Ican Grepp-V Primer Review

By Mike Gregory

Grepp-V is a water-based adhesion primer designed to stick to difficult substrates such as roof tiles, wood and metal. You can use it on wood, metal, plaster, gypsum board, hardboard, tiles, glass, walls, bricks, lead, PVC, concrete, fibreglass, wallpaper, Formica and much more. Coupled with the fact you can use Grepp-V both internally and externally, you have a very versatile adhesion primer on your hands.

Drying time is roughly an hour in good conditions. Re-coat time is 4 – 6 hours, but it does carry on hardening over the next 12. You can purchase this product in 750 ml, 2.5L or 5L tins and it comes in white. You can order Grepp-V online from the Colour Centre, where you’ll find it with the rest of the Ican range.

 My Ican Grepp-V Primer Review

OK, let’s get down to talking about how good the product is. Application is ok, you can apply Grepp-V straight from the tin, however I find it slightly stringy on completely smooth surfaces. The other thing is, you can’t overwork the primer, or you really do get a stringy finish. Adding a touch of water helps and remembering not to go back over your work while it’s drying, It does go on brilliantly with a sponge roller.

Ican Grepp-V is far from bullet proof once hardened, which is a massive drawback for an adhesion primer. I’ve used it on bare timber, melamine, uPVC and old oil gloss paint. It is awesome on melamine, looks like a spray finish when rolled and stands up well once cured.

You can scratch Grepp-V off uPVC, even after it has had time to cure. It does take a little bit of effort, so I’m confident you could use it without failure, but there are better products out there for this type of substrate.

You can’t apply Grepp-V to old oil-based paint and expect it to stand up. To be fair, Ican do not claim it can. However, as it is a universal adhesion primer, I thought it should.

It makes a great primer for bare timber, or as a first coat on pre-primed MDF. I know you’d normally use a cheaper product for bog standard timber priming, but if you have it in your van, Grepp-V will work brilliantly.

Conclusion

Grepp-V from Ican is fine. It will do a job for you, but it isn’t going to set the decorating world alite. There are better adhesion primers out there which are easier to use and lay off flatter.