Painting fresh plaster

PerfectMess

Hi we’ve just had our house replastered and want to get the best possible finish from painting but all I can find online is about speeding up the process.

So, if time is not an issue do we leave the plaster as long as possible? The longer the better? The first room should be uniform pink in the next day or so do we paint immediately or can we just leave it for another week or two would this be better?

Then do we sand? Some sites say yes some don’t mention it? What grit should we use? Wipe with slightly damp cloth?

Mist coats what’s everyone’s opinion on brand? Cheapest we can find, dulux, leyland, crown, wilkos own? Opinions on dilutions? 50:50? How many coats? Do we build it up 25:75 then 50:50 then 75:25 or is this a waste and won’t make a difference?

Then fill and sand imperfections? If there’s none visible do we still sand? Wipe with damp cloth?

Then ready to go with finish coats ASAP? Or leave to dry longer before doing these?

As you can see we’ve not done it before and want to get the best result. We have plenty other things to be getting on with so the plaster can take as long as it wants to dry and so can each coat if it’s better to leave them inbetween coats. Thanks

Mojisola

The plasterers in my family would have been ashamed of their work if any sanding down was needed - the finish was clean and smooth.

Grenage

While it's technically possible for plaster to be too smooth for paint - it's unlikely.


Just 50/50 some cheap, white, non-vinyl emulsion up once the room is uniformly dry. Fill any defects and spot mist those areas; then crack on with the painting as normal.

southcoastrgi

A mist coat is very messy so be prepared for it to be running down your arms & all over the floor as it's just like using coloured water, as above just get some cheap white NON VINYL OR SILK matt paint, the sheds do some for around £10-£14 for a 10ltr bucket mix 50/50 with water

TheCyclingProgrammer

Lots of ways to skin a cat but my personal preference:

1) Wait for it to be uniformly dry (it should be pale pink)
2) Skip the diluted contract matt and get something like Screwfix Bare Plaster Paint instead of faffing around with mixing ratios.
3) One light mist coat with the above (no pre-sanding) and allow to dry. This should reveal any imperfections or over-polished spots (where the paint doesn't adhere properly).
4) Fill and sand down any imperfections in the plaster. I also like to lightly rub-down the first mist coat to get rid of any runs (the Screwfix Bare Plaster Paint sands very easily so go lightly with 100 grit or higher). If there are any over polished spots, give it *light* sand to give it a key.
5) Second mist coat. Repeat step 4 if necessary.
6) Two coats of your top coat paint.

You could potentially skip the second mist coat and just spot mist any bits you've sanded or filled, if you get decent coverage the first time. IMO two thinner mist coats is better than one heavy coat.

Have done the above multiple times when renovating our house. On one occasion I decided to dilute contract matt instead and regretted it. The Bare Plaster Paint is much easier and coats nicely - it appears translucent when you apply it but it dries to a very opaque, flat matt - so don't over apply.

Apjs87

I second the recommendation for Screwfix No Nonsense bare plaster paint.

Saves a whole heap and mess with watered down paint and covers well.

alex_163163

Agree with most of the above.
Wait until the plaster is all a uniform pale pink colour, and all dry. Some walls were painted pretty much straight away, and some were left a week or 2, purely due to when we were free to paint, and I can honestly say we didn’t notice a difference.

There’s shouldn’t be any need to sand down the entire walls before the mist coat. Our new plaster was very smooth, there were a couple of raised nobbles that we needed to smooth, but that was it.

We used Johnstones premium contract white Matt paint, added about 30% water and painted 1 coat on to prime the fresh plaster. It sounds like we didn’t water it down as much as other posters would have so we didn’t have lots of runs/ mess, but it seems to have worked for us and we are happy with the finish we have.
We’d let it dry over night and then move onto the colour. We needed 2 coats typically. Maybe 3 in some places. We like Dulux Trade Matt paint for the top coats.