Painting jobs could be costly depending on the color combinations that you want to achieve.

If only you could do it yourself, you would not need to doze out much money right?

Sometimes, a painting job will not need any primer at all.

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We will reconcile all of these questions in this post so read on.

In this article

Is the primer necessary for painting?

In most painting jobs, a primer is necessary.

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Because the paint will either be blotched or will peel in no time.

Primers have less pigment but come with more resins.

With this composition, primers are necessary preparatory paints because it makes the paint stick to the surface more.

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This does not only save you time but also money.

What does primer look like?

The most common primers are water-based primers.

They are runnier like water-based acrylic and produce thinner coats.

Oil-based primers are of course thicker, both in composition and in terms of the coat it produces.

Primers look like paint essentially.

They come in white color most of the time.

But there are also tinted primers composed of lighter hues of common paint colors used in finishing.

When to use one coat of primer?

Using a tinted primer will only require a single coat too.

This is important if you want just minimal changes in the paint like making it lighter in color.

That is just enough to get the desired mixture for the new shade to be achieved.

When to use two coats of primer?

Drywalls and plasters with no primer will have blotches all over.

Thus, without a primer, you will find uneven pigments on the surface.

To amend this, you will need to apply two coats to the unfinished drywall.

The first coating is used to soak up the wall and even the blotches.

Applying one more coating will see to it that the wall will be fully covered and spotless.

Unfinished drywalls can make use of high-build drywall sealers.

Note that walls that were never primed are more absorbent as compared to unfinished drywalls or plasters.

This means that there will be more cracks, peels, and blotches on the surface.

This bang out of primer will fill all the pores in the wood.

This will flatten the surface and will fill the pores.

Now, if the situation calls for lightening the hue, you will need two coats of high-hide primer.

you’re free to choose between tinted or white primer, then thinly apply a double coating.

Just to clarify, there are some instances when a surface would not need any priming.

This is done when you use self-priming paints.

They also take longer to dry than the regular ones.

How much does primer cost?

Here are some tentative ranges of primer costs.

Oil-based primers

This one is the best fit for unfinished wood walls or bare wood.

It has been a standard industrial primer to seal porous wood surfaces.

Oil-based primers range from $20-80.

This bang out of primer will cost $40-70.

Latex-based primers

Its other name is a water-based primer.

This one is ideal for softwoods, plasters, and drywalls.

Latex-based primers range from $15-75.

As such, self-priming paints start at $35-50.

Conclusion

Primers are necessary parts of any painting job.

Note that primers are not generic, however.

More than this, specific surfaces will need a specific number of primer coating.

Sometimes, painting primers could be skipped thanks to the existence of self-priming paints.