Tag: KILZ 2 All-Purpose Primer

Three Primers for Exterior Projects
August 11, 2020Priming before painting is an important step for nearly every painting project, and we’ve covered quite a few different project types here on The Perfect Finish – including priming when changing wall colors, priming before painting kitchen cabinets, and even priming in moisture prone rooms in your home. Now in the heat of summer, it’s time to talk about an area of the home we haven’t often covered – the outside!
Just as important as proper prep for your indoor painting projects, priming is a critical prep step for outdoor projects. From painting your front door, to the entire exterior of your house, or even a garden fence, KILZ has a primer made for the job. KILZ® Original Primer has been trusted by pros for over 40 years and the KILZ Original lineup includes a primer formulated for outdoor projects. KILZ® Original Interior | Exterior Primer is an all-weather sealer with excellent adhesion to even the toughest to paint surfaces like masonry or bare, porous wood. When using this primer on outdoor brick, stucco or plaster, it’s important to note that the masonry surfaces should be clean, dry and cured for at least 90 days.
KILZ 2® All-Purpose Primer is another product formulated for both interior and exterior use. This water-based sealer and stain blocker would be an excellent choice for painting your front door or garden fence. Just remember this tip from the pros, if the surface you are painting is unpainted, exterior wood that has been exposed to sun and/or moisture longer then 2-4 weeks prior to painting – be sure to clean and sand it before priming. On new masonry surfaces, KILZ 2 All-Purpose can be used once the surfaces has cured for at least 30 days.
Our third pick for exterior projects is KILZ 3® Premium Primer. This fast drying, water-based primer provides excellent adhesion and a mildew resistant coating, making it ideal for exterior surfaces prone to moisture. It can be used for both interior and exterior projects and has a thicker, high-hiding formula great for blocking stains. If you live in a humid environment, KILZ 3 Premium Primer is a great choice for your outdoor painting projects.
What exterior projects will you tackle this summer?
Always remember to refer to our website kilz.com or product back labels for additional information on which primer is right for your project and detailed instructions on how to apply our products.

Tips for Painting Walls and Cabinets
June 1, 2020Painting your walls or cabinets is an easy and low-cost way to update any room in your house, and most painting projects can be completed in just one weekend. Equally as important as choosing the right paint color is ensuring you prime first with the right primer. Without priming before painting, you risk poor paint adhesion and previous colors or stains seeping through and ruining your new paint color.
Using the right primer ensures that your topcoat color will appear on the walls as you expected it to. If you’re painting over a darker colored wall with a new lighter shade, KILZ 3® Premium Primer works to block previous dark paint colors from seeping through and changing the look of your new paint. When painting over a light color with a new darker hue, it’s still equally important to prime first. KILZ 2® All-Purpose primer is a great choice for light to dark color changes. And if your walls have tough or exceptionally dark stains or damage from smoke or water, KILZ® Original Primer and KILZ Restoration are both formulated to block severe stains.
Priming before painting ensures your paint color pops!
What if you’re painting cabinets, do you need to prime? If you want excellent paint adhesion and for your colors to appear in their truest hue – the answer is yes! Primer also makes your paint job durable, and that is especially important in high-traffic areas like kitchens. You often find cabinets in kitchens, bathrooms and laundry rooms, and these areas of the home are subject to fluctuating temperatures and humidity levels that can make paint peel. For these spaces, a primer like KILZ Mold & Mildew dries with a mildew resistant primer finish that helps protect and extend the life of your paint.
When painting cabinets, priming first ensures excellent adhesion and truer color from your topcoat.
While priming before painting can seem like an extra step, it’s a vital part of the painting process!
Always remember to refer to our website kilz.com or product back labels for additional information on which primer is right for your project and detailed instructions on how to apply our products.

How to Choose the Right Primer for Your Paint Project
January 31, 2020Do your New Year’s resolutions include taking on that painting project you’ve been putting off? Or maybe you have a list of several different DIY home improvement projects on your list to complete in 2020. No matter the size or scope of your project, taking the time to do proper prep work will ensure results that you can be proud of for years to come. Prep can seem like a time-consuming extra step, but trust the pros, it’s worth the time spent.
If your next DIY venture includes painting, the first step is choosing the right primer for your project. The KILZ® brand offers a family of primers to help you complete a wide range of painting projects and tackle a wide variety of common painting problems. With so many primers to choose from, how do you know which is right for your project? To start, assess the type of surface you will be painting.
If you just moved into a new house or completed an addition and you’re painting new drywall, KILZ® PVA Drywall Primer or KILZ® 1 Standard Interior Primer are both made for the job.
Perhaps you’re painting a surface that ordinary paint might not stick to, such as a slick glossy surface, aluminum, vinyl, ceramic tile or glass. In that case, KILZ® Adhesion Interior/Exterior Primer is an excellent choice.
Pro painters and DIYers alike are often in need of a primer that offers multiple surface solutions – which is why KILZ 2® All-Purpose Primer is the choice of many! A fast drying, water-based multi-surface primer-sealer-stain blocker, it offers excellent adhesion, a mildew resistance primer film and can block light to medium stains like felt marker or minor water stains. It’s also a good choice for a simple color change, to ensure the truest color from your new topcoat.
And for projects that require even heavier lifting, KILZ Restoration™ offers the performance of a traditional oil-based primer in a water-based formula and can tackled the toughest odors, stains and even fire damage.
For those taking on more complex projects, including blocking smoke or pet odors, covering dark paint colors or heavy stains, there is a KILZ® Primer for you too! KILZ 3™ Premium is one of our more heavy-duty and high hiding formulas, making it ideally suited for blocking old dark colors or covering substantial stains.
If you’re still unsure what primer to use for your next project, answer these simple questions below and don’t be afraid to ask a friendly pro at your local hardware or home improvement store for help.
Choosing the Right Primer:
- Identify the surface type you will be painting.
- Assess any problems you need to tackle, such as stain or odor blocking, and determine the severity of the issue.
- Take into account any unique scenarios like needing a mildew resistance finish coat (good to keep in mind when painting moisture prone areas like bathrooms and laundry rooms), or if you’re covering a dark paint color with a new lighter hue.
Always remember to refer to our website kilz.com or product back labels for additional information on which primer is right for your project and detailed instructions on how to apply our products.

Pro Tips for Painting Over a Dark or Light Wall
December 6, 2019A fresh coat of paint can go a long way in changing the look and feel of your space, and the last thing you want after meticulously selecting your perfect shade of white is for the old, unattractive color to seep through! One of our favorite neutrals is KILZ® Tribute® paint in Alaskan Mist and it was the perfect color to lighten up this living room.
Taking the heavy olive-green walls to a bright white could have posed a challenge, including a need for excess coats of paint which we definitely wanted to avoid. It was time to prime! We chose KILZ 3™ Premium primer for its thicker, high hiding formula. This water-based primer hides surface imperfections and reduces the need for multiple coats of paint to allow a truer, richer color from the topcoat. A coat of KILZ 3™ Premium primer on the unpleasant green walls followed by paint in Alaskan Mist, and the color change was complete!
If dark paint colors are what you’re after, we have professional primer tips for a light to dark color change as well. It might seem like a dark color like KILZ Complete Coat® paint in Night Magic can easily cover a lighter one in this bedroom refresh, so why prime? However, if you want that deep gray with dark blue undertones to look just right, we would suggest priming first with KILZ 2® All-Purpose primer. This water-based primer offers enhanced hiding, making it ideal for changing colors and helping to lessen the number of coats of paint required.
When painting to hide a previous color, KILZ® Primer reduces the need for multiple coats of paint to allow truer, richer color from your topcoat.

Prep & Paint a Porous Surface
August 20, 2019As with most any painting project, prepping and priming the surface is key before its time to paint. Choosing the right primer depends a lot on the surface type you’re painting, a choice that is second nature to professional painters but can be confusing to some! When selecting a primer, the first step is recognizing the surface you will be painting and taking into account its condition – and some surfaces are trickier than others.
In this gorgeous green bedroom, the red brick fireplace was drawing too much attention and taking away from the serene and calming feel that was desired. The fix was easy, paint the fireplace! This led us to the first step in selecting the right primer – knowing and assessing the surface that will be painted. In this case, brick, a porous surface that if not properly sealed can soak up a lot of paint. And that can cost time and money!
To prep this brick fireplace for painting we took a cue from the pros and chose KILZ® 1 Standard to seal the porous surface and ensure a professional looking finish. Other porous surfaces that are commonly painted include concrete, new wood and drywall. For any of these KILZ® 1 Standard or KILZ 2® All-Purpose are both great primers to choose.
Priming a porous surface before painting ensures your topcoat will look its best.
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