FIELD TESTED
Success... or failure finishing Level 4 often depends upon the porosity factor. How effectively did the prime coat equalize porosity between various drywall compounds and the paper surface of the drywall? How many coats of paint are required to achieve a solid uniform finish? How much of the second coat will absorb into the first? How well will touch-ups blend?
Anatomy of Level 4 Drywall Don’t let a highly inconsistent dry look fool you; a properly sealed surface means much more than meets the eye. Penetration is crucial. ABOUT LEVEL 4 BACKGROUND AND ILLUSTRATIONS “In critical lighting areas, flat paints applied over light textures tend to reduce joint photographing. Gloss, semi-gloss and enamel paints are not recommended over this level of finish.” (USG Construction Handbook, Chapter 5, “Finishing Drywall Systems”)
JOINT COMPOUND 2nd coat of joint compound.
DRYWALL SURFACE Made up of tiny waffle-knit like pockets, this paper surface changes depending on what you roll over it.
What if producing a solid uniform finish over Level 4 means using a paint instead of primer? Wouldn't that go against everything we know about painting new surfaces? Today, new technologies promise to make this seemingly impossible dream a reality. It enables painters to apply a paint directly to bare drywall, resulting in unmatched sealing properties not found in our primer tests. By successfully converting unknown complexities of multiple mud compounds and drywall surfaces into one surface, much like you expect the primer to do, finish coats of paint are absorbed less into the prime coat. Rather, the finish coat dries on the surface, resulting in higher wet film retention, or “dryfilm build.”
Figure 2
JOINT COMPOUND 3rd topping coat of joint compound.
JOINT COMPOUND Tape embedded in first coat of joint compound.
In a perfect world, painters applying flat enamels, lo-egs, eggshell and satin finishes would have LEVEL 5 available, but that’s not reality. More often, painters are asked to produce near LEVEL 5 over LEVEL 4. That task is much easier to accomplish today with certain paints ⎯ instead of drywall primer/ sealers. www.painthacker.com
| October 2013 | Painthacker MAGAZINE 29