painting interior of new house

madforyou

Hello
We are building a new house at the moment and is ready for painting inside at the moment. we were going to get a painter to do it but money is getting tight with pay cuts in our jobs and we are thinking of doing the job ourselves.

We have painted some rooms in our previous house before with no problems.

We are getting conflicting advice from using PVA in the first coat and others say to not use it. Other say to dilute the first coat of emulsion with water.

We are a bit confused. What would be the correct procedure in painting new walls that are plastered for about 5 months. We may consider spraying.

Thanks for any advice.

Klim

Jesus no, whatever you do DON'T coat them with Unibond. That's a sealant, ie, your paint will never grip to it. I'm a painter by trade. My advice, make sure the walls are completely dried out. This varies house to house, five months sounds about right, providing the heating has been on for a while. If you get it sprayed, that needs to be done ideally before any kitchens,fittings etc go in, as it's very messy, but quicker. Though there's always a lot of touch up etc after all the fittings go in.

If you just paint, I'd always advise thinning the 1st coat on any new plaster with around 1/5th water, the additional coats don't need thinning then.

I finish all ceilings before starting any walls, but thats mainly subjective, it's not vitally important.

DD67

As above, but i always scrape and sand down newly plastered walls and first coat tin it down and i usually use a cheaper paint usually a white paint and then my color coats.

On your wood work if you have fitted white deal and your glossing it white make sure you put knotting on the knots in the wood, in my own house the painters never knotted the wood and the sap in the knots has come thru and discolored the white gloss.

madforyou

Hello
Thanks Klim and DD67 for your advice. We have decided now to go for it and tackle the job ourselves. Sure, if we mess up its our own house.

irelandspurs

DD67 wrote: »

As above, but i always scrape and sand down newly plastered walls and first coat tin it down and i usually use a cheaper paint usually a white paint and then my color coats.

On your wood work if you have fitted white deal and your glossing it white make sure you put knotting on the knots in the wood, in my own house the painters never knotted the wood and the sap in the knots has come thru and discolored the white gloss.

What ever you do don't scape or sand bare plaster as this leaves sand marks or scapes,you need to seal the wall first with thin coat of emulsion.

eamon234

Make sure you wipe the walls down with a damp cloth first - depending on how good your plasterer was there is often a light scum left over from plastering - if you don't get rid of this the paint won't adhere on this properly - trust me it's from experience :mad: