Painting over fresh plaster

Builderwoman!

Plasters just finishing and we are going to paint the house ourselves. Any tips on how long to leave the plaster to dry, what to use as sealer etc? We were told three weeks and there is no front or back door in yet so it is drying out well. All the other trades are trying to rush us through but we want to ensure a good paint job. Any advice would be welcomed.

lil-buttons

Give two to three days depending. Ive worked on alot of finishing jobs on site and sometimes we bung the paint on before it even dries.. But usually Id tell d boys to wait a day r two. If the windows and doors arent in itk dry a lot quicker give it a few days.

yop

A few days after the plastering has been finished to start painting??? Are you sure about that, I cannot see how that could be good? Would the paint not peel off?

squire1

I can't make sense of that either yop. My plasterers finished three weeks ago and I am still letting it dry out. (No heating on yet, doors and windows all ajar). I can't see how painting wet plaster would give you anthing but trouble.
I'd love to know 'cos it would be handy if I could paint it now. At least the first coat.

lil-buttons

im tellin ya. i was on a job in santry and the plasterers finished and literall 48 hours later the boys were paintin it. At that point now I was only a junior and i did think it strange but the hand over was only a couple of day7s after that so mayb on urgence!! And it wouldn be d only time ive seen it done.

Aquos76

Jasus lads, a few days, are ye for real. We got an extension on our house last summer and we still gave it 4 to 6 weeks to fully dry out.That was the advice we got from our plasterer and also our painter agreed with him.

yop

I get you now, that is what they call mass produced piles of sh*te that once they have finished they don't give a to*s about.
Get it up as fast as they can, is it any wonder there are mad cracks in the walls and the paint is peeling! Typical builders attitude.
BTW - I am not aiming that at you!!!

I worked on an apartment block and the exact same thing happened, plastered today, dehumidifiers in tonite, painters with spray guns in tomorrow, it could not be the correct way to do things!

lil-buttons

yop wrote:

I get you now, that is what they call mass produced piles of sh*te that once they have finished they don't give a to*s about.
Get it up as fast as they can, is it any wonder there are mad cracks in the walls and the paint is peeling! Typical builders attitude.
BTW - I am not aiming that at you!!!

I worked on an apartment block and the exact same thing happened, plastered today, dehumidifiers in tonite, painters with spray guns in tomorrow, it could not be the correct way to do things!

Yeah i suppose ur right im still a baby in the trade. im jus back in colg finishin my degree. So none of that will be happening on my sites so when i get out !!!!

squire1

Seen that on a development near me a few years ago. Painters doing exterior walls of the houses at about 2am in the morning in freezing conditions. Not only was the nap plaster not dry, I'd say the mortar in the blocks was still wet too. You'd want to see the state of those houses now. All patchy colours and peeling paint jobs. I've never been inside the houses but I'd say there are serious settlement cracks. I felt sorry for the people who were going to buy them when I seen it happening.

yop

What are you at in college do you mind me asking, curious as to how it link to "one of that will be happening on my sites so when i get out !!!!"


I think that when the pressure is on and the money is ching chinging away in front of the builders they will take all and every shortcut, because 9 times out of 10 the buyers are oblivious to the faults/defect/shortcuts that are there.
No one to regulate the builders and personally I think 1/2 of the engineers must be getting back hands to stay stum.

I see my sisters new house and it is a disgrace, the money they paid and the quality of work don't match up. Take their sun room, it had to be taken up 3 times as it was not level any of the first three times!!

lil-buttons

yop wrote:

What are you at in college do you mind me asking, curious as to how it link to "one of that will be happening on my sites so when i get out !!!!"


I think that when the pressure is on and the money is ching chinging away in front of the builders they will take all and every shortcut, because 9 times out of 10 the buyers are oblivious to the faults/defect/shortcuts that are there.
No one to regulate the builders and personally I think 1/2 of the engineers must be getting back hands to stay stum.

I see my sisters new house and it is a disgrace, the money they paid and the quality of work don't match up. Take their sun room, it had to be taken up 3 times as it was not level any of the first three times!!

Well hun Im doing my degree in Building surveying im in my degree year (5th yr) cant wait to finish. But I luvd being on sites so mayb thinkin of goin in to project management and yes im a girl r woman more so!!!

yop

I knew alright you had the lady bits from before

Ya PM is where the money is, few mates doing it at the moment, feckers are we on their way!!! Very few ladies in the area though, fair play to you, all that wolf whistling and that!!

lil-buttons

No none of that really happen only at the start of the job sum blokes are to afraid incase i do them 4 sexual harrasment but sure Im not like that.

I luv d crack on site. Plus I run a tight ship awork hard and come friday at half 3 I go on the lock with the boys and let the hair down...

Plus doing my thesis on Quality control through design & construction and the effects it has on a buildings performance and life time seriosly!!!

What do you do?

fatboypee

I left my house without heating for about two and a half maybe three weeks.
it dried out well enough to paint it with one exception, the steel frames for corners / (exposed beams in my case) that they use to finish the corners etc tend to show the rust colour if damp even after dryin out if you paint them. I used PVA solution for those bits.....

I decided on no sealer on most of the walls and its fine (you may find the damp collects on the surface of the paint as mould though in v.cold weather, this washes off tho.

Its definitely a benefit to painting before the woodwork goes in, pain in the butt cutting in everywhere...

the house tho won't be fully dried out till you're in it (humans create moisture) and the heating's been on for a good while. Mine's still drying out in the coldest corners and we still have condensation on the windows inside 6 weeks after moving in...

FBP.

yop

lil-buttons wrote:

No none of that really happen only at the start of the job sum blokes are to afraid incase i do them 4 sexual harrasment but sure Im not like that.

I luv d crack on site. Plus I run a tight ship awork hard and come friday at half 3 I go on the lock with the boys and let the hair down...

Plus doing my thesis on Quality control through design & construction and the effects it has on a buildings performance and life time seriosly!!!

What do you do?

You will be grand.
Not in the building side of things, IT, sit on me ars* all day!

dools

Builderwoman,

Depending on conditions in the house,weather,etc will determine how long the plaster will take to dry out. We got a bedroom done 2 weeks ago and it took about 5 days to dry out - that was with the rads on in the house. You will know it's dry cos it's a light pink colour. Mix up a bucket of Polybond and apply with a paintbrush/roller to seal . This will take about a day or 2 to dry and then you can start your painting

HTH

D

Steve

Wouldn't recommend PVA - read this thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054885593

Seal the walls with 50/50 water/emulsion. This will still allow them to breath and form a sound base for the paint.

I'd leave 6wks for plastered walls, min 2wks for skimmed drywall.

fatboypee

stevec wrote:

Wouldn't recommend PVA - read this thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054885593

Seal the walls with 50/50 water/emulsion. This will still allow them to breath and form a sound base for the paint.

I'd leave 6wks for plastered walls, min 2wks for skimmed drywall.

I used PVA after the walls were dry to prevent the moisture in the emulsion reacting with the steel edgings (thus shining thru a beautiful rust colour), didnt use it on damp walls...

FBP.

yop

So thats the way to get rid of that yellow tinge! PVA! Must get some, is it too late when I already have already coats of paint on them?

squire1

So the recommendations at the moment seem to be.

1. Leave for six weeks after plastering or until plaster looks dry.
2. Use diluted PVA around plaster beading/edgeing to isolate paint from metal.
3. Use 50/50 water/paint mix as undercoat on all of wall.
4. Paint as normal.

Does that about sum it up?

fatboypee

yop wrote:

So thats the way to get rid of that yellow tinge! PVA! Must get some, is it too late when I already have already coats of paint on them?

You can still use PVA but will need to re-paint.

Works well I find, especially on Velux's as with the condensation, the ones I didnt have the PVA on kept getting damp and the rust came thru again :mad: ....

yop

fatboypee wrote:

You can still use PVA but will need to re-paint.

Works well I find, especially on Velux's as with the condensation, the ones I didnt have the PVA on kept getting damp and the rust came thru again :mad: ....

I wonder why they don't use plastic edging like they do outside?

Steve

There's a trick that floor installers use to see if a concrete floor is dry:
Get a pint glass or similar and some plastecene (sp?) or blu-tack and stick it on the floor making sure it's well sealed all round. Leave for a day or 2 and see if any condensation forms inside it. If it does, then it's not dry.

I don't know if this would work on walls but I don't see why not.

Alternatively borrow a moisture meter if you can.