How difficult to paint a ceiling?

[Mottie]

My mate who plastered the ceiling said to give it a very light sanding before applying the sealing coat. He was laughing at one of our other mates, a decorator, who cursed him after he had plastered his walls for him and gave them a 'really hard trowelling'. He said they were as smooth as glass and were a bugger to paint. Anyway, I gave my ceiling a second coat around 4.00 and I’m off to the allotment now. When I come back I’ll give it a final coat.

 

[Mottie]

Anyway, I gave my ceiling a second coat around 4.00 and I’m off to the allotment now. When I come back I’ll give it a final coat.

Was going to finish it tonight but got too involved at the allotment.

 

[opps]

Okay, maybe 50/50 will be too weak. Dulux say 25/75 for bare plaster. I’m sure I’ve done 50/50 in the past though.

The Dulux retail emulsion recommends 1 part water to 10 parts paint- that is 9% water by volume. The trade version is thicker so yeah, 25/75 will be fine.

One of my (many) pet hates is decorators who use the likes of SuperMatt as the base coat. Supermatt, like most low latex paints are designed for plaster than is still slightly damp. It allows the moisture to escape as the plaster cures. To be fair, it covers new plaster pretty well and is very forgiving with regards to inconsistent sheen levels. Unfortunately, it doesn't always deal with suction levels when, later, applying regular emulsion over it. In those cases, when using regular Dulux trade matt, I treat the first coat as a pseudo mist coat.