What is a print layer?

What is a print layer?

Does the «print layer» paint really work?

Owners and DIY enthusiasts have certainly heard their favorite painting business advertising a product that eliminates the need to prepare. «Painting and primer in one product? My lucky day!» This is what the average consumer is undoubtedly led to believe. But there are a lot of false ideas on this type of product and what it is supposed to do.

What is the relationship between media threshing and reality?

Over the past decade, almost all paint manufacturers have designed a product that is addressed to the DIY market. In many cases, they simply updated the labels of their existing paint products, adding «Painting and primer in a single product», «the question is whether these products work. What are their advantages and disadvantages? In What measure do they save you time and to what extent is it simply a clever marketing?

Reality – Most of these products do not contain a primer!

What makes «painting and a primer in one»? In general, it is simply a higher concentration of «solid materials», that is to say the materials contained in a painting that ensure what painters call «coverage» or «covering power» . Thus, a «self-apprentice painting» is simply a thicker paint which is more likely to hide the underlying color on which you paint.

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A lesson on the primer

Many people have heard the General Council that you have to «prepare before painting», but they can’t tell you why. Painting and primer are not the same. Painting is «fun», the color layer that provides instant satisfaction when you apply it and you see your vision of space come to life. The primer prepares your wall (or your woodwork) to be painted. Can we do without it? Most of the time, the answer is no. Here is why:
Your painting may not adhere to your surface if it is not well prepared. Or you may take too many layers to get a very solid color. You take a huge risk just to win a stage.

What does «prepare the surface» means

? It depends on your surface!

Brut wood needs an oil -based primer or a special primer to seal it, so that it does not swell under the effect of the damp paint that you will apply.

Plaster plate, dry partition or joint dough – These are the materials you have used to add a new wall, apply a new texture or plug a hole in your wall. These materials are porous and extremely crayy, and must be sealed with a primer corresponding to their level of pH, before being covered with paint. Otherwise, you risk wasting time, money and energy to apply several layers of paint on your porous surface before obtaining a beautiful layer of solid color which will not be removed at the slightest contact.

Smooth and shiny surfaces such as tiles, glass, cabinets or new furniture: hard and smooth surfaces like these require a primary of hanging, specially designed to adhere to the surface. Otherwise, you may scratch your pretty paint later with your nail. We have seen that happen, many times!

Walls stained by a water leak, cigarette smoke, etc. – You need an «anti-stain» primer to eliminate water stains, pencil brands, smoke stains, etc. And if you are dealing with smells, you will need a gum-based primer (which is not the most fun material to work). Ordinary products of the «Painting and primer in a single product» type do not have this kind of anti-stain properties and would let them infiltrate the surface of your freshly painted walls. It may seem that you have covered all the spots when you have applied the paint, but the chemistry of the underlying stain often reacts with the paint and reappears as if by magic (the bad) after several months.

Metal surfaces, such as garden furniture or railings – you need a «direct metal» primer, which adheres and prevents rust.

The surfaces painted in oil, like most old woodwork (plinths, doors, windows) in many houses – if you need to paint over it, you will likely want to use a «latex» or «acrylic» paint water base, so as not to have to take care of the oil paintings that smell bad and disagreeable paint diluents that you will have to clean once the work finished. But water paintings do not adhere to oil surfaces. You first need a primer.

Remember that the primer and painting are two distinct processes.

You cannot skip the primer step and get professional results. These steps must not be mixed to try to save time, because it is more difficult to solve the problems which arise from a lack of primer than the time it takes to prepare and paint in the first place.