Zinsser PRIMECOAT2

I’ve been using Zinsser’s PRIMECOAT2 found at Home Depot for bare pine and poplar lately. Once again I was impressed with their products. One consistent aspect of Zinsser is their products DO what they say they will do and PRIMECOAT2 is no exception!

PRIMECOAT2 went on solid and dried solid. The product sands well on poplar with minimal raising of the grain which is a HUGE advantage when finishing poplar trim.

If you are at all familiar with my ongoing goal to minimize the efforts on the job (the purpose of this blog) and simplify the system then – you know there was more to selecting this product than to prime bare wood.

Using PRIMECOAT2 allows me to use one primer where in the recent past I was using three on the same job. This product can never replace the advantages of Zinsser Cover Stain oil-based primer but PRIMECOAT2 allows me to minimize when to use Cover Stain with other advantages.

I use PRIMECOAT2 for 3 reasons/applications.

1) as a wash-coat over factory primed trim. In this scenario, the trim, casings, baseboard etc is installed in the home and PRIMECOAT2 is applied BEFORE filling nail-holes or caulking. The main advantage is this primer allows better ‘bite’ when filling nail holes. It provides a better ‘cut’ or ‘break-off’ of putty in the hole allowing for flush fills and ease-of-use. It also prevents the putty from shrinkage.

2) When priming bare pine you will find there is no real reason to sand the product prior to finish assuming the bare wood was installed in good shape. You can give the primer a quick sanding for that extra assurance that the surface is free of any debris but if you shop-vac the trim prior (not dust-off) then all should go well on the finish.

3) PRIMECOAT2 is excellent over poplar trim! The main advantage here are two things over using an oil primer such as Zinsser Cover Stain. a) minimal raising of the grain. b) lack of absorption. You might get some grain to raise and will sand off nicely and the fact that the primer does not dissipate into the wood allows for one nice coat of primer vs. two of oil and a ton of sanding.

So, is it KICKASS? Absolutely! and you will suck less at painting by using it.

CONS: bad odor. Similar smell in comparison to ICI Gripper

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Factory primer fails brickmold

Here is a very popular issue with new construction homes. The factory primer on brick molding and door jambs comes off regularly. There is no failsafe work around for this issue aside from stripping the lousy factory primer off.

Here are a few tips to help this troublesome problem along. Let’s face it; until enough builders complain about this issue, it won’t change. You can run a palm sander or orbital sander vigorously on all areas possible. These jambs are finger jointed and it is important to smooth up those joints and seal them better. Take some 150 grit sandpaper and knock off any sharp edges everywhere else. The paint will fail if you were to paint over these sharp edges.

Now, mix up some Zinsser Cover Stain at this formula. 32 oz. of Cover Stain to 12 oz. of NAPTHA and apply to the entire jamb. This diluted mixture will do three things 1) penetrate the finger-joints 2) soften factory primer and 3) penetrate factory primer to give some added bite. When dry, apply two heavy coats of your favorite acrylic finish.

See also: Sandpaper Time Savers

Nail Putty Problems

There is growing number of reports of nail putty problems on pre-primed trim products. I will touch briefly on one of the main causes for what you see in the photo. This ringing effect around the nail hole is caused by use of overly oily oil-based nail putty. What happens is this, after the putty is pressed into the hole (usually within hours), the oils in the putty seep through the wood fibers and rise to the surface via the super absorbent factory primer coat leaving an oily ring.

Explaining in more detail: the quality of the primer coat on factory pre-primed trim is so poor that it can be dissolved with just water. The primer coat is about the same as if you put cheap flat wall paint on bare wood. The oils in the putty soften the primer coat leaving an oily spot. When you paint over this oily spot, your finish coat absorbs into the soft spot. This occurs with oil-based paint or Acrylics.

The work around: 4 Options
1) Re-prime that crappy factory primer before you do any nail hole filling.
2) Use a latex putty vs. oil.
3) Use a product such as DAP CrackShot or DryDex (much more time consuming) best results.
4) Use Whiting Powder to dry out the putty a bit.

In new home construction it is far less expensive and labor intensive to simply spray a new coat of primer on the trim. The factory primer is applied to the wood with one goal in mind, to fill imperfections in the wood.