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Tinted Primer question

16 years ago

let's say, if i want to paint a room a deep dark slate blue, another room with a red accent wall and the rest chocolate brown... what are my best options for primer?

1) gray for the red wall, then brown tinted for the brown walls, blue tinted for the slate blue wall?

2) Or, can i just get a 5 gallon primer and have it all tinted gray and use them on all walls above?! or would gray change how the brown and blue walls would look?

(just trying to see if we can save some money, since we'd be painting pretty much every room... the others are light color where i can probably get by with white).

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Comments (7)

Faron79
16 years ago
Hi again ummm,
The most cost-effective is the Gray! ESPECIALLY under the Red & Blue. It'll be just fine under browns as well.
* At least you're priming!!
* You'll still need 2, & POSSIBLY 3 coats of the Red...even on the gray.
* Make sure you're applying TWO FULL coats of all colors.
* The Browns' colorants are typically more opaque, therefore less fussy in needing a tinted primer.

This'll help!
Faron
green-zeus
16 years ago
Tint your primer with the dark wall color.
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ummm
Original Author
16 years ago
thanks you two for the advice!

i learned about priming here :)

a couple of more questions, since i haven't really painted before...

* if i want the gray primer - do i just tell the person that i need that for red walls so they'd know how light/dark the gray should be? i have no clue what shade of gray it should be...

* also can i prime in advance? eg can i prime this weekend, and then paint next weekend or the weekend after? or is it better to prime, wait for however long it said on the can, and paint within that time frame? just trying to decide whether to prime/paint each room, or prime all walls in the house first, then paint...
Faron79
16 years ago
Hey Ummm,
A good shade of gray is a "pencil-lead" gray. Not too dark, not too light.
* If you're near an ACE store, ask if they have the ACE Tintable latex primer, SKU# 1969393 (gallon).
* I like the formula B=4Y, and KX=2Y into a gallon.
* If C2 primer, use the ACS Interior latex primer C-2085 gallon, with formula BK=36 & WH=5Y.
* Note this formula is almost a reverse of the ACE. C2 colorants are very saturated, but the ACE-base starts out with more white. The C2 ACS-primer is fairly clear b4 colorant.

TIMELINE: I wouldn't let the primer go past a week. They can get too dried-out to hold the paint as good as they could.
* Minimize the "days-between" priming & paint.
* Allow ~5 or more hours between paint-coats though. All the colorant in these colors takes double the time to dry enough to recoat.
* Recoat too soon, & the first coat can get pulled off by the 2nd!

Later,
Faron
ummm
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks faron!

very useful to know about the timeline, guess it'd be prime/paint each room then. and i'd try to be patient to paint the 2nd coat :)

if i'm going to get zinser 123 at HD (i think they're the one who has 5 gallons, didn't see 5 gallons at the local ACE store), is there a special formula for the gray then?

i'm not in a C2 state unfortunately but was just curious about the paint (i'm in southeastern MN :)

thanks again!
decorativewalls
16 years ago
You want to request a "battleship" "gray" for your primer.

For zinsser's deep tint , they can only add up to 2 ozs. anyway.

What you should end up with is a med. gray primer and this will be fine for your rooms.
ummm
Original Author
16 years ago
thanks decorativewalls!

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