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Figured I'd ask here to see if any of you have ideas...

My fiancée are painting the living room in the new house. We cannot seem to get the roller to lay the paint correctly.

If you look down the wall, you can see roller marks from the ceiling to the floor.
I laid the paint on pretty thick and then rolled it out/flattened it with almost no pressure on the roller. I've done two coats of it and have gotten the same results...

I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

FYI, it's Valspar paint with a satin finish.

Any help would be great.

"Do it right with a brush, or do it over with a roller."

I use a brush or the power sprayer. Not a fan of rollers for the reason you mention.

As long as the roller has a consistent layer of paint across the entire roller I've never had any real problems. Couldn't imagine not using a roller in painting a room outside of edges.

A few additional questions:

Did you use a primer? If not, what kind of paint is underneath it (color, type, sheen, etc.)? Is your Valspar paint a latex paint (most are)? Is it the Valspar Ultra, Signature?

Is the heat on in the house? What is the temperature set at? Is it really humid?

What roller are you using (brand, material, and nap)?

In case you were wondering, I've been working at Lowe's on the weekends lately and I've been in the paint department a bunch. I've picked up a few things to maybe be helpful.

footballguy51 wrote:A few additional questions:

Did you use a primer? If not, what kind of paint is underneath it (color, type, sheen, etc.)? Is your Valspar paint a latex paint (most are)? Is it the Valspar Ultra, Signature?

Is the heat on in the house? What is the temperature set at? Is it really humid?

What roller are you using (brand, material, and nap)?

In case you were wondering, I've been working at Lowe's on the weekends lately and I've been in the paint department a bunch. I've picked up a few things to maybe be helpful.

Valspar Ultra (paint+primer latex). It's a satin finish, color is a light blue.

Since I'm away from the house, I can't remember the roller brand, but I do remember it was made for use with Valspar paints. It's 3/8" nap.

Temperature is at 66 and little to no humidity.

You've got to be careful not the f*** with it too much. What can happen is when you are doing the "light pressure" coat, you are actually taking paint off the wall and sucking it back into the roller.

Make sure the paint is dry to the touch between coats.

Here's a Q&A on the same problem

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 325AA75yvH

Thanks. Two walls left to paint. Hopefully they come out better.

It sounds like you're doing it right. A lot of times the brand of roller does make a difference, as a cheap roller will do a crap job. The only thing I can figure is that the primer you used wasn't very thick. The fact that the pain says paint + primer does not mean that there's primer in the paint. That means that the paint is just thick enough to cover most colors. However, if the undercoat of paint was dirty, greasy, or a high gloss, then you should use some type of primer before painting.

Also apply the paint in a "W" pattern. Rolling at angles

(If you were already applying it that way, then I apologize, but I've seen a lot of my clients rolling straight up and down)

Tech83 wrote:Also apply the paint in a "W" pattern. Rolling at angles

(If you were already applying it that way, then I apologize, but I've seen a lot of my clients rolling straight up and down)

Excellent point. When I was a kid, I was helping paint our new house. Not painting in the "W" pattern got me taken off painting duty by my dad and put on "fetch this" detail. I was 5 and just happy to be doing something.

The "W" is key. Or at least a large "N". But also and it's hard to explain, I found/learned that keeping steady pressure on the roller while "leaning" a little more pressure on the "outside" (unpainted) edge helps a bunch. It keeps a "wet edge" toward the area you still need to work on, while not squeezing paint out on each side of the roller. That way you just have to focus on smoothing that wet edge, not what you've already done.

I painted another wall this afternoon. Initial examination looked good - I had to rush out to start a rehearsal. I'll find out when I get back tonight.

I obviously know I'm not going to be great, maybe not even good at this, but I'm really beginning to think that it's the wall/previous coat left by the old owner. There are bumps and streaks all over the place...

Edit: FWIW, we sanded the wall and washed it down. Maybe we have to sand back to the original drywall and re-prime? Thoughts?

musicman2343 wrote:I obviously know I'm not going to be great, maybe not even good at this, but I'm really beginning to think that it's the wall/previous coat left by the old owner. There are bumps and streaks all over the place...

Edit: FWIW, we sanded the wall and washed it down. Maybe we have to sand back to the original drywall and re-prime? Thoughts?

You shouldn't ever have to strip off all of the paint to get a good coat. My best guess is that the old paint and the new paint are not meshing well, possibly because the primer coat wasn't good enough. If the old paint was rather glossy, then it'll be more difficult to get the paint to provide a nice, even, smooth coat. When we painted our house a little over 3 years ago, when we bought it, we washed all of the walls down with soap and water first. This was because the walls had black soot on them from scented candles all over the house. Then, we used Kilz primer, which is a very thick primer. This covered up any residual soot and the strange colors from the old paint. We still had to do two coats of Kilz in some rooms (old paint was a chocolate brown, we went with a creamy tan).

I wouldn't try sanding back to the drywall. You could create a much bigger headache for yourself if you damage the drywall paper.

That said, sanding is not a bad idea. Get a light grit sandpaper and go over the wall, taking care to hit the spots that seem to be giving you the biggest problem. You'll need to be sure that ALL the dust is off the wall before you begin painting again.

Now that you've got a coat of your paint on the wall, a new coat should go down better. But, you may want to consider priming anyway. I know, your paint probably says (primer included), but given what you've got going on, I'd probably throw a coat on.

Have your paint monger tint the primer in the shade you are painting the room. That gives you a nice base in the color that you are trying to end up with.

Don't get frustrated, I remember the first few rooms I painted and the trial and error process. In a few years, your neighbors will be coming to you for advice. Not quite sure when I turned into that guy. . .