did not back roll and the finish came out OK. Pros can mask quick, spray quick because they have it mastered, and probably have a guy back rolling for them.

Since then I haven’t touched my $700 sprayer. Lesson learned.

 

[Michaelhoot]

I did the exact opposite when I painted our house. Sprayed the primer and rolled the topcoats.

This was new construction - at that point electrical was at rough in, and the floors were OSB subfloor only. The house is just under 3,000 sq. ft. total, 2 stories. I spent one evening after work masking all the windows and I stuffed a paper towel in each electrical box to cover the wires. The next evening I sprayed the primer - walls ceiling and trim, with no back rolling. I did the whole house in 4 hours.

My wife wanted different colors in many rooms and an accent color wall in several as well. It didn't make sense to me to clean the sprayer that many times. I also feel I got a better finish by rolling the walls.

Cleaning it is a breeze. Just a bucket of water and run the thing in prime mode into another bucket till the water comes clean.

 

[paredown]

I just dealt with this my basement - 1200 sq ft. Bought a fancy sprayer and was ready to go to town. Unfortunately I spent more time getting the hang of the sprayer and masking than just rolling it in the first place. Not to mention the setup time and cleanup time and annoyance. I did not back roll and the finish came out OK. Pros can mask quick, spray quick because they have it mastered, and probably have a guy back rolling for them.

Since then I haven’t touched my $700 sprayer. Lesson learned.

Quite a few years ago, I did the same. Gut reno inside and out. Bought the sprayer--but I was lucky that we had someone on the crew who gave me some 'lessons' on how to use it, and I sprayed the whole outside and primed and backrolled inside by myself, masking as I went. He fixed me up with a smaller tip, so I was slower than a real pro, but I was able to control the paint much better.

For everything else I have done since, I have not used the sprayer--it really works well in new construction when there is nothing around though.

 

[gizardlizard]

18” pro series roller with 3/4” nap, 5 gallon paint caddy. You can haul ***.

 

[dave*99]

18” pro series roller with 3/4” nap, 5 gallon paint caddy. You can haul ***.

^^ This works very well.
I have a Graco X5 sprayer. It also works well provided you have a helper so someone can back roll.
Don't be concerned about back rolling, it goes fast, spreads the paint evenly and gives a consistent finish. If you do not have a lot of experience spraying, it's possible you will see bands in the finished work if you don't back roll.

 

[Michaelhoot]

Conventional painting still requires meticulous cutting in and taping off. With spraying you simply buy those rolls of poly that already have the tape and the poly pulls out to cover. Simple and not expensive. Watch a few youtube videos where they come in and move the furniture to the center and simply cover it with super thin poly. Any room with stuff in it still needs pretty much the same treatment before spraying or rolling cause we all know how we look after rolling a ceiling. Personally if you are meticulous about the final finish, then just back roll. No more paint tray filling and mess with paint brushes.

 

[TurnipTruck]

We masked the floor before mudding and taping, then sprayed (and backrolled) two coats each of pva and paint before unmasking everything. Used almost fifty gallons of paint in&out.

 

[nmk_61802]

Sorry if this has already been said, but something to keep in mind. If you are spraying and not back-rolling, if repairs are ever done the wall will need resprayed to get a matching texture, or a complete repaint. This and the fact that it helps bed and even out the paint are easily worth the minimal time spent. It only takes a few minutes to run a wet roller over the paint after spray, you do not need to continually reload the roller for this.

 

[Michaelhoot]

We masked the floor before mudding and taping, then sprayed (and backrolled) two coats each of pva and paint before unmasking everything. Used almost fifty gallons of paint in&out.

I got away from two coats. The primer to me is why I only use one finish coat and I use high quality paint. 16 gallons cost me $500. Benjamin Moore.
I'll take all your advice and backroll cause as you said... it's easy.

 

[pcmeiners]

Sorry if this has already been said, but something to keep in mind. If you are spraying and not back-rolling, if repairs are ever done the wall will need resprayed to get a matching texture, or a complete repaint.

Agree, with an airless finish it is smooth as glass, so repairs show. A close match can be had with a 1/8" nap roller, if respraying is not practical

 

[Mandres]

I sprayed all the new drywall in this house renovation and I'd do the same again. It's so much less work and so much faster than rolling. But it really depends on whether the finished floor is done. It's easy enough to mask windows and electrical boxes, but not the whole floor.

I didn't do any back rolling, I don't think it's necessary. The pressure in these systems gives you plenty of adhesion. I recommend kissing it with a pole sander between coats to knock off any nubs and bugs

 

[karoc]

To me backrolling is only necessary for finish coat not for priming
Following this fantastic post cause this one of my up coming projects for 1000sq ft retirement home