Hey do-it-yourselfers i have a few questions. I am going to start painting the inside of my garage, was wondering if there is a certain type of paint that would be best. I am painting it white, and there is not texture on the sheetrock. I taped and mudded the seams and screw holes but no texture. Is there a paint-primer mixture that would work?

Second question. Does anyone have any good reviews on a spray gun? I dont want to spend a ton but also dont want to buy junk that doesnt work well. Thanks in advance.

 

Flat paint will show the least and touch up the best.

I use separate primer and paint; never bought an all-in-one product and have no plans to do so.

 

While flat paint will show less defects and often touches up better, I prefer satin or eggshell enamel as it doesn't get dirty as easy and cleans up better. It is better to use a separate primer, then the finish paint!

What are you wanting to spray? While I have a good bit of spray equipment I rarely spray in an occupied dwelling. When spraying drywall or wood it's usually beneficial to back roll the paint to work it into the substrate. In regards to airless spray guns, I wouldn't own a diaphragm pump as a piston pump is a lot better and easier to repair. Conventional spray guns [that run off of an air compressor] are best suited for solvent based coatings and won't have as much output as an airless.

 

I would be painting the inside of my garage with a sprayer. Rolling the whole garage sounds horrible. Its an oversized triple car garage so i was hoping that i could stay away from the roller and spray it.

 

I forgot to mention you can also rent an airless the walls/ceiling will look better if the finish paint is back rolled. It's easiest if one person sprays and another back rolls but I have done both by myself. Overspray can and will go everywhere! Unless you don't care about overspray on the concrete it will have to be covered. Any overspray that can go out the door also needs to be addressed. Don't forget to remove all sanding dust from the drywall before applying the primer.

 

I just painted my equipment garage this summer. Because I needed to get everything out and back in as quickly as possible I knew there would be only one coat of paint. I choose the best, gloss white paint I could get. I rolled it on even though I have a commercial airless sprayer.

You have to consider if masking the lights, outlets, switches, door knobs and working in a room fogged with paint is worth the reduced application time. With a sprayer you also have to be a specific distance from the walls & ceiling which may require stilts, scaffolding or at least a ladder. I cut in around lights and outlets with a brush then with a long paint roller handle was able to paint everything without ladders. I put the paint bucket and pan on a large scrap of cardboard and kept a bucket of water and wet rag handy for the occasional drip on the floor. 10 gallons of paint went on start to finish including cleanup in half a day.

I have a toy car garage. Epoxy floor, white cabinetry... basically a sweet garage. I went with a eggshell paint with a subtleish color. It's a fancy garage so the duller texture hid imperfections in the wall better and the VHO lighting still makes it incredibly bright with the tinted walls & ceiling. It's a very clean room so keeping the walls clean was not an issue. My equipment garage is a different story. I wanted it to be as bright as possible to make the most of existing lighting and it's a dirty space so the walls may need to be wiped down with a damp rag occasionally so I went with untinted bright white gloss. It shows every imperfection in the walls but in that garage it's not an issue.

 

Thanks Pilot Dane, sounds like the roller is the way to go. This garage is kind of a party area. I have a 70" projector that will be going in and will be epoxing the floor also. I want it to look as good as possible. Thanks for the replies.

 

If you're going to show this off, then you're likely going to put in the work on the drywall and mud job such that satin/eggshell paint would be the way to go.

I recommend flat to most people because most seem to be looking for the simplest/quickest way.

 

Why is flat the simplest/quickest? Sorry I am truley a guy with hardly any painting experience. I am looking for something that is bright, easy to clean, and water resistant would be a plus.

 

Flat paint is more forgiving both in not highlighting defects in the finish or the paint's application. Latex enamels are more washable than flat and slightly water resistant. While an enamel will try to repel water, flat latex is apt to suck it up.

 

Flat paint hides defects in the wall better. Gloss paint just like on your car will show any imperfections underneath. Even if your mud and taping is good the reflection of lights on gloss paint can sometimes show undulations in the wall. Using a tall/thick nap roller will help by creating more texture while still preserving the easy cleanability of gloss paint.

If you are inexperienced at finishing sheetrock don't think paint will hide imperfections. Generally the opposite is true. So, if you can see a defect when mudding/sanding it will probably show through the paint so it's best to take care of it then. Also, defects have a magical way of becoming visible after the first coat of paint.

 

Shinning a bright light on the wall and viewing it from an angle will often let you see the finishing defects better. Also while the primer is wet [and shiny] the defects will show - you just need to remember where they are so you can repair them once the primer has dried.

There shouldn't be any need to use a semi-gloss or gloss enamel in your application, satin or eggshell would be fine.

 

the Banger:

Spray painting drywall (or bare drywall joint compound or real plaster) isn't generally a good idea. That's because the paint isn't forced into the porous surface of the substrate like it is when you roll or brush it on. The result will be that the primer or paint film will just sit on the surface of the porous paper, without penetrating into it for better adhesion. So, if you simply spray your primer onto your drywall, then removing tape from those walls in future may very wall take the paint and primer off as well because of an insufficient bond between the primer and the drywall and/or drywall joint compound.

To address this problem, painting contractors have come to practice "back rolling", which is where one guy sprays the primer onto the drywall, and another guy rolls the primer while it's still wet, thereby forcing the wet primer into the porous surface of the drywall.

But, that's largely a duplication of effort. You'd get a better job done with much less work if one guy were to simply apply the primer with a roller. That would eliminate all the prep work needed to mask off everything you don't want to get sprayed.

When it comes to your finish coat of paint, then the general rule is:

1. the flatter the paint, the better it will hide both an underlying colour and underlying imperfections in the mudding/sanding, but the harder it will be to keep that rough paint surface clean.

2. the glossier the paint, the less well it will hide both an underlying colour and
imperfections in the mudding/sanding, but the easier it will be to keep the smoother surface of the paint clean.

A general purpose "PVA" primer is recommended for bare drywall. That simply means that the plastic resins in the primer are made from a plastic called "polyvinyl acetate", which is what white wood glue is.

Garage walls, like interior ceilings, generally don't get dirty and don't need to be cleaned as often as the wall areas in front and back entrances of houses (where people rest their hands against walls while putting shoes and boots on).
So, you really don't NEED a glossy paint in a garage because of the frequent cleaning the paint will have to stand up to.

Also, the primary difference between interior and exterior latex paints is the amount of additives (like mildewcides and UV blockers) added to exterior paints. You need mildewcides in exterior paints because condensation can form on the colder north side of a house every morning, and that can result in mildew growing on the paint there. But, that won't apply inside a garage where
the Sun won't be warming up the paint every morning.

So, your best bet would be to simply:
1. Apply a general purpose latex primer to your garage drywall.
2. Top coat using any company's top-of-th-line interior latex paint in an eggshell, satin or semigloss finish, depending on your preference.

So, if it were me, I'd just use a

 

That all depends on how you use your garage, personally I'm apt to spend more time and do more work in the garage than in the house getting the garage walls dirtier than the walls in the house in the process

 

Thanks for the replies, im about halways done with the primer. I ended up just buying a paint stick. The walls are easy to do but the ceiling is something else. I'm hoping to be done priming by sunday night and then move on to painting. I'm hoping that one coat of paint will do, the primer actually looks pretty good already, as it has covered real well.

 

Ceilings are never fun to roll but using a 5 gallon bucket with screen/grid to roll out of, a properly sized roller pole and a decent sized roller nap helps. I generally use a 1/2" or 3/4" nap roller cover on ceilings.
A decent brand/line of paint should cover the primer with one coat.