Primers
Primers
— primers are called special compositions designed for pre-treatment of various surfaces. Primers themselves are not complete coatings — they only prepare walls, ceilings, floors, etc. for another coating. Note that such processing is used not only for painting: plastering, putty, laying tiles, wallpapering, etc. also almost without fail require preliminary application of a primer.Such processing performs three main functions. First of all, we note that the initially processed base is often rough; due to this roughness, adhesion to applied paint or other coatings when applied without a primer is very low, which, to put it mildly, is not conducive to durability. The primer fills the irregularities, creating a continuous film on the surface, which provides high adhesion rates. Secondly, the primer plays the role of a kind of glue, strengthening the surface of the base and preventing its crumbling and cracking, which is also important for the high-quality retention of various coatings. And thirdly, such compounds provide additional protection of the base from moisture and other adverse effects.
Compositions of this type can have different specializations and application features. However, there are two main varieties of classic primers: universal deep penetration primers and surface adhesive compositions of the “concrete contact” type. The first variety can be used on highly absorbent substrates such as brick or loose plaster (although it is also suitable for concrete). It provides not only good adhesive properties, but also a decrease in hygroscopicity. In turn, concrete contact, in accordance with the name, is intended primarily for concrete and other low-absorbent surfaces (for example, old paint); usually the role of the binder in such compositions is played by acrylic.
In addition, it is worth mentioning another specific type of primers — “primer paints”. Such compositions combine a primer and paint and allow you to process surfaces in one pass. Thanks to this, it is possible to use such paint without applying additional coatings — roughly speaking, "it is a primer for itself." This saves a lot of time and effort — no need to paint the surface to be treated in two passes and wait until the primer dries before applying the paint. For a number of reasons, one of the most popular applications for such compositions is the painting of metal surfaces; thus, a rust remover can also be added to the composition, which improves the quality of processing and the general condition of the surface. Nevertheless, even such primers are not “omnipotent”, and it is still advisable to brush off especially thick rust beforehand.
Note that such “2 in 1” compositions are colloquially often called primer enamels, however, our catalog uses slightly different terminology; for details, see "Binding base — primer-enamel".