drywall primer and ceiling paint- recommendations?

[goaliedad]

Making progress on the lake house. Most of the drywall is hung and finished. Next step is primng. 

We will be rolling it on the walls and ceilings. Then onto painting the ceilings. 

Any recommendations on brand/type of primer? It has been a long time since I did any substantial amount of priming fresh drywall. 

Kilz PVA?  I have had good luck with the advice and products I have gotten from Sherwin Williams, but thought I better do some research first

Also ceiling paint?  What is good? no textures, just flat drywall, staying with basic white for color.

[fredhargis]

Stay with the PVA type, I've no doubt the Kilz product would work well.

[cams2705]

Making progress on the lake house. Most of the drywall is hung and finished. Next step is primng. 

We will be rolling it on the walls and ceilings. Then onto painting the ceilings. 

Any recommendations on brand/type of primer? It has been a long time since I did any substantial amount of priming fresh drywall. 

Kilz PVA?  I have had good luck with the advice and products I have gotten from Sherwin Williams, but thought I better do some research first

Also ceiling paint?  What is good? no textures, just flat drywall, staying with basic white for color.

I've had the best luck using SW products bought directly from SW ... not those with the SW name in the box stores.

I've used their "Quick Dry Stain Blocking Primer" for a lot of painted products and it's done what it's intended to.  Most recently, I installed a pine bead board ceiling on my covered deck and pre-treated the knots with straight shellac, which didn't work.  A quick scuff with sand paper and a single coat of this primer, another coat of paint and I cannot see any more knots.  I've also used it on rough cedar decorative brackets I put on my shed and it also blocked knot bleed-through.  It's and Interior/Exterior product that can be used on drywall or wood.

For paint, they have a few different varieties, I've used Duration Home, Super Paint, and ProMar 100 for walls and trim with no problems.  I highly recommend signing up for their perks program.  I think it gives you 10% off regularly and every other month or so, there are special sales for 30-40% off.  The manager gave me a special deal on the ProMar which is usually cost prohibitive unless you're a contractor ... I think it's listed for $75 a gallon.  I wanted it to exactly match what my builder used so he gave me the ProMar for their price ($30) since I was buying multiple products through them.  I think they are usually appreciative when you come to them and will treat you well.

[DustyDan]

Just a little tip....you can get the primer tinted to near the final color.  That way you may get away with one coat of final color.  It costs little to nothing from the store.  Even Home Depot didn't charge.

[Snipe Hunter]

Making progress on the lake house. Most of the drywall is hung and finished. Next step is primng. 

We will be rolling it on the walls and ceilings. Then onto painting the ceilings. 

Any recommendations on brand/type of primer? It has been a long time since I did any substantial amount of priming fresh drywall. 

Kilz PVA?  I have had good luck with the advice and products I have gotten from Sherwin Williams, but thought I better do some research first

Also ceiling paint?  What is good? no textures, just flat drywall, staying with basic white for color.

IMHO... ceiling paint is ceiling paint. Buy the 5 gallon bucket and do the whole place. I tend to step up a little on primer. Some of the cheaper PVA primers tend no to seal as well as the better stuff. A decent primer really helps the color coat to lay out more evenly. Especially if you intend to do only one coat.

[rschissler]

I just painted part of my house recently and used the same paint I used for the walls, to put on the ceiling.  Yes, colored instead of white for the ceiling.  I was told white ceilings are passé, and I like it.  Anyway, I was careful, but didn't have any trouble with drips.  Higher quality paint usually is thicker than the cheap stuff, so that may be why.

[Turner52]

Totally different advice is what I am going to give. Was in construction for 41 years in one capacity or another. In Green Bay 95% of residential is thin wall plaster. Probably 99% of commercial is drywall. Some of the contractors use a primer usually followed by one coat of finish. Usually sprayed. Others go with two coats of finish with no primer underneath. From my experience I would recommend the two coats of finish. The advantage is with two coats of finish when you need to do touch up it works better. With the primer system if you look at the touchup in the right light and on an angle you usually will notice a slight sheen difference. The touchup is shinier. Yes a little more costly, but works out cheaper in the long run. No need to repaint whole walls if it shows up.. Never saw any adhesion problems. Usually used Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams products. Yes our prices were 60 to 80% off of retail depending on how many thousand of gallons we bought in a year. I do not have experience with cheaper paint products. It was easier for us to use retailers like that. Called up and ordered and product was delivered wherever we wanted. There were eneough store of both kind in the 100 mile radius of Green Bay that we worked that there was usually one close to the construction site. When I started everyone bought their paint at a paint store. There were no other options. Both of these retailers treated contractors good eneough that most stayed with them even after other options became available. In addition most of the commercial project archetects usually speced out there products

[KC]

I just painted part of my house recently and used the same paint I used for the walls, to put on the ceiling.  Yes, colored instead of white for the ceiling.  I was told white ceilings are passé, and I like it.  Anyway, I was careful, but didn't have any trouble with drips.  Higher quality paint usually is thicker than the cheap stuff, so that may be why.

I've always preferred wall color on the ceiling as well.  Makes the crown (if any) stand out, IMO.

[Woodenfish]

Home Depot carries Glidden Gripper Primer that I found to be a very good primer/sealer. Once I used Benjamin Moore’s Ultra Flat Ceiling Paint for the first time I was extremely impressed how much better it looked than typical flat ceiling paint in hiding surface imperfections. I won’t use anything but from now on. Also a big fan of Benjamin Moore Regal Select in Matte finish for walls.

[Cooler]

Just a little tip....you can get the primer tinted to near the final color.  That way you may get away with one coat of final color.  It costs little to nothing from the store.  Even Home Depot didn't charge.

This works very well, especially if you are making a big change in color.

I don't find it of much help when going to a light beige or any other light color.  Then white primer works pretty much the same as a tinted primer. 

I've read that the tinted primer should be slightly lighter in tone than the final color.  I have no idea why that recommendation was made.

This article repeats that recommendation.  The part I bold faced makes some sense to me.  https://www.diamondvogel.com/architectur...ted-primer

For most colors, tinting the primer to a slightly lighter shade than the finish coat provides a better chance of reaching full coverage, and it helps you see where you’ve already painted your finish coat and where you still need to paint.