What’s the Purpose of Primer?
Many viewers may wonder what the purpose is in priming wood. Why bother priming when you can simply paint a couple of coats and be done with it?
Primer helps with several possible painting problems at once.
Primer has plenty of solids in it which block the underlying color, figure, and grain of the wood. If you hate painted wood then this seems like a bad thing. But if your goal in painting is to hide the wood look and gain an even color surface, then primer is your friend. In this case we used white primer but your paint supplier often can tint the primer toward the final paint color thus adding to the primer’s ability to hide the underlying surface (substrate in painter’s professional lingo).
Primer is designed to bond to that substrate better than paint: and excellent bonding is highly important in most paint projects. Who, after all, wants their new paint to be peeling and flaking? Additionally, paint will bond to primer better than to bare wood. The primer provides the bonding both to the underlying surface and it provides a good surface for paint to stick to.
Plus — Primer dries hard enough that it can be sanded to a silky smooth surface prior to painting. This gives the painter a superior clean, smooth surface to apply paint. If you want a professional paint project then take the time to prime the wood, sand the surface, and then apply a couple coats of the best quality paint.
Free advice from Suspender Man™