I have always treated attached garages like interior areas. We have always painted the walls with interior paint too....it's not like you have rain and snow getting in there. I would probably use CoverStain on the wood though. Kilz, CoverStain and BIN are all real primers that are also stain killers....you do not need to use another primer on top of them.

2nd-ing PG here on Zinsser's Coverstain!

Forget Kilz...the Zinsser line is better.

Indiana?!!? He&&, I'm in Fargo, ND! We'll sometimes see MINUS 30!

Zinsser's BIN is a great primer, but TOO much temp-change can be too much for it. BIN is a little more "brittle", and meant only for Interior projects, and "spot"-priming on Exteriors, like over resinous wood-knots only.

Yep, Interior paint is fine in the garage. Since the garage doesn't see direct weathering, Interior paints are fine. I'd use a Satin sheen, possibly Semi-gloss.

(I'm at a pretty busy upscale/independant paint/hardware/decorating/furniture store here. People often come to us though, after receiving "incomplete" advice at some of the "Boxes"...;-)
We dropped the Kilz primers, and just handle Zinsser's line, C2 primers, & a couple of ACE & XIM primers.)

Faron

Thanks to you both for your help. The reason I'm really concerned about this is the fact that this garage has had a history of peeling paint off the ceiling. My mom lived in this house, and I spent many hours trying to scrape and get rid of big peeling pieces of paint off of the ceiling in this unheated garage. I would get it looking pretty good, but before you knew it, more was peeling off. Ughhh!!

I always thought the reason was that someone had painted with an interior paint not suitable for extreme temperatures. The garage did get very cold despite the fact that it was attached to the house. I don't think it was insulated (it is now, however).

So.....my husband used a sander and got off all of the remaining old paint, and now we have a new coat of drywall over it. Stains are already showing through it, and the drywallers said it was from sap from the the pine boards up in the attic. Although I don't understand that because those boards are so old.....hard to imagine they're still seeping sap.

Last night we were in a big box store (Menards in Indiana), and we got a sales person who actually was pretty good. He confirmed what you've said, and he recommended the Cover Stain also. He said it's much easier to work with (and cheaper) than the shellac-based BIN. That sounded good! After all, we don't need to cover up odors or smoke or anything like that.....just the stains.

Thank you so much....without your help I'm sure we would just have bought the KILZ because that is the brand we are familiar with.

When you say "Pine boards in the attic...", do you mean the rafter material, lumber layed-down that is stacked, or flat sheets of 4'x8's??

Or...is the whole ceiling made of pine 4x8's that were drywalled over?!

Faron

faron.....I keep forgetting to ask my husband the answer to your question. Believe it or not, I haven't been up in the attic yet. He just installed a pull-down stairway to access it.

But I think it's just the rafters, not sheets of lumber. Why do you ask? BTW, he painted the ceiling today with Cover Stain, and it did conceal all of the stains.

Fiddle-

I was so curious if boards laying FLAT were bleeding.
* 4x8's laid flat would have potentially resinous knots in direct contact with your ceiling sheetrock.
* Were your peeling areas kinda lining up with the rafter lines??
* Or...are/were they pretty random?!
* Reason I'm asking that is...boards can't bleed thru IN BETWEEN rafters!
* Another possibility...have you guys been checking for water leaks? What kind of condition are the shingles in?? Age of roofing??

Faron