# painters



## skip o (Aug 1, 2011)

Do interior painters in Spain usually use a primer before painting? 

I have new drywall, new plaster moldings and previously painted walls that need to be painted. In the US most people would use a latex primer before they paint. The Spanish handyman I know said he wouldn't even use primer, just paint everything. The employee at a paint store said the same thing. I haven't even seen any latex primer in a store yet, only oil primer.


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## skip o (Aug 1, 2011)

Does anyone here prime before they paint interiors?


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Strangely, we were just talking about that recently and the consensus is NO - not walls anyway.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

They certainly don't use it in our old village houses because the paint needs to let the walls breathe, otherwise it flakes and bubbles in the winter damp. Don't know about new homes though.


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## carquinyoli (Jan 5, 2016)

Your handyman probably used _pintura plástica_ (acrylic). _Pintura plástica_ is basically: _yeso de pintor_+ latex. A diluted first coat of_ pintura plástica_ works just like a latex primer.


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## carquinyoli (Jan 5, 2016)

Alcalaina said:


> They certainly don't use it in our old village houses because the paint needs to let the walls breathe, otherwise it flakes and bubbles in the winter damp. Don't know about new homes though.


You are a wise woman. _Encalado_, _mortero de cal_, lime stucco is ideal for an old house with exposed exterior walls. In Spain there are many old houses built in rammed earth in their walls, very efficient and durable if they are dry, and vulnerable with trapped water. 

Andalucia was a country with massively _paredes encaladas_. Sun, warm, white houses with white walls. Although that happens everywhere


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## skip o (Aug 1, 2011)

carquinyoli said:


> Your handyman probably used _pintura plástica_ (acrylic). _Pintura plástica_ is basically: _yeso de pintor_+ latex. A diluted first coat of_ pintura plástica_ works just like a latex primer.


I have seen "pintura plástica" in stores but no one else has recommended it to me yet. Is it used very often? Is it used on certain surfaces more than others?


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

skip o said:


> I have seen "pintura plástica" in stores but no one else has recommended it to me yet. Is it used very often? Is it used on certain surfaces more than others?


Thirty years here and I have never used anything other than pintura plastica to paint the plaster walls and ceilings of my house. So I would say that yes, it's used often.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Pintura plastica is all that we use both inside and out. We had the outside walls re-plastered with an impermeable coating (forget what it is called now) and then painted with pintura plastica seven years ago and they still look as though they have just been done. Many of the locals still use "cal" which has to be redone every year because it just flakes off when it rains. Next door just has cal and it looks as though it has been snowing on our patio with all the flakes of cal after some heavy rain.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

baldilocks said:


> Pintura plastica is all that we use both inside and out. We had the outside walls re-plastered with an impermeable coating (forget what it is called now) and then painted with pintura plastica seven years ago and they still look as though they have just been done. Many of the locals still use "cal" which has to be redone every year because it just flakes off when it rains. Next door just has cal and it looks as though it has been snowing on our patio with all the flakes of cal after some heavy rain.


It does depend on the property though. As I said earlier, they have to use cal (whitewash) in the old village houses because the walls, although very thick, are often filled with rubble and very porous. So pintura plastica just seals in the damp and causes the paint to bubble or come off in strips. I've seen it happen...

You are talking about exteriors though? Cal doesn't need redoing every year on interior walls, just wash it down with a bleach solution if there is mould.


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## skip o (Aug 1, 2011)

I see now that many stores have pintura plástica. Does anyone recommend that I paint on anything BEFORE I do a few coats of pintura plástica?


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

The impermeable plaster/render we had put on our walls first is called capa fina. This effectively acts as a barrier to more water entering the walls but what is already there will need to dry out from the inside. So the procedure is first hack back the outer layer and the cal to provide a keyed surface to take the capa fina. Render with capa fina then paint with pintura plastica. It is best to do that late summer when the maximum level of heat is in the walls and they are as dry as possible. Do not coat the inside walls with p/p for a couple of years to allow the moisture in the wall to dry out, then apply p/p.


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

Alcalaina said:


> So pintura plastica just seals in the damp and causes the paint to bubble or come off in strips. I've seen it happen...


This is totally what has happened to our exterior wall/fence and even on some areas inside the house as they finished it with gotelay(awful horrid stuff) and then painted over it so in some areas it has come off.

Baffling.


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