The Process of Prep
Prep work is one of the most annoying but necessary parts of painting. Some who have never really done anything more than paint a bedroom may not understand. Its ok! Thats why we are here!
So this is a small project. A small stained and clear coated piece of wood that was meant to cover an outside sink from debris. Super simple. The home owner wanted it painted because the clear coat only lasted about a year or so. Thats pretty typical when it comes to clear coats…
Step by step, I’ll explain how to accomplish this… correctly.
- The wood is in much need of some TLC. The wood is splintering and cracked. So, we will need to sand it down. I used 80 grit at first and then switched to 120.
- Prime. Making sure you use the right primer. It’s hugely important! Here I used an oil based primer from Sherwin Williams called Fast dry. This is a stain Blocker and it also help incapsulate any stain and clear coat left on the wood.I want to emphasize using the right primer is the key to success. If you were to use most latex primers you would have problems!
- Since the wood was still in pretty rough shape, I skim coated it with bondo. I prefer using bondo over caulk washing. The reason for this is the weather. The wood will expand and contract. I’ve seen wood thats been caulked expand… and then when it contracts it pops the caulking out of its grooves and looks terrible. With bondo it may eventaully crack but it will do so looking natural as the wood would. Got it? Good! (for super nice projects you can use more expensive products such as pc woody… it has better elastic qualities. but for this project bondo is perfect!)
- Since we used Bondo on our last step its time to Sand Again! 120 grit will be just fine. You can use finer grit for projects that require finer finishes such as cabinets.
- Time to prime again
- Sand again
- Wipe of the wood with a damp cloth and paint
- Repeat 6 and 7… DONE
Hope this helped!
Got a question? Let us know!