Old bare plaster - Mist coat required?

chivers1977

We have a Victorian terrace and have removed the wallpaper in our bedroom. Finally getting round to painting.

We are left with a mixture of original (?), new patched plaster and filled bits. There is no paint at all on the walls. Should I be doing a mist coat on all of the plaster? I have some Dulux trade supermatt left over from our bathroom. How much would we water that down?

Thanks, I have tried googling but it only comes up with mist coats for new plaster.

Fire_Fox

You could try watered down PVA adhesive as this will stabilise any dustiness on the surface.

Doozergirl

Don't use PVA! It actually forms a barrier between wall and paint. It could potentially cause the paint to peel.

A mist coat saves you money essentially when new plaster sucks up the water content of paint. If you add 50/50 water, it sucks up that first making it easier going with a proper mix of paint.

If you have not done any plastering to the wall then I don't think you would need to mist coat it as it isn't fresh and thirsty anymore.

Rosebery_2

Fire_Fox wrote: »

You could try watered down PVA adhesive as this will stabilise any dustiness on the surface.

Crazy like a Fox!!!

Don't you dare. Bane of the decorators life. PVA does not get absorbed into the surface. It just sits there as a nice thin film and the moment you put anything wet on it guess what? - it goes live again. It WILL cause the paint to peel there is no may about it. Utter madness.

As you have a mixture of surfaces a mist coat would be a good idea over the whole lot. You MUST make sure that you have removed every last vestige of wallpaper paste.

For supermatt the max is 15% - 20% water for a mist coat.

Cheers

chivers1977

Thanks all! I went with the supermatt watered down around 20%. It then made it very clear that the walls had not been treated with love over the years although I had filled the big holes. I thought that I would get the room painted and done this weekend!

I have now spent the past 3 days lining the walls! :rotfl: Will have to paint in a month or so when I have a free weekend. At least the lining paper will be dry!