Painting newly skimmed walls

lawley1010

We have just had our living room walls skimmed and hoping for some advice on what to do next. How long should we wait for plaster to dry out? The plaster was a reddish/brown when wet and is now starting to turn grey. Once dry do we water down white emulsion and put this on as a "mist" coat (we have got Wickes white emulsion) and how many watered down coats should you do before the actual colour goes on? Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

scottn

i use one coat of 50% water/50% emulsion within a week of being plastered.

concerned43

mines took about 5 days to completely dry and I just painted it the colour I wanted i.e. latte. never heard of having to paint it with a watered down paint before.

Hintza

concerned43 wrote: »

mines took about 5 days to completely dry and I just painted it the colour I wanted i.e. latte. never heard of having to paint it with a watered down paint before.

If you don't put a mist coat on ten the paint coul peel off. I did a third water and wish I had done 50:50 areas where we had masking tape (kitchen units) the paint peeled a little (nothing to get too upset about)

meercatsunited

decorator said use 50 50 one coat then paint as normal when its dry

Leif

Wait a week to be sure. I was told to thin matt emulsion by 20% as the mist coat, then a couple of full strength coats. Apparently some cheap paint is so thin already it doesn't need watering down!

To those who doubt the need for a mist coat, I painted paint samples on bare plaster, not thinned, to see what the colours were like, and yes it scraped off easy peasy.

ListysDad

As no one has explained what a 'mist coat' actually is and how it came about I will try.

Paint polymers are typically extremely long so consequently sit on top of a surface instead of penetrating - and creating a proper bond. What watering paint down (the mist coat) does is break down those polymers into much shorter lengths. They then have a much better chance of penetrating the surface and giving the subsequent normal coats something to grab hold of.

If the plasterer has left a surface to be painted highly polished to give a better impression of their abilities, you'll need to run some glass paper over it before the mist coat. The reason for this is that a highly polished surface is much more compacted so by sanding it you are opening it up and it's then much more able to receive the modified polymers

If you can be bothered, it's better to build up layers to give better and better adhesion. This paint will then last longer in a damp environment like a bathroom but is not really necessary in normal areas.

lawley1010

Thanks for all the replies. Just a quick question, there seems to be some differences as to the % of water to paint for the mist coat, what consistency should I be looking for? consistency of milk?

keystone

Depends on the paint. Sheds own brand economy stuff is so thin and watery anyway you can use it neat. Trade paint is typically quite a bit thicker than retail spec. I would normally thin a trade spec paint by about 40% for the mist coat, then a second coat thinned by 10% then the top coat neat.

If you only had a skim done then you can paint it maximum 48 hours after skimming, mostly 24.

Cheers

Edwardia

Wickes Trade Paint For New Plaster

keystone

Edwardia wrote: »

Wickes Trade Paint For New Plaster

Give the Wickes Marketing Man his hook back - theres a good chap.

Cheers