Do I need to paint my attic?

June 11, 2015 11:26 AM

We are doing a total gut renovation of our house, including new walls in the attic. (Walls = plaster skimcoat over blueboard.) While we will use the attic primarily for storage, it is technically a bedroom. Do I need to paint it? Should I prime only and then leave it?

On the one hand, we have SO MUCH WORK TO DO and less time spent painting and priming sounds great. On the other hand, it is empty now and so it will never be easier to paint, and it seems like we should just make it look slightly nicer.

Does the paint serve a protective purpose I am failing to consider?

posted by teragram to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

Prime it, at least. A skim coat is both fairly rough and fairly fragile. Dirt will tend to stick to it and will be quite difficult to remove without removing some of the skim coat.

Relative to the effort to install the wall itself, the effort required to prime or prime and paint is pretty minor.
posted by ssg at 11:34 AM on June 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

If it's just for storage, prime it and be done. You can get tints added to primer, so if you want a subtle touch of color, you can get that with a prime coating only.
posted by quince at 11:59 AM on June 11, 2015

I'd say paint it something neutral. As long as you have the room empty and have the equipment there, paint it and be done with it. A couple hours and some sweat now could save you from having do a bunch of moving of stuff later, and primer doesn't hold up all that well. Do you plan to say in this house forever? Planning to move in a few years? Paint it now so you don't have to then.
posted by cosmicbandito at 1:05 PM on June 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Assume you'll never get back up there to paint it until the day you move out of the house. At the very least, give it a very good primer job. Or hire a cheap and not awesome painter for the day and get him to prime + give it two coats of a half decent paint. You're going to all this trouble, get it fresh and finished and you'll be happy!
posted by barnone at 2:31 PM on June 11, 2015

We've got a recently refinished attic like yours—insulated and skim-coated, with some handy outlets added and whatnot. It's only suitable for storage (no stairs, needs dormers), but we chose to paint it (and the OSB floor) and I'm glad we did. Instead of being a half-finished space sporting mudded seams and raw edges, it's neat and cozy and a little bit magical. We don't hang out there by any means, but when you're bringing the winter coats down, rummaging in trunks with the nieces and nephews, or doing whatever it is that you do in your attic...it's just nice. I very much doubt you'll regret having painted it.
posted by mumkin at 6:22 PM on June 11, 2015 [4 favorites]

Paint it. Primer doesn't stand well on its own over the long term. You will never regret having it done.
posted by saradarlin at 11:02 PM on June 11, 2015