LESLIE: Margaret in Georgia’s looking to sell her house and needs some help from us. What can we do for you?
MARGARET: Yes, ma’am. Hey, I love y’all’s show.
TOM and LESLIE: Thank you.
MARGARET: My question is in the past I had a leak in my roof and I’ve since – I’ve gotten the leak fixed but now I’ve got this water stain that’s on my ceiling.
TOM: OK.
MARGARET: And I’ve just tried – you know, I’ve gotten that – it’s called KILZ; the water – you know, like you spray on the ceiling and then shake the can.
TOM: Right.
MARGARET: But I found that it just makes it look like a wet look. It hasn’t really covered up the water stain. Is there something else that I could do?
TOM: Yeah, what you’re going to need to do is I want you to go out and pick up some oil-based KILZ – oil-based primer – and I want you to prime not only the spot but the entire ceiling. Because you’re right, it does make the one area look perhaps a bit shinier because that’s what it’s doing; it’s sealing that in. And then even if you paint on top of that you’re going to find that the paint has a different sheen in that area. So when you have a big water stain like that you’re going to need to prime the entire ceiling and those primers come oil-based and water based and the tougher the stain the better the paint. So I would use an oil-based primer. I would prime the entire ceiling and then I would put the finish on right over that; put the topcoat of paint on top of that.
MARGARET: And of course I’d have to let the one coat dry.
LESLIE: Of course.
TOM: Yes, please do, OK?
MARGARET: Yeah.
LESLIE: Unless you want your topcoat to be one shade lighter.
TOM: Right, and then quick, sell the house before the next roof leak, OK?
MARGARET: (chuckling) Yeah, because there’s only like about 100 million shades of white. (Leslie chuckles)
TOM: Right. OK. Margaret, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
MARGARET: Thank you.
TOM: Margaret putting her house on the market there in Georgia. Get those roof leaks fixed first.
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