New Build - Painting - When/What/How

I have screed down on new build and the heating is on for 2 weeks. When will I know that its ready to paint ? The plastering was finished nearly 2 months ago.

Should I paint the whole house in an white undercoat and then do the second coat when skirting/doors/kitchens/stairs are in ?

definitely, don't rush into painting it different colours straight away, after you have given it an undercoat, leave it for another month and you'll get a better idea of the flow of light through the rooms, use this to your advantage, any rooms that seem a little darker you will know to paint in a brighter tone when rooms that seem way to bright can be toned down

If you can paint the house before the skirting/doors/ etc... are all in, all the better, this means you can go hell for leather on the house and I personally, after painting my house would advise, get a painter in to spray paint your entire house in undercoat first, you paint the rest of your house yourself. Should only take him 4 days to do or you can do it yourself... I did the undercoat in my house and I honestly thought I would go mad, it was very tough work as you really only get one roll and you have to go back to get more paint and hence forth a million and one more times. I would save your energy, for the nice bit, the colours! But try and get it done before the wood goes in, as then you can paint away without having to go steadily around architrave, skirting etc., takes up a lot of your time aswell as splashing the wood, which the paint will do.

I would agree with Abbica, get a base coat on before your floors and wood work go in. Spray paint is the job. I've done the brothers with 2 coats in the one weekend and thats a 3000sqft gaff. Biggest job was sealing off the windows from the drift.
Hired the electric sprayer and it was one that stood into the bucket of paint so all you have is a hose and spray gun to contend with.
Did a deadly job on the hard to reach double height ceilings...

Best of luck,

Plasterers have just started the skim coat - if they are finished in 2 weeks - how soon before I can paint?

How long will the skim coat take to dry - the heating isnt on yet as 2nd fx electical and plumbing isnt done (hoping to have it painted before that is done) Is that realistic or will the heating & elec have to be connected and turned on for a bit before painting?

I dont want to paint the skim coat before its dry & risk ruining it but was hoping it would only take 2-3 weeks to dry?

Hi Jorus, it all depends, we had a timberframe house so ours dried within 1-3 weeks meaning that some parts of the wall went a light peach colour (this means it is dry) and other parts of the wall, like the alcove, corners etc were there might be a build up of extra plaster is a darker peach colour (not dry). Hence, don't bother painting that room until the plaster is all the same colour. Some rooms may dry quicker (south facing). We painted our house with no heating, electrics but we did get a generator in with lights as you can't get much done with the day light hours.