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The purple house

jrnbj | Posted in General Discussion on November 1, 2009 08:31am

Has to be painted….lots of interior dark purple, brown, and lavender walls making SWMBO crazy….me, too.
So, best hiding primer recommendations from anyone? Kilz, or?????
(I realize there are no magic primers, and in my experience every paint job, done right, is 3 coats minimum, but I’ve got lots of dark walls to lighten up & want to do it the most efficient way I can….)

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  1. renosteinke | Nov 01, 2009 09:45pm | #1

    Actually, there ARE 'magic' primers.

    That is, there are primers specifically intended for use when covering dark or strong colors. I'm sure one of our paint wonks will chime in with a specific reccomendation, but be sure to look for a product that mentions this use.

    1. jrnbj | Nov 02, 2009 04:09am | #11

      Hey, I've been meaning to address a question to you. I was using my Ideal breaker tracer the other day, with the usual less than stellar results. It's always been sort of so-so at really homing in on a breaker, but at least when you turned the right breaker off, the detector stopped tweeting.
      In this case, it was being so useless/strange, that I finally unplugged the sender, and then took the toner over to the panel, and lo and behold I still got tone.
      It occurred to me that perhaps the previous owner left a sender buried in the wall somewhere, but he has no idea what a toner is......Needless to say, I wonder what the h**l is going on.....any ideas on your end?

      1. renosteinke | Nov 02, 2009 04:15am | #12

        Oh, plenty of ideas ...

        A lot of appliances create some electronic 'noise.' For example, the battery charger for your cordless tools continually pulses on and off ... which creats this 'noise.' The circuit tracer is picking that noise up.

        Tracers are very useful, but their use is always more of an art than a science.

        1. jrnbj | Nov 02, 2009 05:03am | #14

          Yeah, no doubt it is some noisy circuit.....but I was expecting it to be at least something like a true toner, where the signal is distinctive.......What I was hearing with the sender unplugged was exactly the same tone. Oh Well.Not so sure about Ideal products anymore. I got out a "VDV Multimedia Tester" of theirs that I hadn't used before, to trace out some co-ax in the new house. The sender unit fits into the receiver/display, and has RJ11, RJ 45, and co-ax jacks----but the co-ax jack has no threads or center connector (and I just noticed it looks like that in the instruction drawing)....almost looks like it never got machined. The directions say to connect one end to the "co-ax test terminator". Call me stupid, but I can't it out.Good thing I have a nice Fluke set, or I'd be PO'd.

  2. User avater
    Dinosaur | Nov 01, 2009 10:20pm | #2

    Wallpaper.

     

    Or, just paint it all flat black, paint all the trim gloss white, and make believe you're living backstage in a theatre.

    "How now, Horatio, is this a paintbrush I see before me?"

    Dinosaur

    How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
    low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
    foolish men call Justice....

    1. User avater
      FatRoman | Nov 02, 2009 01:17am | #7

      Backstage at a theater?

      I have always relied on the kindness of primers?

      Maybe the Behr paint and primer together? I've used it once and thought it was pretty good in covering up an already colored wall.'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb

      View Image

      1. User avater
        Dinosaur | Nov 02, 2009 04:07am | #10

        Flat black walls and white trim sounds a little whacky, I know, but I actually painted my first apartment in NYC (Lower East Side) that way to remind me of the backstage rooms in my college theatre department.

        It worked better than you'd think. Very calming.

        Dinosaur

        How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....

  3. User avater
    Dam_inspector | Nov 01, 2009 10:45pm | #3

    Get something called "high hiding" primer, and get the one with the higher amount of titanium dioxide.

  4. BigBill | Nov 01, 2009 10:49pm | #4

    Give SW's Preprite primer a try.

    1. frontiercc2 | Nov 01, 2009 11:20pm | #5

      I know it's probably blasphemous to say this here, but I've used a lot of the Olympic "FastHide" product from Lowes. Pretty cost effective when bought by the 5 gal pail. Hides pretty good too. Although not a primer per se, it may hide the strong colors enough for your top coat.

  5. Danno | Nov 01, 2009 11:54pm | #6

    I second what Dam inspector said. People here are probably sick of me touting "high hide" primer, but it works. I get mine at Lowes.

  6. danusan10 | Nov 02, 2009 01:18am | #8

    dark walls require grey primer to be real effective in covering first coat. have the paint supplier tint it for you.

  7. PaulC | Nov 02, 2009 02:35am | #9

    I was very impressed with Benjamin Moore's "Aura" for coverage.

    Just repainted the living room white ("titanium") over a deep red. Two coats is plenty, no prime.

    Amateurs talk strategy, Generals talk logistics.

  8. JimB | Nov 02, 2009 04:30am | #13

    I painted three rooms (deep blue, red, hot pink) with severe nicotine staining.  Used one coat of Zinsser 1-2-3 and two topcoats.   No problems.

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