Vacuuming the walls
Use a shop vacuum with a brush attachment and enough extensions to reach ceilings and all other areas that you need to reach. The vacuum needs to be bagged with a fine dust collection bag and be equipped with a HEPA or fine dust cartridge filter. (See Setting Up Your Shop Vac for Dust Free Sanding for an explanation of how to set up a shop vacuum for capturing fine dust.)
Micro Fiber Tack Cloth
You can use a micro-fiber tack cloth wrapped around the end of a pole-sander to wipe down the ceiling and walls. Shake out the cloth from time to time to keep it clean and functional.
A word about pole-sanders: Pole-sanders only come with a four foot pole, but the sanding head is usually detachable. You can buy an acme tread sander adapter to convert your pole-sander to extension-pole treading, allowing you to screw the pole-sanding head onto an extension pole, thus enabling you to reach almost any wall/ceiling height.
Priming
Although it may be tempting, don’t skip the primer. A flat latex paint will not wet the surface in the same way that a drywall primer will, and paint alone will not seal the surface as well either. Thus, to ensure that you get proper adhesion and the best possible results out of your paint job, you will need to prime the drywall before painting
If your finish-paint is a deep-tone color (see Painting with Deep-Tone Paint), you may need to tint the primer to gray rather than trying to match the finish-paint color. You will not be able to match a deep-tone paint color by tinting a white primer since deep-tones are made from a clear base.
Applying the Primer
If you are going to be spraying the primer, see "Spraying New Drywall." Otherwise, the primer should be roller-applied, using a 3/4" roller cover.
Prepare the new roller cover by spiraling masking tape around the cover and pulling it off. This will pull off any loose fibers with the tape, preventing them from contaminating your primer-finish. After a couple of tape-pulls, follow up by vacuuming the cover to get any fibers the tape left behind.
…And, before you say anything, I know there is a paint-pan illustration at the beginning of the article. I just couldn't find a bucket and grid picture for that one.
Don't roll out a whole room by hand. Instead, use an extension pole (see "Paint Extension Poles"). A standard eight-foot high ceiling will require a two to four-foot or four to eight-foot telescoping pole or a non-telescoping four-foot pole. Dip the roller into the primer, roll off the excess on the bucket-grid and bring the paint-roller to the wall to begin rolling.
Roller Technique
Roll out the paint in four by four-foot sections in a "M" or "W" rolling pattern. Roll the paint on, roll it out, lightly smooth it all out, then move on. Be careful not to leave any roller-edge marks. Smooth the paint lightly, leaving only a light stipple as you go (see "Paint Rolling Technique")
Bump and Wipe (optional)
You will move along faster (important when rolling 30 gallons of primer on a new house, for instance) if you minimize the use of the paint brush on the primer coat. The roller is fast; the brush is slow—plain and simple. Remember that you don’t need to cut in primer with the brush in the same manner that you would with finish-paint. You can roll right into an inside corner, bumping the adjacent wall. Then, turn the corner and roll, first roller-width on the adjacent wall. Roll right into the corner again, bumping the previous wall. Next, take a paint brush and wipe down any swirl texture that the close rolling may have left. Wipe the inside corners down as you go (don’t wait until you finish painting—the swirls will have dried by then). Some painters will use specialty rollers that have fabric-covered ends on them for the above bump and wipe method. The fabric-covered end will paint both sides of inside corners a little better with less swirl.
Painting
See also: Spraying New Drywall
After the primer is dry, a light brush-off pole-sanding followed by a micro-fiber tack cloth wipe-down, will knock off any debris that got into the primer during application.
Finishing in Flat Paint
The real reason that new construction is almost always painted in flat paint is because there is a lot of touch-up painting that occurs after the finish-paint is applied. Other tradesmen will bump and mark up the walls in the course of doing their jobs—it just happens. Flat paints touch-up, whereas sheen paints do not touch-up very well. The higher the sheen, the tougher it is to touch-up.
You will most likely be able to do a one-coat job with flat paint, if you tinted your primer to match. One coat of flat paint over one coat of primer is a minimal paint job, which is fine for ceilings and closets. You may want a little more paint on the walls, which will need to be able to withstand washing etc., than one coat of flat paint. A one-coat flat paint job will look fine, but will not have great washability.
If you want to upgrade, you could do two coats of finish-paint or do an intermediate prime-coat using an acrylic type of universal primer prior to painting with your flat paint (tint the universal primer to match). The universal primer will seal the drywall better than two coats of flat paint, providing better washability. For best durability with a flat paint, use a high-end (expensive) flat paint over the universal primer.
Finishing With Satin or Eggshell Paint
Typically, a good strategy for a better than minimal paint-job is to use a low-luster paint (satin or eggshell sheen) on the walls and flat on the ceiling.
Sheen paints will require two coats over the drywall primer for good sheen uniformity. If you are going to double-coat with satin, you don't need to use an intermediate primer (universal primer). The first coat of the sheen-latex paint will come out a bit uneven in appearance, but the second coat will look good and uniform in sheen and color. Low-luster paints have better washability, and won't mark or scuff up as easily as a flat paint, so they are a better choice in many situations for walls.
PVA Drywall Primer
PVA stands for polyvinyl acetate, the resin system used in the primer. PVA drywall primer was designed for new drywall. This type of primer wets the surface of the wall very well and seals the surface too (probably not as well as a universal acrylic stain blocker—however, it wets the surface of the wall better and is easier to re-coat).
PVA drywall primers are time tested, having been used for years. You can tint the primer also to match the finish-coat paint color. Tinting will make your finish-paint cover better. Because primers have less titanium dioxide than finish paints, usually a "half-tint" or 50% formula will match a finish-paint color.
Working Out of a 5 Gallon Bucket
You will want to roll both primer and finish-paint from a five gallon bucket instead of a pan. Pans are easy to step into and tip over. They are also hard to move without tipping over, as you progress around the room, so leave the pans to the unsuspecting novices.
Attach a bucket-grid to the bucket, pour about two or three gallons of primer into the bucket and you are ready to roll—literally. Work out of a half-filled bucket rather than a full or near-full bucket—this will allow you to move the bucket easier and work with the bucket-grid in the bucket.
Remove Drywall Sanding Dust - before you paint
with the Dust Eater
Specially treated yarn that attracts and holds dust. Attaches to a threaded extension pole or telescoping pole for easy reach. See Wooster Dust Eater and Dust Eater Refill
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Preparing to Paint: Removing the Dust
Your new drywall is finally installed—but that doesn’t mean that you can immediately start painting. It’s important to take some time to prepare the surface that you wish to paint.
The first thing you will do once the drywallers are done is remove the sanding dust from the ceiling and walls. This is best accomplished with either a vacuum or with a micro-fiber tack cloth. (Note: If you are installing your own drywall, see Dustless Drywall Sanding for minimizing/eliminating drywall dust when sanding.)
Dustless Drywall Sanders
Sanding Attachments
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