Paint and Primer All-In-One: Miracle or Marketing?

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By now, we’ve all heard about Paint and Primer All-In-One products. We’ve seen commercials, we’ve heard the promises. And we know that using a two-in-one product is going to save us almost miraculous amounts of time, right? Well….

Brilliant Marketing

To start with, let’s clear something up right away. Paint and Primer All-In-One products aren’t new. The labeling is. The name is. But in all actuality, all high quality, 100% acrylic paints will function as paint and primer all-in-one. There is no inherent difference between a product labeled as a paint and primer all-in-one and a high quality acrylic paint. It is really just a brilliant marketing gimmick revolving around the concept that we all like to save time and skip steps!

RepcoLite carries any number of products like this even though we don’t label them as such. Our Hallmark Ceramic Paints and Carefree Interior Paints are all paint and primer in one products. Benjamin Moore’s Aura, Regal, Natura, and Ben also fall in to this category.

So, in actuality, paint and primer all-in-one products aren’t as “cutting edge” as we may have been lead to believe by the smart tv ads! But are they still great time saving products?

Can We Really Skip the Primer Step?

Yes and no. As we mentioned in the previous post primers are different from paints. Paints are different from primers. When the two are combined into a single product, compromises have to be made. Drywall, for example, is porous and needs to be sealed. Just rolling a finish paint on, especially a finish paint that has a sheen, can result in an uneven finish. The paint is absorbed at different rates into the drywall. In the areas where it lays up on the surface, it will look shinier. In the areas where it penetrates deeply, it will look flatter. Subsequent coats can mask this problem, but not always eliminate it. A drywall primer however is made to seal and provide a uniform surface for your finish paint. And, on top of that, it’s about $15 cheaper a gallon! Why spend all that extra money for lesser results?

Or, if you want to paint a tile backsplash, a paint and primer in one product is likely going to peel right off. You need to use a special bonding primer that is designed to adhere to smooth, glossy surfaces.

Or, let’s say you stripped wallpaper off your walls and want to paint. The paste residue that is often left behind is water soluble. A regular waterbased paint and primer all-in-one will react with this and will result in a texturing problem on your walls. Use an oil-based primer (Benjamin Moore’s Fresh Start Multipurpose Oil Primer or RepcoLite’s ProFlo Primer) and you’ll seal that paste in and you’ll have no problems. (For more information and painting a wall that previously had wallpaper, check out our blog post!)

Bottom line, there are many situations that we run into on almost every painting project where a separate primer and finish paint are going to give you better results than just using a primer and paint in one.

When Can I Use a Paint and Primer All-In-One?

There are certain situations where a paint and primer in one product makes sense:

  • New Coat of Paint (same color)
  • Drastic Color Change
  • Small Repairs

Putting another coat of paint on a wall? Primer isn’t usually needed, so the paint and primer in one products work well. Switching colors? A paint and primer in one will offer better hiding than a cheap paint, so that’s an option. Patched a small area of your wall and you don’t want to buy a separate quart of primer? OK, paint and primer in one makes sense. And there are a number of other situations where paint and primer in one would make sense.

However, remember what we said earlier: Paint and Primer All-In-One products are technically no different from a high quality acrylic latex paint. So, in any of the above situations, do you need to seek out a specific Paint and Primer All-In-One? Absolutely not! If you’ve already got paint, and it’s a high quality acrylic, it’s perfect!

What Do the Professionals Choose?

Professional contractors make their money and build their reputation based on the speed of their projects and the quality of their work. And by an overwhelming margin, they choose to use a separate paint and primer. They know that they will get reliable and consistent results with a separate paint and primer. And they know they’ll get those results at a better price than using the “miracle” paint and primer all-in-one products!

So, why use a lesser system that costs more money when you could use the system the pros consistently choose?

EP07 – May 20, 2017: Enjoy that Outdoor Living!

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Outdoor living spaces are big right now! They’re exciting ways to expand your home, your entertaining space, and make the most out of some of our beautiful Michigan summer weather. Today we talk with Rob Cackowski from Heritage Fireplace and Design Center ALL about outdoor living spaces and what you need to do to create the perfect one for your home!

That and much more on today’s episode:

Listen here:

Show notes for episode 007:

Shopping for carpet can be overwhelming. Most of us don't do it very often and every time we do, it seems that the industry has changed dramatically since our last visit to the carpet store!

Today, we're in the studio with Nick Sargent from Johnson Carpet One in Grandville and he's going to help us cut through some of that paralyzing confusion. He's got tips for how to find the perfect carpet for your space and we'll also talk about the pros and cons of the most common carpet fibers. It's like a Carpet Shopping 101 class for anyone who's starting the process!

Nicolas Sargent is a Flooring and Design Consult at Johnson Carpet One in Downtown Grandville Michigan. Nicolas has a background of working with Interior Designers and Builders in a wide variety of products and design styles for the past 15 years. He also has his own clients helping them achieve their own design vision. Some of his favorite products are Wool Carpets, Custom Area Rugs, Hardwoods and Natural Stone.

Most of us have at least 4 - 5 gallons of leftover paint sitting on shelves in our basement at any given time. Sometimes it's paint we plan to use for touch-ups later. But often, it's just extra. And the collection usually keeps growing as time goes by. Well, did you know that there was a green, environmentally friendly solution to all this leftover paint? And best of all, it's incredibly economical.

We're in the studio with Dave Williams from Re-coat Recycled Paint and he explains how easy it is to clean out your basement and, at the same time, help keep old paint out of our landfills!

Re-Coat Recycled Paint Details:

As Dave mentioned in the episode, you can bring any of your usable latex paint to any RepcoLite or Port City Paints location for recycling. There are just a few requirements:
  • Only latex paint can be recycled at this time
  • Paint must be in the original container
  • Paint must be in liquid form
  • Cost is $2 per container
  • There is a 20 gallon maximum per visit

Oil-Based Paint Disposal Options:

If you have oil-based paint or other household hazardous waste you want to dispose of or recycle, you need to contact one of the following locations. Be sure to check with them regarding the times they're open!

When it comes to innovations in the paint and coatings industry, nothing has caused more of a stir recently than the introduction of "Paint and Primer All-In-One" products. They're marketed to be time-saving, money-saving, labor-saving workhorse products. But are they everything they're cracked up to be? We dig into it on this Ask RepcoLite! segment.

And from our blog:

So, last fall I may have done something kind of dumb that may have destroyed my grass in a large are of my backyard. But rather than cry over spilled milk, I'm thinking I'm going to convert that enormous dead zone into an outdoor living space. Unfortunately, I have no idea where to start beyond just throwing down some patio blocks down.

Happily, we have a home improvement radio show and something even better: connections! We got in touch with Rob Cackowski from Heritage Fireplace and Design Center. Besides helping us with all our indoor fireplace needs, Heritage is big into helping people create outdoor living spaces that they'll love. It's a great interview that gave me a little insight into all the possibilities out there!

Rob Cackowski is the General Manager of Heritage Fireplace and Design Center in Grand Rapids. He has 20 years experience in the Hearth, Patio & BBQ industry. He's NFI Certified (National Fireplace Institute) and received his BBA in Finance from Western Michigan University.

Heritage Fireplace is a fully mechanically licensed, bonded and insured company. We specialize in both retail and direct to builder sales and installation. We have serviced the greater Grand Rapids and Lakeshore area for over 25 years.

Is Primer Really Necessary? Not If You Like Problems!

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OK. We all love saving time, right? Of course we do. My kids do as well. In fact, everytime I ask them to help with any household task, they instantly slide into “time-saving-mode”. Which really just means that they look for shortcuts and ways to cut steps out of projects.

For example, when it comes to doing dishes, they routinely cut out the “scrubbing” step. We don’t have a dishwasher and so we end up standing at the sink every night after dinner. And since this is so boring, the kids have found that they can skip the scrubbing step in order to cut a lot of time out of the job. They run their little fingers over the glasses and the forks in a half-hearted cleaning effort and then they rinse like champions.

And then, days later, we have a guest over and inevitably, the guest needs a glass of water or something. And I get a cup out of the cupboard and stifle a scream when I see a spaghetti noodle, crispy and razor sharp, draped across the cup like a worm on the sidewalk in the sun. I try to hide the glass and reach for another only to find a hunk of hamburger stuck to the next one. Quickly, I toss that one behind my back and reach for a third glass only to find that it’s lined with sticky, leftover Mountain Dew.

I wish I were exaggerating, but I’m not. It’s really embarrassing. And it proves the point that saving time by skipping steps isn’t always the best plan.

And that’s brings me to the paint point: Many of us want to save time on a paint project and one of the easiest ways to do that is to cut out the primer step. After all, it’s just a time-consuming, boring, and labor-intensive step that serves no real purpose, right? Why put 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of finish when we could just do 2 coats of finish? Can’t we save time by just skipping the primer and going straight to paint?

It’s a great question and we’re going to answer it in chunks. First, let’s start by pointing out that paint and primer are fundamentally different products which serve fundamentally different purposes. Yes, they look similar in the can and they’re applied the same, but a lot of the similarities end there. Paint is designed to take tint and lock that color in a paint film that offers you a sheen (should you want one), scrub resistance, durability, and protection from the elements. Paint is designed to look beautiful and provide you with the durability you need on any given surface.

Primer, on the other hand is made to seal, to adhere, to block a stain, to resist rust, and for a wide variety of other specific situations:

So, using a finish paint on bare drywall, for example, is going to cause problems. Yes, you’re skipping the primer step, but in that instance, you’ll find that your more expensive finish paint is soaking into the surface unevenly. If you used a finish with a sheen (anything other than flat), you will notice that the wall has dull areas (where the paint soaked in) and shiny areas (where it didn’t). Subsequent coats will not completely even this out and you have the potential to produce a wall that has shiny spots that are visible no matter how many coats you apply. A specific drywall primer like RepcoLite’s Quick Seal would resolve this problem for less money!

Using a finish paint over a ceramic tile backsplash is only going to result in sorrow when you find your paint peels off whenever you bump the wall. Again, a bonding primer like Stix from Insul-X, would take care of the problem!

The bottom line is this: skipping the primer may save you some time, but it will likely cause a larger number of problems that are much more complicated and expensive to deal with. If you’re unsure if the project you’re tackling requires a primer, let us help! Just ask at any RepcoLite or Port City Paints location and we’ll let you know the best way to proceed.

Now, of course, the next issue that comes up revolves around the paint and coating industry’s newest innovation: Paint and Primer All-In-One products! All this talk about primers goes out the window when you’re using one of these miracle all-in-one products, right? Well . . . not so fast. We’ll deal with that in the next post!

 

EP06 – May 6, 2017: Simple Steps to Home Staging and More!

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Home staging. We’ve all heard about it, but how many of us know how to do it? On today’s episode of the RepcoLite Home Improvement Show, we list 5 simple steps that will help you make your home as appealing to new buyers as possible. We also discuss the best colors to choose when painting your home for resale. Do you go with neutrals and look like every other house out there? Or do you roll the dice and try to stand out with color?

We have the answer to that and more on today’s episode.

Listen here:

Show notes for episode 006:

Spring is the best time to put your house on the market.....along with everyone else in town! So how can you set your house apart from all the rest, while getting top dollar?

Home staging is a great solution if you are planning to sell your home. It helps potential buyers to see your house in a different light. And it isn't as bad as you may think. We've got 5 simple home staging tips that will help you put the best house forward.

And here's the article with the interesting statistics we referenced in the show:

Paint color is a hotly debated topic whether you're selling your house or not. We help you decide between a neutral or dramatic color scheme. And tell you the last two important steps to home staging.

And, because we have a few extra minutes, Dan decides to tell us about his brick chimney leak and tells us about a great product that will seal the brick and stop the water before it's too late!

We always ask that our listeners email us with questions and Lisa emailed a great one about painting cabinets and trim that we think many other people may have as well. We thought about just answering, but we had a few questions. So, we asked Lisa to call us with her question so that we could give her the best possible answer. Hence, our first caller!

On today's Ask RepcoLite segment, we've got the answers for Lisa's questions!

While we have had a lot of rain recently, at some point it will dwindle and we will be forced to create our own rain to keep our grass green. I have spent a lot of time dragging a hose and sprinkler around to keep everything that SHOULD be green from turning brown and dying. It's hard work!

Aaron Katerberg from Grapids Irrigation stops by to tell me what it takes to put in a new sprinkling system. And Dan asks about upgrading his old system so he can stop jumping out of bed in the middle of the night to turn off his sprinklers when he hears rain!

EP05 – April 29, 2017: One of a Kind Furniture and More!

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Today, we sit down in the studio with Kim DeBoer and discuss the adventures of refinishing furniture. Kim talks about some of her best experiences and the joys of taking something old and unwanted and turning it into a centerpiece in your home!

That and more in today’s episode of the RepcoLite Home Improvement Show!

Listen here:

Show notes for episode 005:

Shopping for furniture to refinish or repurpose can be stressful! What's worth buying? What can actually be refinished and what is just going to make you sad? And where do you look to find these pieces?

Kim DeBoer is a professional painting contractor who does a lot of furniture refinishing on the side. She's been doing this for years and has answers for all of these questions and more!

It's Spring and the weather's getting warmer! And that means that we're right on the cusp of air conditioner season. But did you know that there are a few simple projects you can tackle on a Saturday morning (or anytime!) that will help you make sure your unit runs efficiently, for less cost, and lasts longer!

Today we go over the 2 must-do jobs this Spring!

Staining a deck is a great project! It's fun and even relatively easy. In fact, the most confusing part of the whole project is trying to choose the right stain. Should you go with an oil-based product? Or a waterborne? What opacity is best for your situation? Clear or Solid or something in between?

On today's Ask RepcoLite segment, we've got all the answers!

Spring is here and with it, we get warmer weather, baseball . . . and ants! My home is right now under invasion and so I'm very excited to be in the studio with David Popp from Rose Pest Solutions. He's here to talk about ants, termites, what to look for and what to do when you find a problem!

EP04 – April 22, 2017: Painting Vinyl Siding and More!

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Vinyl siding was supposed to last forever. But . . . it doesn’t. At least the color doesn’t. After a while, houses with vinyl siding can start to look tired, faded, boring . . . old. Well, Benjamin Moore’s Revive is a paint specifically made for vinyl siding. It sticks remarkably well and is available in a range of over 300 vinyl safe colors! It’s definitely worth a look if you’d like to change the entire look and feel of your home this summer!

That and more on this episode!

Listen now:

Show notes for episode 004:

Did you know you can paint vinyl siding? Kevin Hermann dropped by our studio to discuss Benjamin Moore's Revive Vinyl Siding Paint and gave us some tips to get the job done right. The best news is, there are over 300 "vinyl safe" colors to choose from! These colors will allow you to choose a color that is darker than your original siding, without warping your siding. A whole new world of possibilities has been opened!

Kevin also stressed the importance of proper prep/cleaning before painting. Revive does not require a primer if you take right the steps to clean the siding first. Check out our blog post for everything you need to know about getting your siding ready for paint.

Browse Revive's Color Palette of over 300 Colors!

Kevin Hermann is a Territory Representative for Benjamin Moore. He has been with the company for 26 years and has a wealth of paint knowledge. He answers questions from what type of paint to use for a specific project to application tips. And if you really push him, he might even tell you a fish story or two!

How often do we drive through a neighborhood and slow as we come to a house with a beautiful front yard? We sigh heavily as we dream about that house.

But wait! This can be your house. No need to dream! These curb appeal projects are simple and inexpensive. They range from cleaning the exterior of the house to landscape primping. We've got 4 projects that don't take a lot of time or money. And if you go through these and are STILL looking for more ideas, listen to our podcast about curb appeal, check out our front door color Pinterest board, or read our blog post that gives you 6 more inexpensive projects.

We also found this great HGTV slideshow with before and after curb appeal photos. It proves how far a change in landscaping (often minimizing it!), some paint and a little color will go!

When it comes to snowblower maintenance, how many of us just fill the gas tank and push it to the back of the garage to collect dust for the next 6 months? Lots of people! But there's more to it.

If you have limited time or energy, we have the one step you ABSOLUTELY should not bypass. If you have a bit more time to spend, we have 4 other things that will help your snowblower start the first time you pull the cord when faced with a foot of snow next winter. We also have a tip that will save you from being like Dan and annoying your neighbors for the better part of four hours!

Imagine this scene: you are shoveling your driveway after a long day at work. Everything is fine until you are stopped abruptly when the blunt end of your shovel tries to impale you through the stomach. Dan is all too familiar with this feeling.

But the pain is over! Andy Van Dyke from VDC has the solution for those pieces of sunken concrete. The best news is, it's way cheaper than we would have imagined.