smoke damage - painting

urban cowboy

Hi guys, whats the best sealer paint to use to cover smoke damaged walls. The walls have been scrubed down and cleaned. The damage has effected a few rooms.
Any advice greatly appreciated.

fcleere

i worked summers with my uncle who is a very good painter and im fairly sure he coats patches of smoke damage with white oil based undercoat.
works very well on damp patches.
also just try giving it an extra coat of paint

urban cowboy

Hi thanks for the reply, thats a good sugestion of using an oil based paint to cover it. Have you heard of a paint or brand that is specifically designed for covering particularly bad stains which are of a large area. There are a few rooms which were damaged due to the smoke

chiefwiggum

im a painter and its GLOSS not undercoat you use...a few coats of a good paint brand will cover the smoke damage ...its the smell that will be harder to shift

fcleere

really?but its hard to cover anything with gloss.
anywho the undercoat works very well from my experiences.
nothin in particular springs to mind and stuff like that tends to be a bit gimmicky anyway. just layer away and ya'll get it covered eventually.

chiefwiggum

trust me the gloss is better than the undercoat,as long as you dont go mad with it it will cover fine..is especially great for water stains and covering the likes of biro and permanent marker

Wertz

BIN primer is the ONLY product to use for smoke damage. That's coming from someone who's done three different fire damaged houses. Take as much loose soot/smoke off first with dry brush and use of sugarsoap, then get a few gallons of BIN, some disposable brushes and rollers and apply a layer of it to every damaged surface. Allow to dry for an hour and re-paint as normal. All staining and odour is neutralised. Gloss and/or u/c is going to cost you much more in time and money, doesn't do as good a job and is prone to failure.

chiefwiggum

i agree gloss is too costly for doin whole rooms but i have used BIN primer and it does seal the smoke damage but doesnt do anything for the smell and i have done at least 10-15 smoke damaged buildings ..like i said a few good coats of dulux will cover it but the prep work is advisable like wertz said.sugarsoap will only get so much off aswell and i havent seen gloss fail yet as a stain blocker

urban cowboy

Wertz will try your suggestion. Thanks to all your replies

game4it70

I use Flat-oil for smoke damage and stains and it works great for smell and coverage.It also give a better key for the coats of emulsion as there is no sheen of it.
On a side note you cant beat it for badly stained kitchen ceilings.

Wertz

Haven't seen flat oil in ages. Last I seen it in was farrow & ball and they were looking silly money for it.
As chiefwiggum says, gloss will seal surfaces better than u/c (sealing is what you want here, not obliteration, although that does help with subsequent coats)...but I'll differ with him on the BIN...I find when it's applied as a basecoat (without thinning or overspreading) that it's the most cost effective approach (as it obliterates and seals in one coat)...but bear in mind that it does run about 55 quid per US gal.
The other thing I have against oil based solutions for walls and ceilings is getting finishing emulsions that will take to the surfcae and not fail. Again in this regard the shellac provides a better key and a more suitable substrate.
Each to his own I 'spose...


[edit] Further reading

http://www.zinsser.com/pdf/ShellacFireDamageRestoration.pdf