Primer on new wood

[flumperino]

How do you guys prime new wood?

A dedicated primer, or can you just add water to a regular white matt, like you do with painting new plaster?

Any other tricks to avoid having to buy a dedicated primer?

Thanks.

[Cosmicpore]

What type of paint will your final coat be? And is this straight onto stuff attached to walls (skirting, door frames etc)?

Someone may berate me for this, but I never prime natural wood as its already porous and I've never had a problem using oil based paint straight on the wood. Assuming the wood hasn't been treated with oil or the like. And if it had, a little sanding would fix that.

[flumperino]

It's a plain wooden door - just some crappy pine effect stuff I think.

Was simply planning to: prime, undercoat with white mat, then final coat of white gloss.

[Cosmicpore]

Just out of interest, why use undercoat as well as primer? Just undercoat then gloss would do the job if its on plain wood.

[Geko]

I use a decent paint with built in primer.

Something like this -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Although I wanted an eggshell. Not a gloss. This paint also covers existing gloss and with a couple of coats, it gives a decent eggshell finish.

[JONNYG]

I have used white Matt emulsion to key into in the past and glossed over that, If needed I will give it two coats of emulsion with a light sand in between coats which gives a better final finish when it comes to the glossing and saves me giving it two coats of gloss....
Make sure u treat the knots in the wood as in time they will come through if u don't.

[ViSaGe]

Well... if you want to ever go back to bare/waxed wood then using a water based paint will make the job a nightmare to strip. I would always use a dedicated primer, light sand and clean in between coats. Primer - undercoat - gloss, it'll last/look better so much longer too!

[JONNYG]

Well... if you want to ever go back to bare/waxed wood then using a water based paint will make the job a nightmare to strip.!

I doubt he would go to that much trouble and if it was a quality door i would just get it dipped for £15 rather than wasting my time trying to strip it......
Using an emulsion is a cheap option which is not going to be as good as a dedicated prime/undercoat but gloss tends to discolour over time anyway depending on the environment so it will need another hit anyway 12 to 24mths down the line...

Imo emulsion will do the job if you don't want to waste your money on a primer/undercoat and spend the pennies you save on a decent one coat oil based gloss.....
I've renovated lots of houses over the years and tend to use Johnsons primer undercoat which is water based, the main reason being its got good coverage and it drys quick so i can get on with the glossing but there has been times where we have not had a primer/undercoat to hand and have used emulsion with no issues.

[flumperino]

Thanks all