Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Can you paint over drywall?

I bought a house a few years ago that is a real ';fixer-upper';. Well, last night I got sick of looking at the really awful wallpaper and started just ripping it off the wall. Most of it is actually coming off pretty easy. Anyway, behind some if the paper is just really dirty white painted walls. But behind some of it, esp the hall that has the garage on the other side, appears to be drywall. Its smooth, just gray with white whatever they put drywall up with all around the borders of each piece of the drywall. Can I just paint over it, or do I need to do something special to prepare it for paint?Can you paint over drywall?
You need to prime. I use BIN but Kilz is good too. They make latex (water based) and they work fine. They're easy to clean up. I prefer the oil based. I just toss the brushes and rollers afterward and you have to ventilate, but I think it gives a better finish.Can you paint over drywall?
Dont try too many shortcuts with this, you bought a fixer upper, get a good home repair book from a bookstore and learn how to do it right, you will save money doing it yourself and build equity in your home. Otherwise you will have to discount your home later. Everyone who has lived in a fixer experiences this exasperation, just blow off steam and pace yourself, its worth it!
If the walls in the garage don't have a texture on them you might want to buy some texture and add it to water-based primer first. Prime the walls. It will probably take 2 coats. After it dries paint away.


Clean the other walls with TSP before painting.
You can absolutely paint drywall! But if you want some texture on the wall buy joint mud and mud the wall. You can make designs in the mud while it's wet, or just ';roughly'; smooth it out. Either way is interesting.
You have to prime it first. Get it at the paint store.

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