We professional painters do it all the time.  We have a one day job - a room that we have to come in and paint in one day.  This requires the ability to prep, patch, prime and paint all in one day.  Timing is everything with this scenario. It can be done and I will outline how I go about this on almost a daily basis.

If you are a painting contractor you eventually develop quick and efficient drywall repair methods.  You must or you will not make it as a paint contractor. 
Your “patching” must be quick and last the test of time. You can’t have call backs because your patching  failed a year down the road. So, prepaint preparation is all about quick and good repair work. I will outline the methods I use and have tweaked over the years.

Same day painting
I will show you how to do your repairs so that you can paint the same day. This is important for painters who are going to be painting a single room only in a home.  If you are going to be on the job for several days , blow drying and fast setting compounds will not be absolutely essential as you can let the compound dry overnight.

Materials:
I use only three different patching materials.  Quick setting  drywall compound (USG Easy Sand - 20 minute set),  Shrink free “lite” spackle (Sherwin Williams version) and regular drywall compound (USG
Plus 3). For taping I use either self adhesive mesh tape (Fiba Tape) or the perforated self adhesive paper tape.  I like the self adhesive tapes because they save the embedding step and are also blister free  when completed.  I also use a regular hair dryer (not a “heat gun”) to speed up the drying of deep filled repairs. The hair dryer is a must for fast, same day repairs.

Note: I only use the regular drywall compound (Plus 3) if I can let the repair dry overnight. I don’t use it for one day repairs.

Special Materials
I use the metal clips for large holes that will require drywall pieces to fill the hole.  The clips allow for faster repairs without the need to cut back to a stud.

The first thing you need to do when once you have the furniture out of the room or centered away from the walls is to survey the room for patching.  Deal with the deep and more difficult repairs first using quick set compound.   These deep repairs and cracks which will require taping will need to get three layers of compound (sometimes more), so you must get on these right away.  Do your first fill on these and blow them dry with the hair dryer. Once dry, skim over them with a second layer of compound and blow each dry with the hair dryer again. You must dry these heavy fills completely, this will take some patience but you must do so.

Once the heavy fills (holes and taped cracks) are completely dry, you will “circle the room” and skim over all repairs using your lite spackle.  This time skim over everything , the heavy fills and the minor blemishes including nail holes and dents etc… Let this dry naturally ( I.e. don’t need to blow dry these as they are thin fills and will dry quickly), and then re-skim all repairs one more time tightly and thinly.  This will be your last fill on all repairs.  Let this last coat dry completely and you are ready to sand and prime your repairs.

Sanding
See dust free sanding.  If you did “tight” skim coats with the lite spackle you will have very little sanding.  Sand very lightly, paying attention to the outer perimeter edge of the repair to be sure it is “feathered” in to the wall - well.

Remove the dust with a vacuum and / or micro mesh tack rag, and you are ready to spot prime.

Flashing
If you use universal stain blocking primers you will have problems with flashing.  Flashing is a term which describes a shiny appearance in the paint film.  The universal primers form tight films which are necessary for trapping or blocking stains from migrating, the tightness of the film also acts to prevent paint absorbs ion. It is this tight film that causes the paint to “shine” if you are only spot priming with these primers.  A better solution to spot priming over repairs is to use a standard PVA drywall primer.  These primers usually won’t cause flashing and work well for spot priming.  Whereas , the stain blockers if used, should be used on from breaking point to breaking  point, I.e. the whole wall.

Most PVA primers will dry in a couple of hours.  Once dry your are ready to paint.  Where you have a lot of repairs you will probably need to double coat or at least double roll in order to get good sheen uniformity. This is true even with many flat paints which have a low angle sheen..  Make sure you allow the primer and paints to dry completely between coats ( follow the manufacturer’s label instructions) or you may run into problems with blistering of the repairs.

There you have it.  Get to the repairs right away, force dry the quick set compound completely, skim with the lite compound, allow to dry, spot prime, and paint allowing the required dry times for the prime and between coats.  Working systematically and efficiently, you can patch, prime and paint - all in one day.

Paint Preparation

Surface Prepartion Methods

How to Patch and Paint - All in One Day
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