painting wallboard

[terrifromohio]

Hello All,

I am new to the the board and have no experience with painting whatsoever. I am buying a MH that has to be painted throughout, even the closets, it has never been painted at all, it its a 1993.
I tried to start the painting in the extra bathroom by applying Kilz primer, barely covered the walls. How many coats of the primer should I use before putting the paint on? Also I moved on to the master bedroom and use the Baer paint plus primer. I could tell I will need much more that one coat of that. It is really expensive. Any suggestions? I am getting really frustrated. I will not use the Baer again it is too expensive, so what should I do prime the paint two or three times on the wallboard. Thank goodness the living room is regular wall and not wall board, any help would be appreciated.

[JD]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

If this is fresh unpainted wallboard, I would go with 2 coats and I would use a PVA (wallboard) primer. PVA primer is fast drying which is better for unpainted wallboard. I don't try to do the heavy coat thing with the first coat of PVA on unpainted wallboard.

With a pre-painted wallboard, one coat of Kilz will usually be enough unless you are going to have a significant change in color, or if the existing wall color is very dominant, like dark colors, wild colors or anything with visible red in it.

Most primers will not give you very good coverage and it doesn't really have to. Primers have a much finer pigment that penetrates and bonds to and seals surfaces better than finish coat paints. The finish coat will bond better to the primer. If you are not changing colors very much, you usually don't need primer at all. 2 coats of quality latex paint and some touch up will usually give you good coverage on interior walls.

Behr Ultra Premium Plus is excellent paint. But it is the top of the Behr food chain. Just like Sherwin Williams paints. The top of the line is excellent stuff. When you drop down in price to their StylePerfect paint (I think it was formally called 200 something), it is just regular economy paint. SW SuperPaint is pretty good stuff and comparable to many other so-called premium paints. Duration is crazy good and expensive. Buy the best paint you can find. It will cover better and last much longer.

JD