How long do I really have to wait to paint fresh plaster?

[grumbleina]

Bedroom ceiling. Bond coat and skim onto concrete three weeks ago today. It's pale pink all over but with a sort of cloudy effect. I know about the mist coat, and I know three weeks is maybe a little too soon but I'm impatient!

Google says a wide variety of things about how long to wait - we're painting with Little Greene absolute matt and their website says to wait FOUR MONTHS which is surely madness. Other places say 2-4 weeks, some say once it's pale pink it's ok.

Obviously I don't want to ruin it. Basically I just want loads of people to come on and say 'oh definitely paint it now, it'll be fine'. But will it?

Well it has to be dry basically! Which will depend on the wall material and how much moisture it holds, as well as the weather / atmosphere etc. If it is cloudy it sounds like it's not yet dry enough, but hen again it depends on what you mean by cloudy! I'd say 3 weeks too early as we have (finally) had lots of rain over past few weeks, so i can't imagine that it could have dried so quickly.

We certainly painted some of the plaster in our latest house as soon as it was dry because the kitchen was being fitted and we had no problems at all. In the past though we've painted quickly and had cracks and left it for ages and still had fine cracks. We've also some kind of sealant layer before painting in the past before which seemed to work.

Conclusion...I'm not sure!

Our plasterer advised waiting a week. Waiting months is crazy.

If it is pale pink with no chocolate brown patches, you can paint it.

Ceilings dry fast but for newly plastered walls, especially if the wall is new, use Dulux Trade Supermatt which is a non-vinyl, porous paint that the wall can dry out through. It is available in dozens of mixed colours to order, or white and magnolia off the shelf. It looks decent and is easy to paint over once the wall is fully dry.

Because it is formulated for that purpose, it is not as durable as an ordinary vinyl emulsion.

p.s.

The cloudy effect might be plaster dust from where the plasterer polished it with flicked water and his trowel. Try rubbing it with a dry cloth, then a damp sponge. Paint does not stick well to dust.

p.p.s.

If you are going to use some fashionable overpriced fancy paint, it is a good idea to use an ordinary matt white for your mist coat and two first coats. It will kill the suction and give an even colour and texture so your expensive paint will go on easily and cover better.

If there are any blemishes, the white paint will highlight them to your eye so you can correct and repaint them in white without wasting the flashy paint.

Ha, thanks PigletJohn, I didn't think of that! And thanks everyone else.

I think I might do it. It's definitely pale. And if it all flakes sadly off then at least I'll know for sure that three weeks is Too Soon.

Oh - and I know it's overpriced and silly. But I have a strange and unshakeable belief that it's The Best White Ever, so I'm just sort of going with it, and figuring that since I'm doing the painting bit myself the cost evens out even though that's dumb too.

We painted over the front room as soon as it was dry, about a week.

We also painted as as soon as it was dry which was also about a week. We used the dulux trade supermatt for the mist coat very diluted and then two coats of normal matt and it was fine

so long as its matt not silk, a matter of days is OK

my painter laughs lots at people who pay out for "premium" paint brands : he swears by McRose as its reliable and the batch colours are consistent