We often get asked – “I’m painting new plaster and want to achieve the best professional finish. What’s the best paint to use for new plaster”?
A. Painting new plaster is a decorating dilemma that many homeowners face when a room has been re-plastered or a new internal wall built. It’s important to note that painting new plaster is different to painting an ordinary wall. It requires a lot more preparation – and patience! There are extra steps you need to take, including the application of a mist coat paint, before you can add a top coat of your chosen colour. The good news, you’ll find everything you need to know below.
How to paint new plaster? – 4 key steps to follow
1. Leave the plaster to dry
First things first, let your plaster dry properly! Plaster is extremely permeable, which means it’ll soak up any moisture quick. That’s why, allowing it to dry out will help you achieve a more even finish. There are different factors that influence how soon can you paint on new plaster, such as the type of material and weather. As a rule of thumb, plaster takes up to 4 weeks to dry completely. You can speed things up with a heater or by opening a window.
Top tip: If you don’t let the plaster dry and apply emulsion paint to wet plaster, it’s likely to crack and peel off.
How to tile a bathroom wall
- The first and most crucial step in tiling a bathroom wall is preparation. Work out how many tiles you need to buy to cover your wall space and add 10 per cent to that, to allow for any breakages and spares, should you need them in future. Try to buy tiles from the same batch to achieve colour matching – you can find the batch number on the packaging.
- Prepare your walls for tiling, making sure they are sanded, flat and clean. You might have to score the plaster with a notch trowel to help the adhesive stick.
- If using tiles made from porous material, they may need to be sealed before tiling begins.
- To achieve a symmetrical design, a self levelling laser level should be used for accuracy
- Measure the width of the wall and use a pencil and spirit level to draw a vertical line at the midway point. Do the same for the height of the wall. You should now have horizontal and vertical lines that intersect in the middle.
- Its always a good idea to dry fit tiles both vertically and horizontally. Make sure the first and last tiles at the top, bottom, left and right are all the same size.
- Place your first tile – with spacers – at the bottom and mark where it needs to be cut to fit into the space allowed, then cut the tile to size.
