PVA glue all over new plaster

[JaffacakeJanine]

We had a bit of a cowboy plasterer (despite him being recommended locally) who has got drips of PVA allllll over our new plaster walls! He has ghosted us so no chance he will make good.

I've tried sugar soaping the walls to no avail. What can we do to get rid of the pva? My thoughts were maybe to do a mist coat and then see how much the drips show through, the final colour will be a mid green and I really don't want it to have shiny drips showing through 😭😭 then if all else fails some kind of primer??? Any thoughts?

@JaffacakeJanine Sadly that plasterer is never coming back because he is shit as his job and there should never be PVA drips if he was any good. I think the only thing to do is try to cover them and see what shows through. For a mist coat we always used Leyland super latex which is formulated for new plaster walls. You don't dilute it and the first coat looks like you have put two coats on. It comes in a massive tub but can also be used on non-newly plastered walls too so multi-purpose.

www.screwfix.com/p/leyland-trade-super-leytex-matt-brilliant-white-emulsion-paint-15ltr/60248

Reviews show how good it is. Only do one wall, it dries super fast and you can recoat quickly. If you do one wall and it works carry on if not then try a Zinsser product. I have used the blue tin for walls and the red tin for wood. It is far more expensive though which is why I say the Leyland stuff first.

www.zinsseruk.com/core/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Bulls-Eye-123.pdf

Thank you so much for this! Really helpful. The plasterer was terrible on multiple counts so we have left him some rotten reviews 🤣

I'd try to sand the drips flat.

I think I will sand the obvious ones flat (some of them have beads of glue sticking out), but the wall is literally covered floor to ceiling with drips so it would be hard to sand every single one until they don't show up! It was a really shocker as it all suddenly stood out when we washed it 😭

Sand the whole wall. It'll be relatively quick and be a nice grippy base for your paint. Do it by hand and you'll feel the larger bits of pva so you can make sure they are removed.

I’d do this. I know it’s a pain but it’s worth it

Well yes, a mist coat will show up any that bulge out. (I use dulux trade supermatt, but have never tried the leyland one above).

For pva that sticks out I'd carefully have a go with a 'window scraper', (one of those plastic holders for stanley blades). Go real easy and do not damage the plaster at all. The sandpaper is likely to leave a bit of pva and take a bit of plaster around it.

Your plasterer is an arse.

He most certainly is an arse!
I've ended up going around with my sander to get rid of the raised drips and it feels all smooth to the touch now at least. I'm going to have to lie down for a bit as I'm completely exhausted 🤣

Had that too! I found a scraper/filling knife worked well. Lift the bobble at the bottom of the glue runner and then peel upwards. The first coat of paint will show where the runner was as a streak but after coat 2 it should be fine.

Thanks Nelly, I have been trying to peel off the bits that didn't sand off (grrr) - when I wipe down the wall now there aren't as many white splatters any more, so it's slowly working. tempted at this point though to just zinsser and carry on living my life 🤣