# Painting new plaster



## richtrox (Mar 22, 2014)

Hi all. I'm new to the site. Just moved to Chesapeake VA, got papered up and started a painting business. I'm originally from Long Island, where any of the plaster walls on older houses have been repainted numerous times and all newer construction is drywall. Well down here there is brush textured plaster and knockdown plaster everywhere. My question is this:

When painting textured plaster that has never been painted before, does it require priming or will the good acrylic paints like BM Aura adhere to it well enough. If priming is needed, should it be primed with an oil base primer or can a water base latex like Kilz2 work. I know plaster is water based and worry about priming with a water base primer, and likewise worry about going straight to water based paint.

I did a knock down plaster kitchen recently that was supposed to be a repaint but found the surface to be very easy to chip. I laid on 2 coats of Aura but walked away worried over how well it would stick. I'm assuming that if given several days of cure time that the acrylic would adhere sufficiently and that the plaster underneath would also re-cure from it's exposure to water based paint. But I'm still not feeling comfortable and being that I'm just getting started down here, I don't want to get off on the wrong foot.

I spent 20 years learning to paint smooth perfect surfaces, so finding all this textured plaster down here has me a little out of my element. Thanks in advance for any information and insight offered.


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## Pete Martin the Painter (Nov 8, 2012)

I am not an expert on this because I have not not done much NC work and it has been a very long time since I did it. However, I recently did a repaint for a job that had new plaster (smooth) that was painted without primer the first time it was painted. The result was that the walls that were painted this way bubbled in many areas and it was a PITA to fix. I recall someone here claiming that Aura can be used on new plaster walls without primer. But, if was me I would always use primer.


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## journeymanPainter (Feb 26, 2014)

richtrox said:


> Hi all. I'm new to the site. Just moved to Chesapeake VA, got papered up and started a painting business. I'm originally from Long Island, where any of the plaster walls on older houses have been repainted numerous times and all newer construction is drywall. Well down here there is brush textured plaster and knockdown plaster everywhere. My question is this:
> 
> When painting textured plaster that has never been painted before, does it require priming or will the good acrylic paints like BM Aura adhere to it well enough. If priming is needed, should it be primed with an oil base primer or can a water base latex like Kilz2 work. I know plaster is water based and worry about priming with a water base primer, and likewise worry about going straight to water based paint.
> 
> ...


I would prime the walls with gripper, because it will help with the alkali resistance, then do your two tip coats (one if you can tint your primer and use a high quality paint). If your waiting for the paint to cure before you apply your second coat, or after your primer your gonna end up waiting a long time....like 30 days. That's how long it takes paint to cure

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk


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## richtrox (Mar 22, 2014)

Appreciate the input gentlemen. I'll look into gripper. Most of the plaster walls down here are brushed and those that have been painted already seem to hold it well. I do a little scratch testing before I begin, just to make sure I'm not going to cover crap. But that knock down plaster is a huge PITA. You have to prepare all the wall/ceiling junctions so that you have a straight line to cut onto. And the outside edges of walls where there will be two colors, like hallway entrances and whatnot, have to be sanded or shaped square, otherwise you get a ragged paint line that looks crappy.

I've talked to a few contractors down here and knockdown plaster is getting put up everywhere. People move out of a house, guys come in and blow this stuff all over the ceilings and walls, knock it down with a trowel and are out of there in a day. Cheaper than painting a whole house. You bump into it and it falls off the wall. I guess I'm going to have to learn to deal with it, otherwise I'll be passing on a whole lot of work lol.

Thanks again for the info. If anybody else has some info, it's much appreciated.


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## Smearologist (Apr 9, 2014)

Yeah,those types of finishes are pretty foreign to guys like us Rich.
You're going to have to learn adapt to that kind of stuff that isn't done in the tri-state area.
I've had customers in the city and on the island ask me to work in their out of state winter homes to level skim over those finishes.
They swear they can't find anyone that knows how to flat trowel a wall or ceiling because everything is sprayed on.
Weird.


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## painterdude (Jun 18, 2008)

*welcome*

Howdy from another guy originally from L.I. but left there over 40 years ago. Used to paint over a lot of plaster walls in Upstate NY(cortland) but most of them were old with several coats before I got to them. Are you sure the knockdown is plaster. Most of the many jobs I did when I moved to Florida in the 90's were knockdown, but they were just drywall compound liquified, sprayed and knocked down with a large trowel. Most of those wall were GWB that was primed with PVA primer, textured and painted with typical builder junk Good luck to ya


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

A good quality all purpose waterbased primer will work just fine.


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## kdpaint (Aug 14, 2010)

Like Painterdude said, I doubt that stuff is plaster. It's thinned mud thrown on the wall. I hate the way knockdown looks, but most people outside of the North East wouldn't know a smooth wall if it bit them. Gross stuff.


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## dexx (Jun 11, 2014)

Here in Western Australia, a gypsum skim coat over cement render is a common plaster finish in our houses. In the past we have used oil based plaster sealer/binders. However some of the new acrylic sealers are showing promise. Has anyone used Zinsser Bulls Eye 123 on this kind of surface?


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## Toolnut (Nov 23, 2012)

If this is N/C a good sprayer can become your best friend on knockdown and several other textures. Just a thought from the land of texture I haven't seen a smooth wall for many years.


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