painting directly on finishing plaster?

[steve]

Hi,

I'm going to re-skim one of my bathroom walls. I got some Artex-Rawlplug Finishing Coat plaster from homebase and I've plastered a small patch. It looks OK, but it is quite dry and although quite hard, is very very slightly sandy. Is this how things should be? I was hoping to paint directly on top of the finishing plaster - is it OK to do this, or is the dryness of the plaster going to cause problems for the paint? And finally, have I used the correct plaster? I was in B&Q the other day and saw that in addition to the Artex-Rawlplug Finishing Coat plaster, they've also got Artex-Rawlplug Gypsum Multi-Finish plaster, though I'm, not too sure what the difference is.

Thanks for any tips, and apologies for my barrage of questions!

Steve

[Steve Walker]

Either use two coats of diluted, watery emulsion (25 water/75 paint), or else two coats of very diluted, watery PVA (80 water/20 PVA). Either will penetrate the surface, bind it neatly and give you a good base for decorative paints.

[RedOnRed]

Not sure about the plaster but you can either dilute the first coat of emulsion by about 10% or go down to your local decorators merchant and buy some specialist emulsion made for bare plaster.

[marvelus]

Yes, if you rub up against unpainted plaster you get dust on your clothes. You have to paint it to stop the dust. Just use emulsion and follow the instructions for new plaster.

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