I have a house that was built in the 1960’s. The garage drywall never was sealed or painted and it that disgusting brown it gets from the exhaust if it has not been sealed. Do I need to do anything more in way of prepping than using water based Kilz? I did brush down the walls though I didn’t wash them, given it’s just paper. The places where I put joint compound to fill holes had the brown bleed into the joint compound. Any tips? Google has been useless in this case.
TIA,
IP
I’ve never bothered t paint the garage, but I have shelving, workbench, and other stuff that covers it all anyway, so only the ceiling and a wall up high that blocks the rest of the attic… Just a good paint, Kelley Moore is the best here, might do a primer, but most today are combo primer & finish, a garage, I’d do a semigloss…
Might even see if your local store has mis-mixed leftovers, save a bunch…
We just had the interior painted by a friend, shop mad a mistake on the color, so I think 3 or 4 gallons are out there, waiting for me to either use in the laundry room or dispose of one day… I hauled several gallons of older paint to the hazmat drop off a couple months ago…
The house we moved into a couple years ago had raw drywall in the garage, 40 years old at that point. Brown streaks and discoloration, nail pops, in desperate need of mud between sheets, etc.
I hired a couple of drywall guys to mud & tape and fix those issues, then I primed everything with two coats of (tinted) Kilz and then two coats of regular interior paint.
I don’t know why but it never occurred to me that you can have Kilz tinted any color at the paint store. Worked great, the garage looks new. (I also changed out the nasty and deficient overhead lights with some more modern looking ones from Costco.)
The guys did the mud & fix in two days; I hired it out because a) I hate it and 2) I can’t stare up at the ceiling for long periods thanks to plates in my neck & the resultant strain of bending that direction. Was worth every penny.
A house that old may well have petroleum deposits on the drywall. While used scrap paint for priming is a way to save a few bucks, I question if that is a wise bet. Maybe the risk is only 5%, but if you find your paint pealing a year after you “saved” a few bucks you will not be happy. In the days of oil based paint I would not be as concerned. But the days of non-waterbased wall paints are gone.
Garage walls tend to get a lot more soiled than interior. I suggest getting a semi-gloss sometimes called egg shell. Also I would seek a paint in what ever brand you choose that advertised scrub-ability.
I would suggest you visit Kilz webpage to find the right primer. There are multiple Kilz primers and your local home store may only sell one version of it. They make primers that appear to fit your requirements. You may want to look into Premium or Restoration.
https://www.kilz.com/primer#/heavy-stains
PSU
The house we moved into a couple years ago had raw drywall in the garage, 40 years old at that point. Brown streaks and discoloration, nail pops, in desperate need of mud between sheets, etc.
Thanks Goofy.
I primed everything with two coats of (tinted) Kilz and then two coats of regular interior paint.
So first coat of Kilz didn’t do it? Did the brown from the walls muddy up the color of the paint like it has the joint compound for me?
Yes, it is a garage, but one that our current tenants have used as a weight room, and I would like to market it as a flex space when these tenants leave end of May. It’s tough to use as a garage for tenants as there is only one car width for the driveway for the one car garage. I am going to prime it now, so I can see what imperfections I can live with. I keep trying to remind myself that this is a garage and anything I get up on those walls is a plus. I’ve already patched the holes and given extra mud to some of the existing taping. It’s a higher end rental. Since we are gapping the rent up 15%, we want to improve what we can.
IP,
preferring to have a rental tenants will fight over to get, rather than settle for because of low price
While used scrap paint for priming is a way to save a few bucks, I question if that is a wise bet. Maybe the risk is only 5%, but if you find your paint pealing a year after you “saved” a few bucks you will not be happy.
Yes, I am concerned about how the accumulated car exhaust will impact the paint job, which is why I will use Kilz and will be only priming at this time. It should improve things dramatically for the tenants, and I am only addressing the drywall parts of the garage at this time, ignoring the cinder block component for now. When you factor in time, paint is the cheapest part of the job and I tend to buy the best for the job. That could well be in the mis-tint aisle…I have made use of those before for small jobs, but for this one car garage I want white.
We are not looking to finish off the area at this time, keeping our options open should we decide to convert the 1 car garage to an extra bedroom and bath down the road. Zoning is changing to allow conversion from sfh up to 3 units, and this could make a nice over under duplex. The additional br/ba would make nice increase in rent from the 2 br/1 ba each level would be with the garage not converted.
FWIW,
IP
I want white.
I went with light light grey. White, I found at that last house, shows every bug and spiderweb andbit of dirt, which is inevitiable in a garage. I thought about a light light mocha or something but went with what we have elsewhere in the house.
So first coat of Kilz didn’t do it?
I thought it was OK, but the drywall guys “recommended” two coats of Kilz and two additional coats of whatever I wanted. I semi-protested “It needs FOUR coats of paint?” He said “It needs 2 coats of Kilz and two more coats” with that withering eye that says “Hey, I been doing this all my life, you asked me what to do, with your wallboard in this shape LISTEN TO ME.”
So I did. Didn’t like doing it, but it came out great.
I thought it was OK, but the drywall guys “recommended” two coats of Kilz and two additional coats of whatever I wanted. I semi-protested “It needs FOUR coats of paint?” He said “It needs 2 coats of Kilz and two more coats” with that withering eye that says “Hey, I been doing this all my life, you asked me what to do, with your wallboard in this shape LISTEN TO ME.”
So I did. Didn’t like doing it, but it came out great
LOL. You are a great story teller. I can see it exactly as described.
IP,
thinking very light grey may be complimentary with the cement block, but absolutely needing a white ceiling so I will probably keep it simple…housekeeping is on them
…light light grey…
I went with Benjamin Moore White Dove in the garage (walls, ceiling, trim, cinderblock base). Also used it in the house for ceilings & trim. It’s a soft white. Looks like pure white until you place a sheet of paper up against it for comparison, so it lightens spaces without being harsh.
Also replaced all lighting with 3000K LED’s. 2700 is too yellow, 5000 is too harsh, regardless of paint colors.
(Used light grey on the walls in the house.)
Used flat paint, because any kind of sheen highlights imperfections. Previously, I’d used Aura on walls (BM’s highest end paint), but the finish wasn’t uniform, so for subsequent projects I switched to a high quality flat. (For ceilings & walls, anyway. Semigloss on trim.)
…will be only priming at this time…
I’ve heard that primer by itself will seal the wall, but will then attract dirt, or deteriorate due to exposure to air, so it shouldn’t be left unpainted. As long as all the prep work has already been done to prime (drop cloths, etc), might as well take another day to apply at least one coat of paint. Two would be better, of course, but one will suffice for your purposes.
I’ve heard that primer by itself will seal the wall, but will then attract dirt, or deteriorate due to exposure to air, so it shouldn’t be left unpainted. As long as all the prep work has already been done to prime (drop cloths, etc), might as well take another day to apply at least one coat of paint. Two would be better, of course, but one will suffice for your purposes.
Got to love these boards. You just never know what you don’t know!
Thanks!
IP
…conversion from sfh … could make a nice over under duplex.
Well, pros and cons to everything, and you’ll do your market research. But my immediate reaction is that a SFH is nicer than multifamily, and it’d be a shame to reduce the number of SFH’s available. That’s my view from the renter’s side, FWIW. DH & I prefer to not share walls. We were in a couple of nice townhouses for awhile, when we had to move and no SFH’s were available, and those were OK (very well sound-proofed), but I definitely wouldn’t want to have other people above or below me.
And, we require a garage, for DH’s sports car. (A 2-car garage would be even better, but those don’t exist this close to downtown.)
From the landlord’s side, keeping it a SFH would attract better tenants. For example, we’re perfect tenants: empty nesters, financially stable, no pets. This 3/2/1 SFH suits us (and retirees like us) very well; it would also be attractive to a younger family.
Whereas, if it were a duplex, it would probably be student housing (we’re in a college town); students can also be good tenants, but I suspect it’s a little iffier.
On top of which, if you ever decide to sell, a SFH would sell faster than a duplex.
built in the 1960’s. The garage drywall
Ever test it for asbestos ?
FWIW. DH & I prefer to not share walls.
You and me both! If we make the conversion we would be unlikely to move back there, unless it’s in the third tiny home unit we could put on the property, (we are considering traveling quite a bit and may only need a small place to touch down to in between adventures.) Add onto that the difficulty and expense of separating utilities. However, it could be set up as an in-law suite, which would make it most attractive for resale and rental. Renting it as a furnished rental on the 30+ day market counts as a “long term rental” from the POV of not having to get special business permits or pay transient lodging taxes. We are walkable to the hospital and traveling nurses are constantly seeking apartments they don’t have to share.
From the landlord’s side, keeping it a SFH would attract better tenants. For example, we’re perfect tenants: empty nesters, financially stable, no pets. This 3/2/1 SFH suits us (and retirees like us) very well; it would also be attractive to a younger family.
We get high quality tenants by providing a high quality product that gets high rents, requiring 3x rent for earnings and a credit report that is higher than what the local market requires. Background check also required. It’s currently a 4/2, which tends to be too big for empty nesters and attracts families. On a per bedroom cost as a rental, we would get more for the property if we had 2 2bd/1ba units than a 4/2. There is a deficit of smaller nice rentals around here, and with prices of homes now being even more unaffordable than they were before Covid, professional couples fight over these rentals. We are also near a university and grad students and professors are big applicants, as are medical students and interns. We simply do not accept undergrads. They are not a protected class and we openly discriminate against them. Since we cannot discriminate against children, and turnovers after a family lives there is worse than those with pets, we can make it less attractive to families by making it smaller.
On top of which, if you ever decide to sell, a SFH would sell faster than a duplex.
If we decided to sell, it would be snapped up very fast by an investor, probably for cash, or by a professional couple who will have their mortgage paid for by AirBnBing the second unit. Short term rentals under 31 days can only be done in a primary residence by local law. Our area is physically constrained towards new build of properties, which is why the city is looking at getting rid of the SFH zoning designation, in theory to create “more affordable” housing. While it will indeed create more units that are less expensive to rent per unit, when you look at it per bedroom the net effect will be to drive out families and make housing less affordable on a per bedroom cost.
And, we require a garage… (A 2-car garage would be even better, but those don’t exist this close to downtown.)
Yeah, we do too, which is in part why we moved and converted the house to a rental. In the 3 years it has been a rental, no one has used it as a garage. They are super unusual in that area. An extra bathroom would be fabulously received.
I appreciate the push back, but as you see I have done considerable amount of research on this. DH pushes back so very much harder than you and I will have to provide a 10 year profit projection spreadsheet before doing improvements so that I can show what the return on investment will be. It can be taxing being married to an engineer, but in a good way that keeps me on my toes. We tend to be good counterpoints to each other and make a great team. 
IP
Ever test it for asbestos ?
I have not tested the drywall for asbestos, but since I am not ripping it out, not sure why I would. Historically, asbestos in drywall has not been a problem around here, though there are flooring tiles and ceiling tiles that you need to keep an eye on.
Thanks for your input.
IP
Something as simple as sanding or painting drywall that contains asbestos can release these dangerous, undetectable fibers.
…
Asbestos is most commonly found in the joint compound (mud) layer of the wall, though it can also be present in the sheetrock itself, the tape, and the surfacing texture.
https://jselabs.com/blog/asbestos-in-drywall/#:~:text=How%20….
Interesting. Thanks RAD for making me look it up. Will increase my mask use. Happily I do a wet sanding process, which should help.
IP
I got the garage done, using 2 coats of Kilz Restore. 3 gallons at $40/gallon, so not the cheapest option. Huge difference between first and second coat, but it does look as though 2 coats will do a great job.
I have decided to hold off on a top coat until the tenants are out of there. Just too much sh!t to work around, and it was taking me more than twice the time it should have. The primer looks great, HUGELY improves desire to be in the room, and will market well, as well as give current tenants enjoyment.
Thanks for all your help.
IP
I have decided to hold off on a top coat until the tenants are out of there.
Sorry for the bad news, but as someone else said upthread, not a good idea.
**Primer is not formulated to stand up to the elements and should be topcoated within several weeks to ensure proper bonding. If left uncovered for an extended period of time, primer will tend to deteriorate and chalk, which could prevent future coats of paint from adhering properly.**
https://todayshomeowner.com/can-primer-be-used-as-finish-coa…
**Primer can generally be left unpainted for no more than 30 days. If you wait too long, you will not be able to paint directly on the primer and will need to re-prime the wall. This is because it will begin to break down immediately after drying, and dust or other debris will accumulate.**
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&…
Primers have an ultra flat finish. Dust and crud will stick less to a gloss, semi gloss, or even satin finish paint, but a primer will tend to attract it and it will stick, as well as having the top layer fuzz up. When it comes time to paint you will have to prime again, because regular paint will not adhere well. This is especially true for outside surfaces, but also for inside. It’s inherent in the way primer works.
Sorry.
When it comes time to paint you will have to prime again, because regular paint will not adhere well. This is especially true for outside surfaces, but also for inside. It’s inherent in the way primer works.
I am OK with that and factored it into my decision to wait. And it’s honestly only half double primed, but I figured this wasn’t so much a report on my work ethic but a report on the primer hiding the stain. The garage is still hugely better only half double primed than not at all.
Even if I need to prime everything all over again, not having to move their stuff around, constantly changing out drop cloths or taking the risk of getting paint on their things, it will be faster than finishing the job now.
IP