water damaged plaster ceiling

[curium]

My plasterboard kitchen ceiling was damaged by an ongoing bathroom leak. It was artex so when I had it repaired I had a plasterer skim the lot to a smooth finish.

Unfortunately while DIY-ing the upstairs bathroom I had a small leak which again resulted in water damage to the downstairs kitchen ceiling.

It's all in one piece, no mould and the plaster is still firm. I've left it since beginning of March but the centre of the damage still has a damp feel to it.

I was sanding off the paint in preparation to repaint, obviously that can't be done until it's absolutely dry.

Two questions.

Is there anything I can do to speed the drying without damaging the plaster?

What's the best way to paint it once it's ready to paint? I was thinking a mist coat and then 2 top coats. Should I use stain block/anti damp paint?

Here's a photo.

Untitled

• curium
• 30 Apr 2009
• 1

Cheers!

 

[trowelmonkey1]

looks sound enough from the pic, hasn't really had enough time to dry fully really by the sound of it, the plasterboard will have soaked a LOAD of water up as well as the plaster and they both need to dry fully, i wouldn't try to speed it up either, asking for trouble, just forget about it for a while and let it do it's thing.

once fully dry make sure it hasn't blown, may need to consider knocking it off and 'making good'

as far as painting, i wouldn't worry about a mist coat on that small patch, the idea of a mist coat is to either show up imperfections so that you can fill them before painting properly and to reduce the amount of paint you need by sealing the plaster, stain block would be a good idea first then just keep painting until it needs no more, 3 coats should do it.

 

[roughcaster]

If you carried out that small plaster repair to the kitchen ceiling at the beginning of March, and now,, "7 or 8 weeks on",, it's "still" not dried out, (feels damp), it sounds as if there might still be the "very slightest" of a leak up above. Plaster shouldn't take that long to dry out, especially such a small patch, and in a warm kitchen too.. I'd check out upstairs again, just to make sure.
When it has dried out though, an oil based undercoat (the smelly type) will seal in any water stain,,,, guaranteed.

Roughcaster.