Walls plastered - how to paint?

Hi all,

We've just had our walls plastered and will need to get on with painting them soon enough - the plasterer said to leave them about a week to dry, which sounds a long time to me but he knows best I'm sure....

When they are dry, can we start painting straight away or should we put something on the walls first to prepare them? Any ideas??

Thanks!

M

I would dilute the paint you are going to use about 50/50 with water and add some polybond to seal the wall. I tried just putting on the paint directly on a newly plastered wall and it took 5 coats to look reasonable , I had another area to do and did as I outlined above and it only took 3 coats in total (in both cases the paint was white, a coloured paint would cover better). A week isn't very long to leave the plaster, I would say it's the minimum to let the plaster dry out.

muffin1973 said:

Hi all,
the plasterer said to leave them about a week to dry, which sounds a long time to me but he knows best I'm sure....

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As pointed out above, a week is the absolute minimum, especially in this damp weather recently. There will always be patches that take longer than a week to dry, and if you paint over them, the paint will simply peel away after a while.

The rule is to leave them for as long as possible (at least two weeks), and then leave them for another week. Try to have the house well ventilated, but don't try to speed up the drying by turning on radiators etc. - the plaster will only crack.

terrysgirl33 said:

I would dilute the paint you are going to use about 50/50 with water and add some polybond to seal the wall. .

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Go easy on the polybond though - I made the mistake of using too much before and it formed a skin on the wall... I wouldn't go much above 10% polybond

thanks a mil everyone.

didn't realise plaster took so long to dry - will try and leave it for two weeks at least. Problem is having the two families over to the house for a celebration first week in September so wanted it all finished by then - think the painting will have to be a bit last minute!

M

I suggest using a good quality paint, we used all sorts on our walls after plastering, Dulex, Crown, B&Q, Woodies. In the end the best results were from Permoglaze ( I have no affiliation) we were able to give the walls 1 coat of a diluted paint for the undercoat and then later that day were able to paint over them with undiluted paint. We plastered our whole house and this was a life saver in both time and money.

Thanks Dinging I'll check that out - can you buy the Permaglaze stuff in just any DIY shop??

M

You must leave sufficent time and dont assume its dry because it looks dry.

The surface dries before the inside and when you coat it with paint the moisture comes to the surface again.

I painted a wall after 3 or 4 days, looked perfectly dry but the paint wrinkled on drying and had to be removed ( a hell of a job).

I would err on the safe side from now on.....a week at the very least.

Hi, we were going to get our house professionally spray painted and the painter recommended that you should be able to see the outline of the blocks underneath the plaster before its ready to paint, after about a week we could see these but the tiler recommended to wait longer as they can sweat again in a couple of days again and we could see that some of the wall was still damp where we could see the bricks!

The skimmed on the partitions upstairs dried much faster but the longer you leave it the better, I've heard some horror stories of damp walls being painted and cracking terribly, they had to put coving in to keep the plaster together.

Try to leave it as long as possible

Personally I'd wait at least 4 or 5 weeks. Leave your windows open as much as you can to help the walls dry.

I just painted the whole inside of my new house during the summer. I asked in a local paint shop what to do. They said not to paint new plaster for at least 6 week. If its not fully dry it will be a night mare. Its not worth chancing it. You have to live with it for a long time!!!!
Dulux have a paint that you apply directly to the new plaster no need to dilute. However it is abit more expensive. The guy in the shop recommended using 10% water i.e 1 litre of water to 10 litres of paint. I got the job done with 1 coat of diluted stuff and 2 coats of what ever colour you choose.
A word of advice if I may.........make sure the walls are very clean. You may find when the walls dry that there can be some spots on the plaster......sand them down or give tham a light scrapping and wash the dust off the walls if you have to. This might sound very hard work but its well worth it. The first room I did I just painted straight on the plaster and the next day it was peeling off. I had to scrap the paint off the whole room and wash it down and paint it again. It came out well the second time but I had learned my lesson!!!! Hope this helps. If your still not sure ask in a local paint shop.

Thanks everyone for your advice - my father in law to be was encouraging me to start painting it at the end of this week but I've held firm!

M

Good decision! Was he going to help you with the work?

No - but in fairness he's worked like a trojan on every other aspect of renovating the house so I can't really complain