ceiling painting - skip the latex flat coat if primer looks fine

[George P.]

primed the ceiling with oil-based Killz, and it look awesome.

I am thinking of skipping on painting it with my usual latex white flat to save time and money.

Any reasons I should not be skipping this step?

Thanks

[Michael Mullins]

From a painting point of view it is a very bad idea not to paint primer. Do understand that primer and paint do two different things. Shiny ceilings show a lot of the issues you might have with your ceilings and over time it will look bad. A nice flat / satin is what I use on ceilings.

Primer doesn't hold up to water / air born vaper / steam / and humidity. However, I good quality latex paint can stop water from making its way past into the sheet rock. It will also stop the primer from turning a yellow color over time. And it’s easy to wipe clean once you have a coat of paint on it. I know it’s not fun painting ceilings, it can be a pain in the neck but let’s do the job right the first time and put a coat of paint on it.