When it comes time to paint over a previous faux finish on the walls of you house, there are two concerns that you will need to address:
- Will paint adhere to the faux finish?
- Does the faux finish have a texture that must be smoothed out prior to painting?
The minor texture left behind by most conventional ragging and sponging will look no different than a roller texture left behind by standard painting procedures. Heavier textures or straight line ridges will need to be leveled or smooth out. As with any painting, glossy or slick finishes will need to be primed or deglossed prior to repainting.
My recommendations are Zinsser’s Coverstain or BIN shellac primers. Provide good ventilation during and after priming. See Eliminating Paint Odor. If you cannot find either of these in your area, or you absolutely must use a waterbased product, XIM’s UMA primer will work also. UMA will be a little sensitive to scarring over some finishes for a few weeks before it finally cures to a strongly adhering primer film.
Sanding
With most faux finishes you will not need to sand to remove texture from the faux finish, but with some you will. The texture (if any) left behind by ragging, sponge painting, color washes, and roller blending will not need to be smoothed, unless an unusually heavy application was applied for some reason. Some Venetian plaster techniques, stripes and texture finishes may require smoothing out prior to repainting. See painting over stripes. Your choices are either skim coating or sanding either by hand or mechanically. If your house was built after 1978, either option will work fine. If your house was built prior to 1978 (the year lead paint was banned for residential construction use), then you should avoid sanding through to old layers of paint by skim coating instead of sanding the paint itself smooth. See Lead Paint Information page.
If you skim coated the walls etc… you will need to primer (or reprime as the case may be) with a drywall PVA primer, prior to painting. If you used “hot” chemical setting drywall compound see Quick Setting Drywall Compounds for how to best use these and finish over them.
Primer or no primer? - that is the question
You will need to prime if the previous faux finish was done in oil and you are going to paint with latex. You should also prime if the previous faux used any clears (waterbased or oil based “varnishes”) or to be safe, if the previous faux painting used metallic in the finish.
The best primer to use is an oil based or shellac based bonding primer. These will bond to the old faux finish and lay down a good base for the subsequent painting.
Painting over Faux Finishes
Search This Site
 | ||||
Custom Search
| ||||
The
Concourse eStore
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
SM
Painting Tips and Advice
| ||||
Painting and Decorating Concourse
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
Our "terms of use" governs your use of our website; by using our website, you accept this disclaimer in full. If you disagree with any part of our "terms of use", do not use our website.
| ||||
