What is a Primer and How to Use It

As paint costs are skyrocketing, painting your home may be a significant financial commitment, so you need to be sure your efforts are not wasted.

What is a Primer?

Primers aren’t necessarily paint; the main purpose of a primer is to mask any differently coloured previous coat of paint. If you're looking to cover a dark coat of paint with a lighter colour, primer is perfect in masking the previous coat of paint and preparing your wall for the new fresh coat.

Primer is also used to help new paint in adhering to a surface much better, depending on the surface as some paints don’t bond well with certain surfaces. These surfaces include wood and concrete where the surfaces are porous and aluminum where the surface is hard to paint on as paint does not stick well.

How Much Should I Apply?

One coat of primer can be used if you are about to paint on a new dry wall, raw smooth wood and lightly coloured walls. Two coats of primer for a damaged dry wall, lightly stained walls and any metal surfaces that have been rusted and masking over brighter coloured walls. Three coats or more for any porous wood and concrete surfaces and dark colored wall masking.

Do I Really Need Primer?

Yes, without primer it will be difficult and you’ll be spending more money by simply trying to mask darker painted walls with light coats of paint. Alternatively trying to paint wood and concrete without primer as it could take up to five or six coats of paint until you get your desired outcome.

What Primer Should I Use?

Multilac has a range of primer’s depending on your paint job, Multilac supreme life flexible elastometric wall primer is specially formulated for the application on masonry walls which are prone to hairline cracking due to thermal expansions. Multilac oil primer is recommended to use as the first coat on iron and steel to be followed by finishing enamel coat to give durability to surface use with around 40 micrometers of a dry film thickness. Multilac ETCH Primer is a specialty Coating to promote bonding of paints to difficult surfaces such as Galvanized, Aluminum, Zinc Coated, Stainless Steel, Coper or Bonze surfaces.