When painting new, finished plaster is it necessary to apply undercoat/sealer or can I just slightly thin the first of the two planned top coats? Opinion seems divided when I've asked in local DIYs. Any thoughts?
You can use thinned matt emulsion for the first coat instead of the special plaster sealing paints. Don't try doing it with other types of top coat though, nor with PVA.
Get some of that magic paint they use on the TV make over shows - you can paint over plaster 5 mins after it's applied :-)
Look, you really must learn to separate your two careers.
Some poor child at his 5th birthday party expecting a lucky dip is not really looking to have to reach inside your concrete mixer and fumble in the ballast.
OTOH, those special saws that can cut through a pretty girl in 3 seconds flat should be good on the job site.
I though a mix of 5 parts water to 1 part pva will seal and prime the wall - not 100% sure though so google pva primer. If you dont seal/ prime it then the paint is absorbed at different rates and you end up with a "patchy" wall
Hope this helps
This advice apparently came from one of those makeover programmes. However, some types of paint will not stick to PVA, and as a result of this advice becoming widespread and the ensuing disasters, some paint manufactures have actually started putting warnings on their tins against doing this.
You can buy plaster sealer/primer if you really want to. Most people use diluted matt emulsion which they are likely to have around anyway, and that works very well. The more polished the plaster finish, the more you need to dilute it, but there is normally guidance on the tin, typically 10% - 30% water added.
If you are having to paint plaster which has not thoroughly dried out, then you are restricted to some special paints for this purpose (and I think they're all matt emulsion finishes as they need to allow the wall to breath through the paint). Where possible, allow the plaster to dry out thoroughly first.
New plaster takes a fair while to fully dry out, so you dont want to seal it.
New plaster needs porous paint, not emulsion. No diffferent undercoat is used, either the first coat is diluted 50/50 with water or you cna put on a coat of water then fullmstrength paint.
All is explained here:
You are confusing me with a childrens entertainer - I'm a magician. I don't do kid's parties.
There is a version that uses a jigsaw actually - alas not a Makita!
Do you need to di this if it's been "drying" for a couple of months?
I tried a small area and it seemed ok with the paint straight, not diluted.
Mark S.
Well I *am* 100% sure - don't do it!! If you use PVA you end up sealing the surface and forming a relatively non-stick layer to which the paint won't adhere, and it will peel off. (Been there, done that). Dilute emulsion is the way to go.
David
Ah I see. What is the typical audience?
She must be very thin....
Varies a lot, but adults mainly, sometimes mixed with a few kids. For many years I've worked in TGI Fridays - Haymarket, Bluewater, Croydon, Lakeside, Basildon etc, also Frankie & Bennys, Exchange Diner. Family audiences.
There are kids in these restaurants, but strong close up magic defies age & because they are a family group the kids feel 'part of the grown ups' so you don't have any trouble.
Restaurant magic doesn't pay well by magicians standards, under £40 per hour. It does give you the oppourtunity to learn your craft however - and pick up more lucrative gigs.
Less regular but much more lucrative; weddings, round table dinners, golf club dinners, private parties, showroom openings, corporate 'open days', corporate staff parties, xmas do's etc. Last gig I did was the opening of a new Triumph motorcycle showroom.
It has a 12" long, very wide blade - very visual, but not really useable.
Many thanks to you all. Think I'll look at water only or 50-50 when I get to it. It's a new build and plaster will have been up 3 or 4 months by the time I start work.
Thanks again - great group
This is nothing to do with drying, it's to end up with the solid matter penetrating the plaster surface so that it's well stuck. Without taking measures to ensure this first coat penetrates into the plaster surface, it won't stick very well. In bad cases, it comes off when you apply the next coat, in less bad cases it's simply prone to comming off with any sticky tape, bluetac, abrasion, etc.
The thinning of it helps to ensure the emulsion is carried into the plaster surface together with the moisture which the plaster will draw in from the paint, so that when it dries it grips the plaster well. Without doing this, the emulsion concentration is high enough that it mainly just sits as a gel on the surface, and when dried, it doesn't have such a good anchor to the surface.
after that time emulsion's ok
NT
What's to do then, if you think that some 'helpful' person has done just that?
The emulsion paint in my relatively new bathroom peels off the surface with masking tape, Blu-Tack, wet towles, negative thoughts, etc. and I suspect that it was sealed with PVA after plastering.
I can't see why pva should cause peeling. The paint is probably pva based anyway and two films of pva bind to each other pretty well, or how could subsequent coats be appled? What I have experienced where the seal was overdone is patchiness and roller marks, particularly with stronger colours. The only peeling problems I've had were with Dulux emulsion, which was so thick you might might mistake it for filler. The new plaster sucked out what little liquid it contained, leaving a chalky deposit hanging on the ceiling. Used another brand and it was fine. In the case of white, I'd rather get a tub of own brand cheap which doesn't need thinning
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