I have a big pot of white emulsion I don’t currently need, I was thinking of painting the internal walls of the garage to make it a bit brighter in there.

I’m assuming the brickwork will soak up a lot of paint so will need a couple of coats and I will obviously brush down to remove any dust, loose sand and mortar etc. Do I need to do anything else to prepare the walls or can I just start painting it on?

Anything else I should know?

Ta

Lightly brush but don’t go crazy. Broom will do it. First coat watered down a lot. Use a shaggy roller (but the first coat will be messy, lots of spray and drips)

Personally I’d probably give it a coat of watered down PVA first to seal it a bit and ‘fix’ the loose bits.

Personally I’d probably give it a coat of watered down PVA first to seal it a bit and ‘fix’ the loose bits.

This ^

Or could you water down the paint a bit and add the PVA to the paint mix? Never done it but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work.

However, I can only imagine that starting a job like that will make you wish you hadn’t bothered as it will inevitably take much longer than you expect to get a decent finish. I think I’d rather start from scratch with masonry paint.

I would wash the walls with sugarsoap before doing anything. I know its an extra step but it shouldn’t take too long & I think it’s always worthwhile starting with a nice clean surface.

i did this in my garage and just used some exterior masonry paint and it looks wicked.

I used some normal paint first and the brick work soaked it up like a sponge into the mortar and it looked terrible.

Screwfix masonry roller pack was a god send.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-extra-long-pile-masonry-roller-brush-kit-4-piece-set/17106?cm_sp=Search-_-SearchRec-_-Area1&_requestid=142271#_=p

Thanks everyone, I think you’ve saved me many hours of cursing

Two coats of standard emulsion has mine looking very white, well worthwhile IMO.