Do You Prime or Size?????
Primer, priming, to prime, size, sizing, to size, oil-base, water base, acrylic emulsion, pigmented shellac, co-polymer emulsion, primer sealer, acrylic sizing, I could go on and on. No wonder the wallcovering industry seems a bit confused.
Let's look again to the dictionary for some definitions:
Prime: First in time, the earliest stage or beginning.
Sizing: a substance of gelatinous nature, like weak glue.
In other words, "to prime" means a product or procedure done prior to another procedure. Sizing, on the other hand, no longer means just what the dictionary tells us it means. Sometimes it isn't a noun (a substance of gelatinous nature) sometimes it is a verb.
When it turns into a verb it means a procedure you do prior to hanging wallcoverings. It is just another word for priming.
Many times instructions sheets or books will tell you to SIZE the wall before you install the wallcoverings. These books are not telling you to use a weak glue on the walls...they are telling you to PRIME the walls.
So much for definitions. I would like to set the record straight from a wallcovering installer's point of view. There are many thousands of ways to do anything wrong so I will not go into all the products NOT to use an undercoat for wallcovering. What I will try to do is tell you what to use and why.
A gentlemen who is a VIP with one of the major adhesive manufacturers recently told me he wanted to send some his powdered wall size to use at the school. I told him I was not a believer in powered wall size. To this he replied, "John you know that 80 percent of the time wall size works as well as acrylic primer and is much cheaper."
He is correct.
But then, 80 percent of the time nothing will work as well as either one. Who can afford 20 percent job failure and still stay in business?
Acrylic primers work!
Acrylic primers will work 95-99% of the time. When it does fail, the failure is usually minor, and a result of unusual circumstances. I would be willing to use the powdered size 80 percent of the time and acrylic primers the other 15 to 20 percent if someone would tell me how to decide IN ADVANCE, which 15 to 20% would fail.
Let me sort through the confusion.
Sizing is a powder made from wheat or animal bone to be mixed with water and applied over polished plaster to give wallcovering some tooth to stick to. Sheetrock, and vinyl wallcovering did not exist when sizing was invented. Sizing was used when the walls were all plaster and the wallcoverings were all pure paper.
Acrylic wallcovering undercoat is a special primer developed especially for the wallcovering industry by the wallcovering industry. Guess what-- it WORKS!
You can still SIZE your walls you just don't want to use SIZING to do it with!
If you are holding a carton of size in your hand and you have to mix it up to apply it to the wall you are holding old fashion wall size. Do NOT use it. Acrylic wallcovering undercoats never have to be mixed.
Also please remember this . . .
There is nothing someone can't make a little poorer to sell a little cheaper.
A few dollars more a gallon for a good acrylic primer from a reputable company is money well spent. Many dollars were spent developing it and many hours testing it so that it will work when you put it on the wall. Most acrylic wallcovering undercoats will prime the wall for at least twenty single rolls per gallon. As you can see, the price of the primer balanced against the price of the wallcovering and the labor is small potatoes. Going for the cheapest, instead of the best is a very poor gamble.
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