Haymes Ultraseal, the prepcoat for porous walls
You paint a fresh plasterboard wall, you stand back expecting it to look finished, and instead it has dried patchy, with dull spots and shiny spots and a couple of streaks that were not there when it was wet. It is one of the most common things people come in frustrated about, and nine times out of ten the paint is fine and the wall underneath it is the problem.
Why a porous wall dries blotchy
Plasterboard, masonite, bare timber and cement sheet all soak up moisture, and they do not soak it up evenly, because the paper face of a sheet of plasterboard drinks differently to the joint compound smeared over the joins and the screw heads. So the paint sitting on the thirsty bits gets pulled into the wall and the paint sitting on the sealed bits stays on the surface, and once it is dry you are looking at two different finishes on the one wall.
Adding another topcoat does not really fix it either, because you are just feeding the thirsty bits more paint, and that is how people end up three coats in and still not happy.
What a prepcoat does about it
Haymes Ultraseal is a prepcoat, so its job is to seal the surface and give you one consistent face for the topcoat to sit on, rather than a patchwork of absorbent and non absorbent. Get that right and the topcoat goes on evenly, it covers in fewer coats, and the finish holds up because it is bonded to a sealed surface instead of soaking into a raw one.
It works on the inside and the outside, and it covers plasterboard, cement sheeting, masonry and timber, which is most of what a house is made of.
How to put it on
- Wash the surface down with sugar soap, scrape off anything flaking, and let new plaster dry out properly before you go anywhere near it with a roller.
- Use a decent roller cover and a decent brush for the cutting in, because a cheap brush will shed bristles into a wet prepcoat and you will be picking them out later.
- Put one generous, even coat on and leave it alone. The recoat time is printed on the tin and it is worth reading before you plan out the day, because there is no upside to rushing the topcoat onto a prepcoat that is not ready for it.
Why this is the step everybody skips
Nobody starts out knowing this. You get handed the keys, you pick a colour you like, and the tin of colour is the bit you actually want to open, so prep is what gets shortened when the weekend is already half gone. I would rather tell you now than have you find out on the third coat, and honestly, it is the single thing that makes the difference between a wall that looks painted and a wall that looks finished.
Shop related products
- Sugar Soap for Floors 750ml. Wash the wall down before anything else goes on it.
- UNIFIBER 230mm Roller Kit. Frame, cover and tray in the one go.
- Uni-Pro Canvas Drop Cloth 1.5m x 3.6m. Canvas stays where you put it, plastic does not.
- Uni-pro Masking Tape Pull Down Drop Sheet. Tape and sheet together for the skirtings and the windows.
Did you know Haymes Ultraseal itself is a shop item rather than an online one. Paint is a dangerous good and we cannot ship it, so it is not on the website at all, and the same goes for the Uni-pro 30 day green masking tape and most of the brush range. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf before you come down.
The rest of the gear is in our paint and accessories collection, and the topcoat gets mixed and tinted to order in the shop from the range we stock.
- Why plasterboard gets an undercoat before the topcoat
- A guide to the Haymes specialty primers
- Getting a room ready to paint
Prep is the bit I always want to skip and never should, same as everyone.
Cheers,
Candeece
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