Primer Before Texture?

sorry guys !! after going back and reading the thread question again ..it would seem i misread or just didint have enough coffee onboard at the time .. it would eppear he is asking , do you prime before you put on the first coat of joint compound ? I figured the finish had elready been done.. and he was asking do you prime before you paint.. .....anyway prime before you spread drywall mud....never heard of that so id have to say NO.... also i dont think im the only one to misunderstand the quetion...once again sorry guys....

In my area I've never seen anyone prime before texturing. It does sound like and intriguing idea though. To the guys that do it this way, do you then put a coat of primer over the texture or do you just paint? I don't do much of it, but on a small job I do the mudding and texturing, mabye I've been doing it wrong for all these years.

Priming first probably makes the texture look nicer before paint, but obviously this makes no sense, as the purpose of the primer is to seal the surface and make the paint stick to it. In michigan we don't texture the side walls, just the ceiling, and I've never seen the ceiling primed before the texture goes on.

I did it on my current basement finish and see no difference. It did take an extra 6 hours of labor and 3 gallons of primer. I also don't like having everything primed before the trim is up. Harder to hit your studs and joist.

KC, we were wondering if you meant primer before finishing or texturing?

Nice pics on your site,cool basements.

I'd fire any sub-contractor that didn't prime before texture... it's the right thing to do.

I have always primed first then texture. Then of course prime again then paint. We ran into a large LR, ceiling with textured and serveral areas needed repaired. Scraped it off to see paper. The texture never took hold since they didnt prime. I guess every situation is different.

I myself supervised residential homes that all have a knock-down in them and we always prime after texture. This not only cuts costs of paint it saves time. TIME IS MONEY!!!! Why prime something that is going to be primed again?

As a finish carpenter myself, I agree with not being able to hit studs. This means more nails, more putty, and more time for a painter. It takes away from the beauty of fine workmanship as well!

One of the atributes of primer is that, among other things, it tends to hide a multitude of flaws. Both in surface finish and background color.

This can be both good and bad. As has been stated, you lose the locations of stud layouts. That's bad.

But many drywall finishers get a bit lazy when they know a wall or ceiling is going to receive knockdown. They have the mistaken impression that the texture will hide everything and produce a pristine finish. Not true.

These days we are doing more renovations than new construction. The result is that you are often faced with a wide range of surface acceptability. Some is good. Some is little more than stained cardboard. It is in these situations that I prefer to see priming before texturing.

Usually in new construction we don't prime first.

However, this also varies. In high end homes, we always prime the taped and finished drywall prior to texturing. On cheaper homes, we do not.

Frankly, I have never really been able to tell the difference in the finished product....... unlike in renovations. In those redos, not priming almost always costs us an extra coat of paint.

Oops

The texture may come off when it dries, because if you did not prime the ceiling before, the dust from sanding will form a barrier from the texture grabbing onto the raw drywall.
If you prime first you have a clean slate to work off of ,and you will get a better product.

This sounds more like a painting issue then drywall texture. I have framed 100's of tracted homes in California and seen many drywall crews apply wall texture directly over bare drywall and mudded joints. If drywall color is bleeding through, that means you did a poor primer application or you just didnt apply enough paint on the walls. Paint to cover. This might mean more then one coat. I do my own drywall and spray my own texture on all houses I remodel. If a tape joint bleeds through you didnt coat the joints enough. In my 28 I've never primed before I spray.

We started priming before texture sometime in the '80s, IIRC. It was explained to us that the GWB manufacturers had switched to a less expensive paper and it caused the texture to dry much differently on bare paper versus mudded areas, resulting in joints and fasterner rows "photographing". The solution to this is to prime before texture. Some of the manufacturers came up with specific products for this, like USG's First Coat.

Every set of manufacturer's specifications that I've read specifies priming before texture. Certainly, it does involve an extra step and some additional cost, but the difference is pretty obvious, especially with raking sidelight or any thing but "builders' flat" ceiling paint.

I like your explaination for primer. In California heavy knock down textures are very common and hide a multitude of sin. The next orange peel job I do I'll give primer before texture a shot. Never to old to learn than you!!

I think the problem is much more obvious under light orange peel.

My drywall guy primes before texture only on knockdown finishes (which is all I've had done for the last 20 years) and then the painter primes before painting. Similar to what Gough stated, my guy says that it is the use of recycled paper that causes it to be so porous. I've done it both ways. I've found that if you don't prime before texture you'll get "banding" of the seams (tape). It would seem to be more critical on finishes that are dragged as the splatters on the mudded areas dry at a different rate than splatters that are on the drywall paper and react to being knocked down differently. I can't see where it would make much difference on any sprayed on finish that was left alone.

very interesting to hear how everyone seems to do things a litlle different.
i am from ontario canada and we always prime and finish coat before texture is sprayed
its either super white knock down texture or flat ceilings around here and alot of people request that the finish coat on ceiling (prior to spraying texture) is slightly tinted with the wall color. u can suddely see the color underneath the texture and it adds very nice deffinition to the finish product