Painting the interior

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rockman

rockman

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Joined
Dec 14, 2015
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Location
Kennewick, WA
We are going to paint the interior of our '95 Thor Residency.  The walls look like wall paper, but I suspect it is not, question is: can we just paint or do they need to be primed with a sealer first? What have other people done?
Thanks!
 
Typically the interior walls are pre-finished wall panels, basically wallpaper applied at the paneling factory.  I would wash it down, prime it with a good sealer (Kilz, Zinsser Bullseye, etc) and then paint. If any of the covering is peeling, glue it back down first.

Priming isn't always necessary, but it's not worth the gamble. If you just put on two coats of paint and it still shows bleed-through, or if the paint lifts the adhesive on the paper, you will end up doing a lot more work than the modest effort to prime it.
 
With the walls being a kind of vinyl material, I did not take any chances and primed it.  One other suggestion besides Kilz and some of the others previously listed is Gripper from Glidden.  Purchased it at Home Depot and it is both a primer and sealer.  Because it is an acrylic product, it dries quickly and more importantly has excellent adhesion to a variety of surfaces.  Afterwards, just used a coat of Behr paint that is designed for interior or exterior use.  Did that because of extreme temperature fluctuation while in storage.  Depending on the final finish color, you may want to think about having the primer tinted.  Very rewarding project.
 
Gary gave good advice as usual.

I roughed up the surface with fine sandpaper (break the glaze) and used Kilz the painted.
I used latex Kilz where most suggest the oil based.
This was 3 years ago and no problems.

Hint: Home Depot will tint Kilz to the color ypu want at no cost.
 
I didn't prime it, but used sealer before the paint. I ended up doing two coats and I wish I would have used higher quality paint, because it seems to chip off easily from the panels, especially where there is a lot if moisture. We made a striped wall, one with writing and one vintage style white. It looks great, but for all the work, make sure it stays well
 
One of the signs of inadequate surface prep is paint that doesn't adhere well, but lower quality paints also tend to do that on less-than-ideal surfaces.

What kind of "sealer" did you use?  Many such products are combined primer-sealers, intended to both seal the surface and provide a well-adhered base for the paint. They do make just plain "sealers", though, and old-fashioned shellac is a good one.

For an RV, which is subject to broad temperature and humidity ranges, you should use paints designed for kitchen & bath areas. These are formulated for high moisture environment. An alkyd enamel is a probably the best choice of a traditional paint type, but modern water-based synthetics can be blended for high-moisture areas too. Again, a better quality paint, e.g. Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore, will usually give better and longer-lasting results.
 
swissmisswithkids said:
I didn't prime it, but used sealer before the paint ...it seems to chip off easily from the panels, especially where there is a lot if moisture.
Click to expand...
The paint, primer or sealer has to be compatible with vinyl (the coating on the wall board). Most latex paints are. The sealer you used may not have been. I'd personally use an acrylic exterior paint/primer combo.
 
Just finished doing mine, I started painting the cabinets with latex, big mistake and I know better, its been almost a month and they are still sticky, I finished the remaining with spray kilz then spray enamel, no bleeding and they look 10x better than the latex ones.
I did the walls in latex but sprayed kilz on before painting them, I tested one area just using a high quality paint that claimed to have a primer in it, three days later I was able to pull the paint off with my thumb nail (which cannot be done on the others I kilzed first.
Before I painted anything I used mineral spirits and a ton of clean rags to scrub anything that may have been on them off.
I'm doing a full remodel, not to much left, I'm not very used to working in such small spaces, it feels like 99% of the painting is cut in, I hate painting.
So far it looks great.
Paint, exterior scuff and buff, flooring, leveling jack repair, transmission rear seal complete, lots left to do but I can see the end is near.
 
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