Best base paint on newly plastered walls

[Craicalack]

We are building our home at the minute and the plastering is underway. I hope to do the whole house in a base white first and then work from there, any idea on the best paint for this or ones to avoid?

I thought he standard thing to do was a couple of mist coats - watered down emulsion - 50% each.

Yes mist coat(s) first. You can use anything for this really - I'd just go with a standard white Dulux emulsion.

I used Dulux Trade PBW. 1st coat 30:70 water to paint, 2nd 20:80, then another couple of coats of neat paint.

best product for this job is Dulux Trade Supermatt.

It is a non-vinyl emulsion enabling the plaster to dry out through it.

First coat (or two) thinned with water as a mist coat.

It is available off the shelf in white or magnolia, but can be mixed to order in dozens of colours. White is cheapest.

Doing the whole house in PBW may look a bit stark.

I used Wilko's own emulsion -'ridiculously cheap and ended upmimpressing me more than the Crown emulsion I had left over from precious paint job.

Previous

Ok this is this first time i've heard of "mist coat" . I'm glad I asked, thanks for all the advice!

So PigletJohn I can use the Dulux Trade Supermatt on the plaster before it has dried out? If that's the case it would give us a bit of a head start!

yes, but it must be pale pink, not chocolate brown. It can continue drying out through the Supermatt, which is somewhat porous.

dulux.trade-decorating.co.uk/web/pdf/datasheets/410.pdf

We used Dulux Trade Supermatt on our new plaster - thanks to PigletJohn's advice and it's worked out really well. Our surveyor who is coming to check out if we have damp said it was v good we'd used that rather than emulsion so there's another advantage. We thought the white everywhere would be too much but it's turned out really nice - you need to think about the kind of lightbulbs and lampshades you use though to avoid it being stark.

you have to allow for the wall itself to dry. A brick wall dries at about one month per inch thickness. If it rains during build the wall may be thoroughly wet, so for a cavity wall, allow four months or so after the roof goes on.

Wet new plaster is chocolate brown, dry plaster is pale pink and you can apply a breathing paint like Supermatt, but even after that, moisture will be evaporating from the wall itself.

With an old dry wall that is being replastered, maybe a month.

If whiskers, bloom or crystals appear on the surface, that is efflorescence (mineral salts left behind by evaporating water) so brush them off (don't try to wash off) and wait until it has stopped.

Fresh air, not heat, dries walls, so open the windows. In an alcove or damp corner, put an ordinary domestic fan to blow moving air over the surface. It will dry out like a windy day dries washing.

If you want to know if moisture is coming off a wall (or floor) tape a piece of clear plastic tightly to it and see if condensation appears under the plastic after a few days.

best not. It will delay that part of the wall drying, and cause the boards to warp, get mouldy, or even rot.

I suppose you could get a dehumidifier. Builders hire dehumidifiers the size of a washing machine, but noisier, and also fans the size of suitcases. Do as much natural (free) drying out as you can by ventilation first. The fans are cheaper to use. When the windows stop misting up overnight, that's a good sign.

When using a dehumidifier, you have to close the doors and windows of the room it is in, or it will try to dehumidify the world.