My husband and I need assistance on the best method to prepare drywall patches for painting. We are finishing off our 3rd floor attic and the majority of the electrical in the attic had to be re-run to install joists. Because of this the electrician had to make numerous cuts in the walls on the 2nd floor to remove and reinstall the outlets and light switches which were impacted by re-routing the electrical.
The openings have been repaired with the new drywall and are now ready for taping, mudding and sanding. I am planning on using pre-packaged tubs of joint compound for the repairs.
We are concerned that with the number of holes we must paint that the repairs will stand out unless primed properly. Repainting each room seems inevitable but we don’t want to end up seeing the repair due to differences in texture and/or paint absorption. All the walls are painted in an eggshell paint by Behr or Sherwin Williams and have been painted in the last 3 years.
So here are our questions:
- Is joint compound the best product to use?
- What type of primer should we use?
- Are there any other steps we can take to prevent the repaired areas from showing? Besides hanging a lot of pictures!
Thanks for the help!
Replies
Your challenge is matching the texture; after sanding, the patches will be much smoother than the rest of the wall.
While there are special primers marketed for this use, for small areas you can make a 'paint' by thinning the joint compound and rolling it on. Then prime with an ordinary primer and paint as usual.
If the wall already has a texture applied, you should probably hire it out.
The post above is righton
The only thing you can do is give the now smooth patch (compared to the previously painted surface) the appearance CLOSE to the surrounding wall. What method you use is up to you-one that will make it close and by "over rolling" the area around the patch, will blend it in to near perfect match. Figuring out the method is where the trick lies-whether a thick nap roller with primer, thinned compound to give it what's called "orange peel".............whatever. Then there's the problem of painting to make look like 3 y.o. paint that you're not sure of the specific brand or "model" of the paint.
If you got lucky and hired it out to a quality painter or remodeler you might get it perfect. Doing it your self just adds a bit more difficulty.
Best of luck!
After mud and tape and sanding, prime and paint the whole wall or ceiling. A path will always look like a patch otherwise.
After mud and tape and sanding, prime and paint the whole wall or ceiling. A path will always look like a patch otherwise.
Do you think priming the whole thing is necessary?
Last paintjob was 3 yrs ago.
Priming (or in this case, re-priming) can never hurt, but with today's better quality paints (I use Benjamin Moore), I think primers are usually not necessary. As an aside, I think that the paint with built-in primer is mostly about marketing.
The main reason for priming interior walls is to insure consistent porosity to avoid "flashing". An extra coat of paint over joint compound does this. In fact, even when patching large areas, I will skim coat bare drywall so I can skip the primer. It is possible to seal bare drywall with paint, but it takes an extra couple of coats to be effective.
To match the texture of the repaired section to the rest of the wall, I like to use a roller to "prime" the repair. While that dries, I cut in. By the time I'm done cutting in, the repaired sections are usually dry enough that I can roll the entire wall. Unless the wall has a very heavy texture from many coats of paint (or sloppy work), my repairs are invisible.
Since flashing is much more noticeable on glossy surfaces, such as trim, they may require primer/sealer or an extra coat of paint.
So Don,
in the O.P's case, you'd prime the whole wall ceiling or not?
I'm curious because for one, I don't usually do the painting. When I do, I prime the new patch, mud and blending roll coat. The whole wall? Never. I don't see any sense in it if no color change and especially if only 3 yrs old. If clean, what's the sense of priming an already painted surface?
I'm assuming that the repairs are small enough so that there is no bare drywall. In that case, I would not use primer at all.
When I wrote that I would use a roller to "prime" the repair, what I meant is that I would use whatever paint is ultimately going on the walls to do that.
I know I'm going against common wisdom by not recommending primer for repairs. And I've often heard that primer should be used before any re-paint, but I've done a lot of painting and I only use primer under certain specif conditions. A recently painted wall with many small repairs and an eggshell finish is not one of them.
reason
for DW, the primer accounts a lot for the finish texture. You can often spot a quickie paint job by where spot holes were spackled and no primer
Paul
These are spot repairs, not whole wall. I agree, prime the bare board and usually I'll seal the fresh sanded mud after blending in the "texture" with a roll coat (or other). But, I won't prime the whole wall unless of course there's not much "whole wall" not painted previously.
That's why I questioned the "prime the walls and ceiling", when this was a spot patch job, not a reboard.
It will depend how the light hits it.
On most ceilings I always do the whole thing unless it's a junk room or something.
A room full of can spots and track lights on the ceiling - you will never be able to tell, but one with light streaming across from windows, or a ceiling light that is a drop fixture will amplify any minor flaw.
And don't forget, I have some of the worlds pickiest customers
What, picky stops on the shores of that island?
Don't kid yourself, money or new england gentry don't own all the stock in it.
I'm talking priming. Of course you would paint out the entire wall or ceiling. And as far as making it disappear? whatever is necessary if that's what they want.
You may want to search for "skim coating". This is the application of a very very thin coat of compound over the entire wall to even everything up.