Whitewashing... arrrrrr

[vkurup]

I am not much of a painter, but had gotten around to doing it in the prev house. Now I know what i hate more than painting the walls.. it trying to whitewash them. House undergoing a refurb and a few walls being re-plastered. Like all good building projects, its all over budget, so decided to whitewash it myself rather than support the polish economy.

With the painted all mixed with water, it just keeping running down my arms as i plaster the ceiling. Cant use a roller as it splatters everywhere. Went an bought a paint spray gun - worst mistake. have to use a brush and it can be very tiring.. HATE IT.


on another note... what is the latest style trends on covings (thought i would never ask the question). Our plasterer hates it and says it gone out of style like lovely artex ceilings. We have taken most of ours out as they were lovely polystyrene - but I am wondering if we should get new ones or go without..

 

[Rooter]

whitewashing fresh plaster is one of those jobs you have to accept that you are going to get messy.

Personally, i like coving, it softens the room slightly. We have plasterboard ones rather than the poly ones, look great IMHO.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

If its fresh plaster, you are only putting on a mist coat (runny emulsion) before a couple of coats of top.
use a roller and slow down, dont push too hard and its an easy job, yes you need to cover the floor with dust sheets,

coving is so 1980's, just ripped ours out, having said that it will come back into fashion in 2023, so hold fire on that

 

[Crazyface]

whitewashing fresh plaster is one of those jobs you have to accept that you are going to get messy.

Personally, i like coving, it softens the room slightly. We have plasterboard ones rather than the poly ones, look great IMHO.

do you really need to whitewash fresh plaster? I've never done it. Never had a problem. Just paint over the top once it's dry.

 

[Rooter]

do you really need to whitewash fresh plaster? I've never done it. Never had a problem. Just paint over the top once it's dry.

my good mate who is a plasterer told me to do it, so i did it guessing he knew a hell of a lot more than me.

 

[Crazyface]

my good mate who is a plasterer told me to do it, so i did it guessing he knew a hell of a lot more than me.

Ahh he's trade. He's passing down the knowledge from years ago. Maybe not needed now. I've plastered a few big holes in my time, as plaster just fell off the walls as I did jobs and have never EVER whitewashed them before painting. Just saying that's all.

 

[Rooter]

Ahh he's trade. He's passing down the knowledge from years ago. Maybe not needed now. I've plastered a few big holes in my time, as plaster just fell off the walls as I did jobs and have never EVER whitewashed them before painting. Just saying that's all.

Fair enough, probably OK on a small repair, but a whole wall i would personally do it. I believe its something to do with normal emulsion being too thick and drying before the fresh plaster gets a chance to absorb some thus creating a sealed base for your finished colour. Hence why its watered down.

Did a quick google: Below taken from here: http://www.plasterersnews.com/painting-new-plaster/

The mist coat is normally using the cheapest white or magnolia emulsion paint you can find, and then you water it down a bit. This miss coat then gets rolled onto the wall like you would be painting anything else. Make sure that you roll out any lines and what not as the dry plaster will pull the moisture out of the paint and will dry very quickly, and any lines left in the paint will need sanding.

The mist coat being diluted paint gets drawn into the wall and in essence, seals the wall. If you use undiluted paint, the moisture would get drawn out quickly, and the paint would sit on top of the plaster rather than become part of the plaster, if that makes sense. You may have seen in the past paint just pealing off walls in big sheets, and it looks like fresh plaster underneath and nine times out of ten this is because the plaster was painted without a mist coat.

I never recommend using any one coat paints as I find the extra coats of paint on a wall or ceiling the better it tends to look. All these one coat products never, in my opinion, get the high-quality finish I am after and in the end if you are spending all that money getting things plastered you may as well go that extra mile and finish them to a high standard.

 

[SocketRocket]

Any non vinyl emulsion, preferably white will be OK for a 'mist coat' . it just needs a light covering so the plaster can absorb it.

 

[vkurup]

yes... it is a a mist coat.. and most of the mist settled on me!!!! it is very anal.

 

[gregers]

just buy wickes own emulsion,wont need any waterering down as its crud anyways.

 

[vkurup]

just buy wickes own emulsion,wont need any waterering down as its crud anyways.

If it was any more watery, then I did run the risk of having to take water out of it.

I got the wicks stuff and put some water into it at 50:50... and it turned so runny that I had to keep adding the emulsion back in!!.. I think my combination is 95%:5% of Wicks emulsion to Water.