How to paint onto newly plastered walls?

[Reastie]

Just that really. Am confused by googling as to what to do.

Having a kitchen done and room has been plasterboarded and skimmed. Plasterboard put on last week, skimming done end of last week/beginning of this week. One website said to wait up to 6 weeks before painting - really???? Is this true? It's been really hot and looks dry and I was hoping to paint this week end

Second part - DH says we need to do something like paint a layer with watered down paint first but doesn't know how many coats or how watered down - can anyone help with this too please?

I had the walls plastered at the flat I am renovating late last week and earlier this week and painted today (they are mostly Victorian solid walls, not plasterboard). I could have probably started sooner but was finishing off a couple of other jobs first, siix weeks seems mad - as soon as the plaster has dried to a pale pink and is slightly dusty to the touch, then you're ready to go.

You can do one layer of watered down white paint as a base coat but it only needs to be very slightly watered down.

We waited about a fortnight and it looks great. We bought a primer paint (from Wilkinson's) rather than use watered down paint.

Dp (painter and decorator) says, once it looks dry (even and all one colour) then give it two more days and it will be fine.

He suggests either watering down your emulsion with 10% water for the first coat or buying some crap paint (his words ) B&Q own brand was suggested as 'that is already watery shit'.

Hope that is helpful.

thanks, hopefully we'll be good to go then. Will use watered down emulsion as it's cheaper . gobblers how careful do you need to be with measuring the 10% thing? Is it important or just approx?

Dp says 'rough is fine, just guess'

We had a room painted last Thursday that was skimmed the Saturday before. It's fine in this heat!

I would paint the walls in a cheap emulsion, slightly watered down, but choose a colour which is similar to the top coat ie white on white, grey under a darker colour, pink under red etc etc. use a roller, but be careful of splashes, and try to work quickly as it is so warm it will dry quickly.

We just had walls and ceiling skimmed today. Plasterer said we could paint on Sunday. To use cheap emulsion watered down 60% paint 40% water. I think we'll prob do a couple of coats of this then paint with proper paint on a different day.

If you water the paint down that much it will be like trying to paint with milk - it will just splatter everywhere, especially with a roller. I'd put in much less water than that.

We always used to "size" newly plastered walls. Bought it in B&Q. Don't people have to do that any more?

size black - what's that?

Our walls are going to be sage green but it's a special kitchen paint. Was going to use watered down white emulsion (we have some of it in the shed anyways) - is that OK or should I use green watered down?

Just buy a green tester pot and mix that in. The paint only needs to watered down a bit, as said earlier 10% is about right.

Tbh I usually use paint pads rather than a roller, but it's your preference. I wouldn't use a brush though.

Good luck

and never put glue on a surface which you hope to paint later.

white matt emulsion (not silk) is good for a mist (dilute) coat as it is cheap and leaves an even colour and absorbency. It will also highlight to your eye any imperfections that need to be corrected.

Two coats, well watered down, and applied with a wide soft brush.

You will know when you have sealed the plaster because it will no longer suck your brush dry. The first mist coat should disappear into the wall because it soaks in.

if you are using an expensive colour coat, give it a coat or two of white matt emulsion first to even out the surface so you don't have to apply extra coats of colour to cover patchiness.

Thanks Piglet, that all makes sense and might be why I've had trouble painting the kitchen yesterday - we did one watered down coat and then started using the colour paint on it (homebase kitchen paint). We weren't sure if it was rubbish paint or the paint sucking into the walls but the coverage on the first coat was very poor, second coat is today.