Painting over (dry) plaster after damp proofing

[zappagreen]

About 4 months ago we had the chemical damp proofing re-done on our house to prevent rising damp. This involved removing a lot of plaster (back to the brickwork up to 1.5m off the floor), re-plastering, and a final skim up to a picture rail to avoid any obvious join.

We're fairly certain that it is very dry now, so we're now looking to decorate. I've read lots of advice on people wanting to paint fresh plaster, however I consider ours quite dry now so the situation is slightly different. However I'm also concerned that the paint in old houses (ours is ~1900) needs to be breathable to help prevent any future problems. But then people also talk about doing a mist-coat to help "seal" the plaster, which sounds like the opposite.

Does anyone know if standard Homebase Emulsion (or Dulux) is suitable for such a situation? I know you have to avoid Vinyl-based paints to avoid sealing things in, but I have no idea what most emulsions are like in this respect..

Many thanks!

 

[Matthew89]

Hi, New plaster always needs a mist cost before painting. And you shouldn't paint plaster until it is completely dry anyway. The reason for the mist coat is that the plaster sucks the moisture from the paint. If you just paint it, it will likely flake of as it won't adhere to the plaster.
You can mist coat with any light matt emulsion. The best being white as its usually the cheapest. I tend to use wickes trade white emulsion and never had any issues. Opinions differ greatly on the ratio of emulsion / water to use for a mist coat but I generally use around 60% Emulsion 40% water and make sure that its mixed well together. Also ensure anything you don't want to get splattered with paint is suitably covered as this is thinner it will drip and flick of the roller a lot more.

Hope this helps.

Regards Matthew