# Novice: Painting lighter colour over darker



## Teetorbilt (Feb 7, 2004)

psd, prepare for a job. I would repair the cracks and sand before paint. I don't know of the quality of paint that you have there but wiil guess that it is similar to ours. You are looking at 2 coats of primer and 2 topcoats minimum. I cut in freehand and, if you want to practice, you should have it down pretty well by the time the job is finished.

If you decide to tape, be sure to use painters tape. Here it is color coded, blue and green being the most popular and purple for special projects. If you want more precision, there is a 'fine line' tape as well. For details you can go to the 3M site and they will have all of the specifics on these products, you will need to match them to your local manufacturers.


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## slickshift (Aug 25, 2005)

psd99 said:


> *1. do u think i will need more than one coat of paint?
> *


 Yes
Because you'll be going from dark to light you'll want to primer first, then you'll need two coats of color


psd99 said:


> *2. what could be the disadvatages of directly painting over the walls WITHOUT filling the cracks?
> *


 Well, it won't look good


psd99 said:


> *3. i want to do a good job ive seen ive got lots of plug sockets here, windows, even radiators, gosh ive just remember this one mite be a bugger!!! also i got coving on the top part of the wall along with a skirting board near the floor...gosh im just wondering if its going to be worth the hassle now lol! but for all these MAJOR things i was thinking of using masking tape to cover them is this a good idea?*


 Not if you can "cut" around them with a brush
I'm not a big fan of taping


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## psd99 (Nov 14, 2005)

thanks for your reply guys


well first of all when u say primer
i dont get this
what do u mean?


also how quickly could i get this job done the room?
its pretty big around 15ft times 15ft (for uk thats big)


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## slickshift (Aug 25, 2005)

The best online primer* about primer** is at the Zinsser site
I don't know if the actual products refered to are available to you, but the information is valid
http://www.zinsser.com/pdf/HomeOwnersGuide_2004_01_15.pdf
It's in pdf format you if you don't have Adobe reader you may want to d-load it

**prim·er*1
_n._
 A book that covers the basic elements of a subject.
***prim·er*2
_n._
 An undercoat of paint or size applied to prepare a surface, as for painting.


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## r0ckd (Jan 12, 2006)

I say definitely spend a lot of time prepping the walls that will be painted. No amount of paint is going to make your walls look good if the prepping hasn't been done correctly. This is the stage that most of the time needs to be spent. If you patch a hole or crack and you don't sand it properly, you won't be able to get that plaster smooth again. Trust me, I have it at my house. Some paint company came through and did a sloppy job. Now I can't really do anything about it. And the worst part is that the latex paint is nearly impossible to sand. I have to now dig out the plaster and redo it all over again. 

Prep work is 80% of the game. The painting part is the easy part.

Hope this helps,
Dan


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