dave_wong

Hi all,

We are in the mist of building a house. We understand from our builder that we will have to paint the walls to our house. He recommend that we wait at least 3 months after moving into the house before starting the paint job. This is to allow the plaster to settle. I think it is very ridiculous!! How to paint the house with the carpet fixed up and our stuff all in the house!!! I am planning to do it 2 weeks after the builder plaster the house. However, I understand that I will need to get the keys from the supervisor in order to paint it during the weekends. I will keep the paints and repaint them, if necessary, if there are hair line cracks after I move in.

I have some questions....

1. For those who build the house ground up... Did you guys paint the house during construction? Or did you paint it after moving in??? Is there any problems if you paint it shortly after they plaster the house?

2. How long did you guys take to paint the walls?? I hope to finish painting before the carpet and tile guys come in to do the floor.

3. Is it possible to obtain a set of keys from the site supervisor???

Thank you.... Dave.

Dorothy

You probably will not get keys until the handover stage. Technically, the house belongs to the builder until handover, so it's unlikely they will let you in to paint. OH&S prevents you from doing any of the work yourself.

I would listen to them about the painting. Your plaster needs time to dry before you paint. It's usually recommended that you wait at least a few months then prime with an oil based primer to seal the plaster before painting otherwise it will peel. Especially if you paint plaster that hasn't had time to dry completely.

You can certainly speak to your site supervisor, but it was made very clear to us that we are not allowed to do any work on the house we're building until after final handover.

dave_wong

Hi Dorothy,

Thank you for the reply. Please share with me on how did you manage painting the house with the carpet and other stuff in the house once you move in. Will it make a mess when the paint droplets land on your carpet or furniture?? I understand that you probably lay a piece of plastic sheet or newspaper on the floor before doing the job. Would it not be a problem moving things around the house???

tawkins1

Just move everything into the centre of the room till your finished. Its what we do everytime we freshen up the paintwork!

Kalenge

Wow ... waiting 3 months to paint your house after plastering does seem like an excessively long time.

Back in the UK I remember only having to wait about 2 weeks before we could paint. And I understand that it requires less time in summer than winter.

I'm sure there must be some expert plasterers/decorators on here who will be able to tell you if 3 months is correct.

Dorothy

We will be hiring a professional painter to do our house once it's finished. Our next door neighbour here in our rental owns a painting and decorating company and we will be using his services. Like Tawkins, though, when we want to paint we simply move everything to either the centre of the room or to another room. Drop sheets are essential and I'm a little bit of a fuss pot, so make sure everything stays neat while I'm working.

Safin

Does that seriously mean every new house has bear plaster walls? How come packages state choice of wall colour? Do they make you wait 3 months before they paint and you move in?

moneypenny20

Three months sounds excessive but you definitely have to wait a few weeks. Are you having to do everything or will they be priming? Either way, you paint the walls the same way you would if you were redecorating - putting dust sheets down and moving furniture and being careful to cut in properly prior to the main painting.

Dorothy

Yes, the walls are plaster. I'm not sure if they're bare or have some sort of finish coat, but ours in the rental had to be primed with oil based primer before we could paint.

dippydolly

it does seem a long time. on my house here in the UK, I was toldto wait 6 months to wall paper ( not that many paper these days) but the building company painted my house - every wall once it was dry, they left it to dry as they still had other work to do such as fittig the kitchen and so on. 1 wall was not totally dry however and as the wall was trying to dry the paint literally ran down the walls, this meant it had to be sanded down once dry ad repainted.

You can get plaster that is coloured these days so I am told - like magnolia etc, maybe thats the finish they are talking of in the new builds?

bridie

We painted ours as soon as we got the keys (in fact OH started the sealant that very night!). Never had a problem with peeling paint.

One thing though, you may have to touch up after the carpet fitters have been in - we had one guy turn up for our whole house and he made a right mess with his scraper thing

sj oldfield

My Oh is a painter and decorator here in Perth......send me a pm and he will knock out your painting in no time!!!

Dorothy

We may look at giving him a call when our house is finished next year. Our neighbour is a painter but we have 2 houses to paint (rental and new house).

FiP

We found that by the time the house was plastered and ready for handover it was around 3 months later and we painted straight away with an oil based sealer and had no problems.

sj oldfield

He's one of the best around, even though he is a grumpy ole git!!! Been painting for 30 years!!