Painting new ceiling

E

ennisjim

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Hi,

New ceiling has been plastered for over 2 weeks now and looks to be completely dry. I was wondering how long I should leave the ceilings to dry before painting ? Walls are not fully dry yet but they have scratch coat so they are 15mm+ but since ceiling is only skim coat (<5mm) I was thinking that 2 to 3 week drying time would be enough for the ceilings. Does that sound reasonable ?

Also, any advice on painting ceiling would be greatly appreciated. What kind of paint to use, need to water down first coat, etc, etc ?

Many thanks
 
Ceilings are generally only a skim coat (2-3mm thick) on a 12.5mm board so they dry in no time. I see no reason not to paint the ceiling now, except that you probably will have nail pops and ridges later on as the ceiling timbers dry out and settle down (unless this is an old ceiling that's been redone?). I would wipe down the entire ceiling with a damp towel to remove any surface dust and prime the lot with a watered down coat of matt emulsion- perhaps thinned down with 10- 20% water. Follow this with two full coats (or thinned down as required to ease application). don't bother with special sealers or anything, the new plaster will suck up the first coats of paint.
 
Thanks Carpenter - that's exactly what I was looking for. By the way is there anything special about the paint for ceilings, eg. flexible to minimise cracking ?
 
No regular emulsion is all you need use, buy a large cheap bucket of white for initial priming/ sealing of new plasterwork and follow this up with your more expensive tinted paint.
 
B&Q have a Dulux 10 litre drum plus 20% extra for approx €25. We bought 10 of these to do a 2500 sq foot new build. and it specifally states it on the drum to add 25% water if using as first coat. Need shades when going in to house now, a snow blind job. A better job than the no name brand paint.

Can't wait now to inject a bit of colour !

Secman
 
Regarding those 20% extra cans of Dulux, would anyone know if this is only in B&Q, or is it available in all paint/hardware shops?


(Hi ennisjim, looks like you are keeping busy while waiting for your screed to dry.)
 
Yes Bluebells - watching screed dry is like watching paint dry :D and waiting for the plumber is like....:(
 
As someone who has just painted six ceilings (not to mention the walls) I might just add the following to the good advice above. I used the cheapest white emulsion from Atlantic Homecare for the basecoat then decent Dulux or Crown on top. However, because the cheap stuff was already much thinner than Dulux, if you watered it down at all it spattered everywhere and you got covered in it. So after the first ceiling, I used it undiluted - saved messing about with dilutions too. I notice Dulux do a Ceiling Paint as well which is presumably thicker still than their standard stuff.
 
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