Interior Paint/Primer new/old drywall and nail pop areas?

Hi
I just did a small renovation inside an open-concept house. I now need to paint the drywall.

I have:

1. An area with new drywall
2. An area of old painted drywall with a few patches over nail pops
3. An area of old painted drywall with many patches for nail pops
4. The rest of the area is untouched old painted drywall

The old paint is eggshell and is a light tan colour (the typical stock builder colour). I will prime with white Zinsser 123.

Of course I will prime the new drywall.

When priming the areas with nail pop fixes, should I only prime the fixed spots or do I need to prime corner to corner?
I have some walls where it is mostly covered by nail pop fixes so I don't mind so much, but I have a few walls with just a couple of fixes.

I'm just concerned about what it will look like when the paint is applied (will you notice a difference between areas that were primed vs covering the old paint.

Also, for the paint, I'll try and get it colour matched. I gather I need to paint corner to corner, or can I get way with painting half a wall? This is an open concept house, so will I need to paint the untouched walls as well, or just the repaired ones. I would hate to have to paint the whole place.

Thanks

 

Welcome to the forums!

While all repairs should be primed, painted walls don't have to. Sometimes it's beneficial to go ahead and prime the entire wall to facilitate coverage of the top coat. Enamel paints often need 2 coats to achieve maximum and even sheen.

Wall touch up [or painting 1/2 of a wall] only works if you are using the same paint that was applied originally and the existing paint job isn't old enough to have either faded or absorbed enough grime to change the color. Painting an entire wall should blend in ok if the match job is good, the sheen is similar and the unpainted wall is in good shape.

 

I tend to prime just the repairs if it's a small portion of the wall. When the repairs start to get into the neighborhood of 20-25% of the wall, I just go ahead and prime the whole wall.

Without having the original paint formula, I doubt you're going to get away with touch up on the existing paint. Even with the original paint, fading often makes it impossible anyway.

 

Just to clarify, it's not just the original formula [how the paint was tinted] but it also needs to be the same brand/line of paint. You can tint 2 different but similar brands or lines of paint the same and while the color will be close, it won't be a perfect match [one can't touch up the other] Each type/brand of paint has little differences that affect both how they take colorant and the sheen level when dry.

 

Thanks, Mark - I meant all of that but did not say it clearly.

 

Thanks, that helps.

I have my marching orders:

• [*]
• [*]
• [*]

 

Sounds like a plan
If you have your primer tinted the same [or close] as the top coat it might help your top coat cover better.

 

Actually that is the point on which I am most concerned. Are you saying that if I prime spots (and not the whole wall) I will see it after I paint?

 

It might take an extra coat to get coverage. If you think coverage might be an issue, you can touch up the primer with the finish paint prior to repainting the wall.

 

Ah that's a good idea. Thanks.