Interior & Exterior Paint

Forgot To Prime Drywall Before Painting? 4 Facts You Need To Know

Painting bare drywall without primer can cause uneven sheen, poor coverage, and flashing because paper and joint compound absorb finish paint differently.

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You completed your drywall paint project. Now you utilize that you forget to prime before paint. Now you are thinking a lot about it, will it be a future issue?

Forget to prime drywall before painting?

If you completed drywall prime on a clean drywall surface, and the drywall paint is not affected by any issue, you do not need to do anything. But if you see your paint is peeling or other issues, you have to remove the paint and again prepare the surface with prime for a new painting. 

If you don't use a primer before painting, make sure to use 2 or more coats of paint on the painted surface. This trick can help you avoid future issues. 

In this article, I will explain 4 important facts which you should know about prime drywall.

1. Is it necessary to prime drywall before painting

Priming new drywall helps equalize porosity, seal joint compound and paper, improve finish uniformity, and reduce the amount of topcoat needed for an even result.

Prime fills every unfinished drywall area and makes it ready for painting. Also, paint additions are not good as premier in drywall. So using a primer and then painting the project will be long-lasting and save future paint peeling issues. 

I already describe is primer to be used on painted walls in other article, you can check.

2. What happens if you don't use a primer before painting drywall

If bare drywall is painted without primer, the finish may look patchy or dull over joints and paper, and additional paint alone may not fully correct the uneven absorption.

If you don't use prime before painting, the following problems can happen.

Chance peeling paint: I already tell you the paint has very low addition ability. It cannot stay for a long time on unfinished drywall surfaces. 

Paint is costly: Compared with good drywall primer vs good paint, paint is more costly than a primer. If you don't use primer, you have to use 3 or maybe more coats of paint for the same work. So you have spent more money.  

Weather issue: there are very high chances of affecting drywall with weather conditions. Too cold or hot is very bad for any type of paint. But primers come to deal with these. Also, the premier protects drywall against sweating in very high humidity conditions.

Hard to get the right color: primer deals with a very important part of achieving the right color. If the drywall surface is a darker color, you cannot achieve the right sheen without priming with low-quality paint. 

3. Before and after primed drywall

Before primer, drywall often shows mixed porosity between paper and joint compound; after proper priming, the surface is more uniform and ready for finish paint.

After the prime drywall surface, it is completely ready to go to paint. You can easily get the right sheen that you want. The prime is also adhesive on the drywall properly, so there is a very low chance of peeling in the future. As well as, the premier surface is bad weather resistant. You will get all the features at a cheap cost.

On the other hand, alone, drywall comes with an unfinished surface. It is not ready for painting. It has many joints that must be fixed before the prime or paint. 

I already describe more how to cover joints before prime or paint, you can check.

4. Does primer smooth drywall

Primer does not physically smooth ridges or poor sanding, but it can reveal defects and create a more uniform surface once joints are already finished properly.

However, it would be best to have light sand on the dry primer surface to make it properly smooth. 

Conclusion

If drywall was painted without primer, let the coating dry, assess flashing and adhesion, then use the appropriate primer and finish coats needed to restore a uniform surface.

I hope now you get the answer. Feel free to share this article with your friends and family. Maybe it can also help them.