Used to buy pre-primed trim. Now prime everything myself.

I grabbed a bundle of MDF primed baseboard from Home Depot in Edmonton last spring. Paint was bubbling off within 3 months. Switched to raw pine and I prime with Zinsser BIN before install. Way more work but no problems since. Anyone else finding the factory primer on trim around here just doesn't hold up?

2 comments

2 Comments

avery7211d ago

3 months! I had a whole house of MDF baseboard from Home Depot here in Calgary bubble up in less than 2 months. I was so mad I just started ripping it all out one weekend. Switched to finger joint pine and now I use the Zinsser Cover Stain oil based primer. That factory primer is absolutely useless, it's like they don't even try.

wrenh791d ago

I had the exact same thing happen with MDF baseboards in my basement 4 years ago. The factory primer just peeled right off after a single winter with the humidity changes. @avery721 you're spot on about the Zinsser oil primer though, that stuff is magic on raw wood. I switched to pine too but I actually sanded and primed mine before even cutting them just to be safe. The worst part was scraping all that bubbled paint off the wall after I ripped the old boards out, took me a whole weekend just to get the adhesive residue off.