Painting New Plaster

sniperpenguin

Quick question... where does the thicker "polyfilla" style basecoat paints fit in with all of this?

Im gett a house replastered at the moment, and due to the state / age of the house Im tempted to use this stuff as a basecoat....

adammcd02

Thanks for the advice. I sealed the walls with cheap matt emulsion from B&Q, which i didn't water down cos it looked very watery anyway. Left a couple of days and have now painted with Dulux silk. Has come up lovely and seems very simple. Really glad I didn't gamble on the PVA route.

NOVASTAR

Gulp .... Now after reading this thread I am slightly worried as I have just painted my newly plastered bathroom walls using bathroom paint with a sheen. I must say that the walls were very "thirsty", but i'm pleased with the coverage. As I did not prep the walls prior to painting, I am now expecting horrific peeling walls

George_Bray

sarahmoon wrote: »

hi, you leave the plaster till it drys,normally plaster these days starts off a bronze colour then goes lighter as its drying,you cant put anything on it till it all goes the lighter colour

It makes sense to me to wait a few days, or as long as it takes, until the plaster dries before painting it. Then use relatively cheap, ordinary emulsion. I figure this is likely to achieve a better result than buying a very-expensive 'miracle product' like Dulux Supermatt (have you seen the price of that stuff?!) just so you can paint damp plaster. That's another advantage of doing the job yourself - you can take your time and get the job done properly. Pro decorators normally need to wrap up a.s.a.p. and may not have time to hang around for plaster to dry. If so, I fear the job may suffer.

George_Bray

adammcd02 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. I sealed the walls with cheap matt emulsion from B&Q, which i didn't water down cos it looked very watery anyway. Left a couple of days and have now painted with Dulux silk. Has come up lovely and seems very simple. Really glad I didn't gamble on the PVA route.

That's exactly the mix of products I've used on a large part of the walls I'm re-surfacing. And I threw in PVA too, on another wall, just to see what happens. I'll report back here in weeks, months or years if any of those walls deteriorate much within 10 years. I'd be most surprised if they do. If I'd used ultra-exensive Dulux Supermatt rather than dirt-cheap B&Q value emulsion, I simply don't see how there would be any advantage whatsover to the look or resilience of the walls.

George_Bray

handyman. wrote: »

pva is designed to re activate when wet... Thats why plasterers use it!

I'd been using standard PVA and, like you say, it dissolves and goes a bit like liquid glue again when wet, i.e. if it's been applied as a surface coating, rather than having been mixed in with plaster.

So I tried waterproof PVA instead. But this still seems to dissolve back into liquid glue, too. It's not a show-stopper but I hoped it would stay firm. If that's not the point of 'waterproof' PVA, then what's it for? It's more expensive than standard PVA so I'd expected better than that.

P_Jazzy

I'm about to paint my walls which have been freshly plastered after going all the way back to the brick. The walls have all gone really light after about a week so look ready to paint.

This thread has come in very handy. Wish me luck

misgrace

You wont need luck lol, as long as you dont use PVA as a mistcoat, dont apply silk, softsheen or bathroom paint straight onto new plastered walls.

Apply a mistcoat of Matt, and as you have gone back to the brick, dont use a vinyl matt as a mistcoat, get some 'contract' or 'supermatt' which is a non vinyl paint.
Thin this by about 25% as your mist coat, put that on the walls, then you can use vinyl paint, but again still thin each coat by about 5-10% for the better finish.
You should leave your plaster as long as you can to dry out, as it will be still drying out from inside out.
But if you do what I suggest, then you will have no problems.:)

Hyphae

This discussion has been useful, but I'll also add my 2 cents worth as I feel most of the posts miss an important point:

Using PVA to seal new plaster (some painters I know use it everytime, even on old plaster after wallpaper has been stripped) may work and cause no problems.

However, when someone tries to REPAINT in the future, especially with water-based paints (which most are now), the PVA reactivates due to soaking and the roller pulls off large sections of the paintwork. The solution to this, invariably, is to strip the walls entirely of paint, wash well and start from scratch.

Of course, this problem only raises its head on repainting, so I expect many decorators, especially on new builds, simply don't care

In short, DO NOT use PVA on plaster when painting

savers_united

I think this answer here on the FAQ page from the manufacturer of PVA (Evo Stik) pretty much sums it up..

Q: Can I use Evo-Bond PVa as a sealer for my plaster wall prior to applying emulsion paint?

A: No! It may leave areas with a sealed and shiny finish. Paint may then not be absorbed into those areas. The paint could then peel off. Use the primer recommended by the paint manufacturer.

http://www.bostik.co.uk/diy/product/evo-stik/Evo-Bond-PVA/86/faq