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Remember when a neighbor called me out for skipping primer on a fence stain job
About 3 years ago I was staining my back fence in Edmonton and a guy walking his dog stopped and said 'you're gonna regret skipping the primer on that cedar.' I shrugged it off but 6 months later the stain was peeling in patches. Now I always hit it with a oil-based primer first even if it costs an extra $40 per project. Anyone else have a random passerby give you advice that actually stuck?
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claire_ramirez2mo ago
Used to be the type who thought primer was just a waste of time and money. Then I painted some old pine shelves in my garage without it and the paint peeled right off within a month. Had to sand everything down and start over which took way longer than just using primer the first time. That creepy feeling of someone being right about something you were too lazy to do sucks but I learned my lesson. Now I won't touch a bare wood project without grabbing a can of Zinsser first.
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claire_ramirez2mo ago
Zinsser is great but Kilz works just as well on pine for half the price.
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lindaowens1mo ago
My cousin tried to save money on primer when he painted his deck in Calgary and a mail carrier yelled at him from the street saying he'd be redoing it by winter. @claire_ramirez would probably get a kick out of this but he used that cheap flat paint from the dollar store and it looked like a zebra after the first frost. He called me crying about it because he had to scrape everything off with a heat gun and it took him three weekends.
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