01/09/2026
🎨 KNOW YOUR PRIMERS – THEY'RE NOT ALL THE SAME!
One product I've increasingly been recommending is Dulux Trade Aqua UniPrimer, and personally, I'd choose it over the traditional Dulux Trade Quick Dry Wood Primer Undercoat for many of the situations I come across.
So what's the difference?
The Quick Dry Wood Primer Undercoat is still a perfectly good product. It's a water-based primer/undercoat designed predominantly for timber, including softwood, hardwood, chipboard and fibreboard, as well as previously painted woodwork.
UniPrimer, however, is a completely different animal. 👌
It's essentially a primer, sealer, stain blocker and undercoat all in one, with excellent adhesion across a much wider range of surfaces.
We're talking:
• Timber and MDF
• Previously painted surfaces
• uPVC
• Aluminium, iron, steel and galvanised metal
• Glossy laminates
• Powder-coated surfaces
• Ceramic tiles
• Plaster and drywall
• Even glass
It can also help block troublesome stains such as water staining, nicotine/smoke damage, grease and tannin bleed, while also inhibiting rust.
Then there's the drying time. UniPrimer can be touch dry in around 30 minutes and recoatable in around an hour under suitable conditions, which can make a massive difference when you're trying to keep a job moving.
That's why, for me, UniPrimer is the more versatile product to have in the van.
But the bigger point of this post is the picture below. 👇
There are loads of different primers available to us as professional decorators, and there isn't one primer that's automatically right for every situation.
You've got adhesion primers, stain blockers, wood primers, MDF primers, sealers, specialist primers for difficult surfaces and products designed for very specific problems.
Understanding what you're painting, what's already on the surface and what you're putting over it is massively important.
Sometimes the most important coat of paint on the entire job is the one the customer will never actually see.
Get the preparation and primer right, and you're giving your finishing coats the best possible foundation.
Prep is key, not the finish. 🎨👌
