I recently finished (or at least thought I was finished) some drywall in my house. It looked great, no humps, seams, or screw dimples. Then I put the primer on. Small defects showed up when the lighting was just right. Mainly things like little grooves.
The question is, can I apply more compound over the primer? Will it stick, or do you think that the spots might not be so evident after painting? I tried sanding it, but the primer seems like it is pretty dang hard. I just scratched the surface. Any help would be appreciated.
Replies
How bad is it? If its minor, I suggest painting with a flat paint and hanging a few pictures. If its more serious, float out the bad areas with joint compound (it will bond), sand and follow with a coat of topping, then sand with a fine grit and check it under strong sidelight.
Texture helps minimize any imperfections, although texture is difficult to apply evenly if part of the wall is primered and part is raw, as the two surfaces absorb moisture unevenly. Just be careful not to apply it too heavy, as it will run if applied too heavy over a primered or painted wall. I recommend sprayed or troweled texture for a professional look.
Edited 2/15/2005 11:07 am ET by Huck
Sounds to me like you got a little zealous in sanding,
and those lines are from your sand paper,
Next time you sand either use a circular motion or run
your sanding motion at an angle to the sanding block,
Not straight(man this is hard trying to explain something w/words)
Use the green topped mud, and yes it will bond to the flat primer.
Get smaller light bulbs.
I just finished a wall as well. Looked real good, until I put on the primer. I saw a compund seam right away, wiped it off and then used a sanding sponge. Took care of it.
I think next time I will apply a skim coat before primer, hopefully it will cover any small blemishes and point out more 'serious' ones.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Have you seen my baseball?"
Seriously though, thats almost par for the course. Its hard to get the holy grail of a perfect DW finish on the first try. Invariably, between the time the dw is finish sanded and the last coat of paint is on, I've nitpicked it to death 2 or 3 more times, to wit:
Drywall is finish sanded with a pole and blocks. Now I spotlight it and run my hand over everything that looks iffy, and hand sand anything I find. Pencil marks on the wall indicate divots to be filled, which I do with chalked mud so I can see them later. Sand those out, prime. Wow, look at all the stuff I missed. Same routine, spotlight and mark the walls, now a little spackle or more chalked mud. Sand. Spot prime. First coat of paint. Hmm, you know, the way the light hits that color, I see a little defect there. Getting that first even coat on the wall is a great way to see things. I've tried hiring it out under the theory that a full time drywaller is going to do better. I've returned to doing it myself. It causes less grief in the head. I'd rather be mad at me than someone else, and they didn't do any better.
I've cured about 90% of my headaches by using a wall surfacer. Now it looks real good except for the onesy twosy spots that you just completely biffed on and missed, but those fix easy, and as long as the surfacer doesnt get runs, its all good.
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain
RW,
About 10 years ago I redrywalled my entire house. I consider myself a real good finisher..then i used the halogen light and touched it up and primed it..did this about 5 times.
There comes a time when you stand back 4 feet and let it be otherwise it never ends. Photographing, the type of primer, type of paint, time of day, type of light, etc. all come into play.
"let it be, just let it be,
simple words of wisdom,
let it, let it be" - The Beatles
Well, yes, but. I think the but is I have to sleep at night. I've come to the point where life is easier if I just do what I think is right and not worry about what someone else tells me when I hear the "that won't matter" thing - - and at least I'm bright enough not to pursue framing as a career. I pretty much sell myself as the guy for interior finishes - trim, paint, etc. So that's my plausable out. I'm charging for a level of snittyness that other people dont. I'll deliver it. But I am not at all disagreeing with you. I'm just glad there's pills out there to keep people like me marginally sane. And Im continually relieved to find people (who are certainly in the minority) who look for and are willing to pay for that level of detail."If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain
RW,
Sure you do a good job, probably better than 98% of the guys out there..so do I. But using a light on the paint or primer I must tell you that it will never end. You can touch up the paint roller lines too under light, especially if checked at night with only the light shining on your work.
I'd venture to say that if the best finisher in the USA said that his job was perfect and allowed me to check it under a haolgen light..his work on that job would be perpetual.
that's the way we do it ....
have it "finished" ...
then call in the painter to throw on some primer ...
the bad spots jump out and are touched up ... and spot primed.
then the top coats of paint are laid on.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry in Carpentry
Pgh, PA
Others have already mentioned lights while sanding. Try holding a trouble lamp in one hand and sand with the other, get a good quality hand sander, I use 120 grit. The suggestion to rub your hand over the wall works good also, rub with one hand to feel the bumps etc. and sand with the other. Now if you had three hands you would be really rocking.
What type of roller you use on the primer?
Not that you can cover all the problems with the right primer roller and technique, but it will help if you use genuine lambskin 1/2" or even 3/4"
I have done a lot of taping -- but not enough to get really good at it.I used to fuss over the final coat, including the hand held light thing -- trying to find every possible imperfection. Finally, I accepted that the surface would probably have to be primed twice. So I did the best I could with the final coat of mud -- no obvious imperfections -- and then primed. Priming makes all the imperfections jump out, and they're easy to fix -- either by spot priming, or just prime the whole thing over again if your retouches are spread over a large area. There was some talk here in a thread from a month or two ago about mixing a little paint or even food coloring) with your mud. I havn't tried that trick, but apparently it makes the imperfections stand out a lot more.
mix chalk with the touch up mud, helps you find it later when it is dry.
use blue or yellow chalk not red, don't ask why
james
I take it you forgot to read the bottle 1st...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Not me but one of my guys, he was amazed when i showed him the chalk trick, so i send him out to give a kitchen we were working on a once over while i was off doing something.... came back and saw the pink......... I turned red, he said red chalk is all he had on the tuck........ I threw the bottle out, It must have been the last red bottle i had from a long time ago.
james
You mean powdered chalk -- the stuff you use for your chalk line?
yes, powdered chalk... infact the exact same as i put in my lines.
james
Your colored chalk tip is great!!! Just the other day I was thinking that it would be great if mud came in colors, so that you could keep track of touch-ups. Then I read your post and used the chalk trick. My red chalk produced a nice salmon color which is very easy to spot and helps with the feathering.
I REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT RED IS NOT THE COLOR TO USE....
over time red will bleed thru the paint... use blue or yellow instead...
more gooder...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Yeah, I thought of that -- but too late. Maybe I will spot - prime those areas with a stain killer (shellac based).
or thinned down wood glue...
that works when stain killer doesn't quite do it...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Anybody "wet sand?"
After pole sanding, use a grout sponge. Wet it and wring it out so it's just damp. Run over the conpound, feathering the compound to the paper.
With easysand, it takes just enough compound off to give a very smooth and dimple-free finish.
Don't go crazy on the paper or you can cause it to pill.
You can go over the small imperfections with compund, but you really need to thin out the compund. Putting on pre-mixed joint compund and sanding that out can leave a hump with rough edges and add to the problem.
Take pre mixed joint compound and add about 3" of joint compound (hold for future use) to an empty bucket. Slowly add and mix warm water to it, until it is a bit soupy. Then apply the compound. It should give a glassy finish look and dryies fairly quickly. After it dries, I like to lightly sand the edges with a 100/150 grit sand paper, by hand OR use a damp sponge and lightly go around the edges.
Take a light to the wall and hit it from all angles to make sure you are happy with results.
Bill
It is common place to touch-up drywall after priming, as has been mentioned.
Drywall is not a perfect product, so it is hard to achieve perfect results. The texture of the mud and the paper are different, so under the right lighting you will see every place that there is joint compound. When it is dark outside and a halogen light is applied to a wall you will definitely see every spot.
I once did a 40 foot vaulted ceiling with 10,000 watts if light shining on it from a soffit...lots of time on touch -up!!
USG has come out with an incredible primer to aid with new drywall. It is called "USG first coat". Apparently it has gypsum in it or something, it works miracles on new drywall and is price competitive with standard primer.
I used to finish 300-400 sheets of drywall per week working by my myself with Ames tools. There is always a touch-up men that comes in before the finish coat of paint is applied. No matter how good the mud and sand man are, the walls will get nicked by trim men, etc. Just make sure to spot prime the touch-up spots before finish coating or they will show.
I started off as a sand and point-up (touch-up) man and worked my way up to finisher. That way you get used to using the mud tools, no one can just pick up a set of drywall tools and be a pro the first time. It also takes a set of properly broken-in knives to achieve the best results. I was once offered $100 for my 10 yr old 4" corner knife that I bought for about $5, I declined of course. We finishers guard our knives with our lives.
Carter,
>> It also takes a set of properly broken-in knives to achieve the best results. I was once offered $100 for my 10 yr old 4" corner knife that I bought for about $5, I declined of course.
Can you please tell me what improvement results from broken-in knives in your experience? I round out the corners on new knives so they don't leave a sharp edge/ridge, don't tear up the corner paper... Other than that how is a used one better than a new one (other factors being the same).
thanks.
Guys,
Coloring your mud with a touch of universal colorant or water based pigment is great, but chalk is probably not the best. No matter what color, the chalk used on lines is very bad in your lungs. I try to stay upwind when someone lays a line out.
Not that any sheetrock dust is great, but there is no point in making it more toxic.
-zen
Rounding off the corners on a new knife is a must, but it is not near as good as one that has been rounded from use.A well broken-in angle knife has the perfect amount of flex in all the right spots, it can pretty much make a perfect corner by itself. It will actually take on a different shape than it originally had. The problem is that they eventually get so thin that they snap.I eventually ran the angles with the AMES tools and would just use a knife on the corners.
I had this excellent taper working for me, he had the most junk filled pan I had ever seen, never cleaned it but still did beautiful work. One day he hauls out a little bottle of food coloring, yellow, and mixes it in his pan, first time I saw that brilliant idea.