The first coat absorbs into the primer, so you lose a little. The second coat spreads thinner, plus you don't need a since you're already about 95% covered.

You'll be surprised how much of an improvement it will make.

I got so sick of waiting around for someone to cut up a sheet for me, or getting everything and then being told the saw is broken and having to drive 30 minutes to another Home Depot etc. That I got a battery skill saw so I can just do it myself in the parking lot.

My painter friend says all paints require 2 coats, regardless what it says on the can.

Yeah u can get a pretty green guy but sometimes I still have to rip it down a little better. Easier than a 4x8 sheet for sure!

Very cool!

I have not had good luck with using Home Depot's cutting service, but it's great for getting pieces small enough for transport

This is great, but I do want to point out that one of the pictures clearly shows a license plate. Not sure if you meant to do that, just didn't want you doxxing yourself by accident.

There is no such thing as one-coat coverage.

Repeat after me: there is no such thing as one-coat coverage.

REPEAT AFTER ME: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ONE-COAT COVERAGE.

There are not, have never been, and CAN NOT BE such a thing as a paint that achieves full coverage in a single coat. It's not even a proterty of paint, it's a restriction governed by laws of physics.

Every single statement to the contrary made by every single paint brand is nothing short of an outright lie.

I had this issue as well, with exactly the same brands. I did a second coat very thinly over the whole wall, using a foam roller. I also watered down the paint slightly per the instructions on the can. It looks pretty good now. The problem I ran into was that the regular nap roller was missing the same spots the second time over. Hence, foam.

Yes you can.

But I also look at it this way, do I have enough paint for a second coat? Because I'd rather just paint the room again rather than worry about how to dispose of leftover paint LOL.

And to be honest you start noticing more spots over time.

And in the future, just FYI unless there is a very specific reason to use Killz, like for example you bought a house where people previously smoked, it's usually better to not prime and just do two regular coats. Because the primer can just cause a situation where you need to paint more.

Thanks appreciate it! Ton of work but I enjoyed this project!

Nice project, great writeup. I like that you wrote about your reasons for doing it that way, and the stuff you payed extra attention to. It will help someone who's thinking about doing something similar.

In all my years I have never seen a paint that covered in one coat. I've tried the paints, the rollers, it doesn't work. It's close but it doesn't work. Just grab another can and put a second coat on it and be done with it. What looks good now won't look good tomorrow morning as you discover new areas that need a touch up. Then another. Then were you cut in stands out. My standard is prime, then paint 2 coats. Rarely have I ever had a problem.

Always two coats, no matter what the paint can says. It would be way more work trying to touch up paint with a roller, and there'd be spots you'd miss. I mean, by the time you stand there with a light and examine the entire wall and fiddle with it, you could have painted the entire room again, easy.

If things don't work out for you two, call me

This.

Source - me finishing my basement and using 26 gallons of paint.

It really depends what color was going on what color, and how decent of a job you did.

I just did a first coat today (light color over white), in a closet actually. I’m not planning on doing a complete second coat tomorrow, and just doing some spot touch ups; unless there turns out to be a lot of missed spots.

I’m some cases you can do spot touch-ups, in others a second coat is the way to go.

You will learn with experience. I know that sounds dumb, but it really is true.

2nd coat typically uses less paint

400 sq ft is just optimistic advertising .... it depends on how thin you roll on the paint, how much texture your wall has, how thirsty the wall is, and what your tolerance for white specs is.

I've found I always need a 2nd coat. Even if I press the roller into the wall really hard on the 1st coat, I'll still get white spots and I'll also get a really awful 1st coat texture/finish. So 2 coats it is. I usually go for the slightly thinner Behr Premium to save money, because thinner paint is easier to roll on and has a better finish.

In trade those spots would be called holidays. That’s quite common when you only apply one coat. The standard is two coats. When a wall is painted with two coats the finish is more durable.

OK - Thanks for the advice...

The room I'm painting is around 310 sq. ft. and the Marquee says coverage "up to 400" but I was barely able to cover the room. Do you know why that might have happened and if a second coat typically uses less paint?

You need a second coat. Otherwise you will create the opposite effect basically. You have darker spots where you touched it up. The good news is a second coat is usually a second coat goes much faster.

Me too. What a great boyfriend.

I have a 3hp 60g that I use for general shop stuff. I have on a few occasions used it to paint car parts with a standard hf hvlp gun and found too small for anything bigger that a hood and a few panels. Auto paint is pretty thin and I can’t imagine it would work with water based stuff. It would work fine for a single small part though. Echoing what has been said before, some of the airless systems are really nice and would be a lot cheaper than investing 5k into an air compressor.

[removed]

Either the mastic or thinset so you get proper coverage on the tile and have the ability to adjust.