DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

I need some advice about what's best for painting new plaster walls in my bathroom.I've read one of the reponses to another question along these lines but I'm not sure what a 'mist' coat is.
I 've already painted some emulsion on one of the the walls but noticed that there were cracks in some parts so have scrapped it all off again. I'm not sure if the plasterer finished off the wall with Uni-Bond which may have caused some of the cracking problems. The finish of the plaster is fairly smooth ,there are no cracks in the plaster itself.
Is the best approach to prep the wall by sanding it down and then painting the first coat as a thin emulsion and building up the layers from that?

Hi Gillian, a mist coat is just a watered down coat of emulsion. If the walls are just new plaster then I would sand them lightly just in case there are any little bumps on them, then give it a very thin coat of emulsion just a bit of white emulsion will do with a fair bit of water in with it. Then as it's a bathroom I would give it 2 coats of bathroom emulsion. Bathroom emulsion is better to use as it will not go mouldy as normal ones can in a room where it gets quite wet. Good luck.

Thanks for this advice the Shedman, will try this approach.Cheers

[quote="theshedman"]Hi Gillian, a mist coat is just a watered down coat of emulsion. If the walls are just new plaster then I would sand them lightly just in case there are any little bumps on them, then give it a very thin coat of emulsion just a bit of white emulsion will do with a fair bit of water in with it. Then as it's a bathroom I would give it 2 coats of bathroom emulsion. Bathroom emulsion is better to use as it will not go mouldy as normal ones can in a room where it gets quite wet. Good luck.[/quote]

I have a similar question on forum but I have read various places you must not sand plaster unnecesarily - wish I could afford to employe a professional to take care of this for me