Applying First Primer Coat to Refinish a Door Jamb

"MARK BLOCKER: Hi. I'm Mark Blocker on behalf of Expert Village. In this segment, we're going to cover priming the door jamb, part one. We just finished sanding, so the first step is to take a damp, wet rag, just barely damp, doesn't have to be real wet, and we will wipe down the entire door jamb thoroughly and make sure we get any of the dust from sanding off of it. And once we've got that all prepped and all the dust removed, just wipe it down real thoroughly and make sure it's all good and clean, then we'll go ahead and start applying primer. The first step to painting is always doing the cut in work. When I refer to as "cut in", if you were to do a roller, you can see where the roller can't get in to these grooves. It can but it's going to leave blotchy and some--a lot of unevenness. So we use a brush and we'll first do all the cut in, paint all these corner areas that the roller can't reach. And we'll go through and thoroughly here. All the cut in done is always done first, through all the corners, all the way around the back sides, anywhere you can't get with a roller needs to be done with the brush previously. So, we've got a water-based product primer, and the key to painting is thin coats, the thinner the better. You want a very thin, even light coat. It's much, much better to apply two thin coats than one thick coat. Thick coats of paint are blotchy. You don't get as much adhesive--adhesion of the paint and it's just a far less professional-looking job. If you want a good quality high finish, you need to apply it very thin, paying attention to runs and drips. You want to keep everything thin and consistent throughout your painting. So I'm just going to go ahead with those things in mind, keeping just a light amount of paint on my brush at all times, and start my cut in, and all I'm primarily worried about are the areas that can't be gotten with a roller. And you don't have to worry about neatness because a roller is going to come back and cover those main surfaces. You just want to make sure that what you're applying is thin. There aren't any big gloopy drops or drips coming along. And if you do get a paint drip that you missed or dropped, don't worry--you'll have plenty of opportunities to sand it off before the next coat. But after sanding some paint down, you'll quickly realize it's much easier to take your time, make sure you get a smooth even-like coat, than it is to sand down your mistakes. Please watch our next segment, and I'll give you a tip on how to get to paint in the bottom portions and some of the harder-to-get areas, without getting paint on the surface and without creating more problems. So please watch our next tip."