Pro painting or plasterer advise please

[Topogigio]

Hello good ACE people,

I need help / ideas in finishing my garage/ fish room.

Background to this mess:

I got a tradie to clad villaboard (water-resistant cement sheeting) over the existing plasterboard on my single car garage.

I also got the same guy to do the plastering.

He asked me if I was happy with his workmanship and I said yes (obviously not knowing the difference between good, bad or indifferent quality finish)

The villaboard was fixed to the walls & ceiling via a nail gun, so a LOT of nail heads are almost visible when I sanded the plaster back.

The plaster used was plasterboad/gyprock plaster as far as I know.

This was all done about 9 months ago...

Current problem requiring ideas/fixing:

On my usual slow pace, and in between getting my house re-stumped, I have since sanded the plaster and painted the whole garage using oil-based paint (1x undercoat, 2x topcoats)

Now, to my annoyance, I find myself with what I now know is a terrible plastering job requiring some experienced advise on my next move.

And to pre-empt some suggestions, I don't want to go back to the guy that did the job originally as I have no reasons to believe he can do the job right second time around when he couldn't do it right first time, not to mention the time lapsed ~ 9 months.

I am weighing up the options of:

- sanding the bad plaster (basically the whole garage) and re-plastering/painting the relevant patches,

or

-painting over the existing oil-based paint with some sort of textured paint or even rendering (will need to be resistant to extreme humidity like oil-based paint)

or

- your suggestions?

Anyone gone through something like this and found a solution, as I'm dying to order my tanks.

[Topogigio]

And because pics are worth a thousand words:

[Buccal]

Hi, I'm a carpenter in the new home building industry.

If you prod those flush joints with your fingers and the flushing tape under the flushing compound is popping up and down meaning there are air pockets inside,,, then the joints need to be re-done.

The tradie may not be a fault,,,,, because if the job was done some time ago and you have left the raw product unpainted,,, then any form of moisture and humidity will penetrate and cause these issues.

It needs to be painted and sealed soon after.

As a suggestive product to paint over once fixed is AcraTex by Dulux,,, this is used as a thin render either troweled on or paint rolled (loop roller) on.

This product is external and is a rubberized flexible compound.

Second story renders inclined to crack is when Acra is used as well as any standard application.

Builders sometimes have very bad render jobs loop rolled with Acra to make surface consistent.

Loop rolling produces a heavy orange peel like surface,,,, which is seen often on/in commercial shopping centers.

Back to your room,,,, if your not after a complete plush look,,, then you can screw a thin fillet of timber or fibro over the joins then mirror image it on other side of room to make it look balanced and deliberate,,,,, but you may not want that.

[Topogigio]

Hello,

now that you mention it, some (not all) the flush joints do have what appears to be lots of air bubbles.

as far as i can tell the flash joints are as solid as plaster can get, plus with the paint over it, its pretty 'solid'.

I sanded the newly laid plaster about a week after completion, and painted about 2-3 months after that....

so in your opinion, only re-plastering will fix this??? yikes! that doesnt sound fun (i can still remember all the sand everywhere, it wasnt pretty)

As a suggestive product to paint over once fixed is AcraTex by Dulux,,, this is used as a thin render either troweled on or paint rolled (loop roller) on.

in your opinion do i still need to pull the existing bad plaster & re-plaster again before applying AcraTex? or can i use it straight ontop of the bad plaster/ oil-based paint?... just realised these are questions best answered by a painter... will have to drop by one of those Dulux paint specialist centers

if your not after a complete plush look,,, then you can screw a thin fillet of timber or fibro over the joins then mirror image it on other side of room to make it look balanced and deliberate,,,,, but you may not want that.

someone did mention that to me, but i didnt know how to articulate it / describe it.... seems like the easiest idea, but visualising the end result & getting the partner's approval is a different story.

mmmm

[Mbuna]

As mentioned, some of those joins look like they need re taping and to be re plastered. Also gloss enamels will always make a plastered wall look average at best. Better off using a good quality acrylic low sheen like taubmans "endure' which has anti mould added. Also make sure you prime the gloss surface with a good undercoat before using another product to give adhesion. Acratex is a good product for hiding imperfections but would advise against it in the fish room as it's hard to clean and promote mould growth in a humid environment.

Hope this helps

cheers

[John McCormick]

I can say without fear of contradiction that putting Acra Tex or any other textured coating for that matter, over the top of those bad joins is not going to improve it, the joins are that bad that no amount of texture will hide it. Of course if you intend putting lots of tanks in front of the wall, thus hiding it, is it worth worrying about it too much?

It would be pretty safe to safe also that the person that did the job was not a plasterer but I guess you have figured that one out for yourself.

So assuming you do want it to look good...........

I am a painter by trade and in my opinion if you want it to look anywhere near good, those bad joins will have to be redone.

As for the high gloss surface it is unlikely that you will get anything to stick to it without first sanding the complete surface, I don't mean sanding it back to bare plaster of course but you will need to lightly sand every square millimetre so that any subsequent coats of whatever you decide to put on will stick to it.

There are products on the market that will de-gloss the surface by painting it on, you will need to read the instructions as I have never actually used them myself.

I am with Mbuna on this, a good quality acrylic would have been the way to go.

At this stage, prepare as above and maybe purchase one of the acrylic sealer/primer/undercoats apply one coat, then apply two top coats of a good quality semi gloss acrylic that has an anti mould additive.

Unfortunately there is probably more work ahead of you now than there was in the first place.

I wish you luck whichever way you decide to go.

If you can live with the looks, just go buy the tanks and get it going.

Cheers,

John.

[Topogigio]

thanks guys, i'm afraid the answers suggested is not what i was hoping to hear...

tanks will cover one whole wall, but i am also thinking of the future re-sale value.

will have to get a plasterer in and see what can be done / salvaged...

[Buccal]

Yep Topo, that would likely be the reality of your situation.

I don't think anyone would of thought Acra would hide those excessive delemers as I didn't recommend it for that purpose,,,, hence a separate paragraph suggesting a paint product.

If there were a lot of minor defects all over, then Acra will hide it for sure.

It's a good idea to use mould resistant paint,,,, but trust me, in extreme situations it doesn't do as good as one would think.

What really works wonders is quite simple apart from using de-humidifiers that cost and use excessive power.

Is to really focus on and engineer your tank lids to fit firm and tight with least if not, no gaps for evaporation to escape.

A very small vent half way up the wall with a everyday low wattage fan running that keeps the room at a slightly higher pressure than outside,,,, which forces out air through vent continuously in very small amounts without compromising heat loss through colder months.

One step better, as in my breed room,, a reverse cycle air con,,, it can be programmed to select dry mode which sucks out humid air.

A good system on auto mode will naturally do you justice.

Seriously considering these factors reduce the problems mentioned earlier of paint to a point of no issues wether done one way or another.

[Topogigio]

the reason i chose oil-based paint over water-based bathroom paint was because of 'keyword warrior research' - after several weeks of internet reading I concluded for my purposes & in the long-run, oil-based paint will give me a better protection & it would be easier to clean, inspite of the fact it was a nightmare to apply - 24 hour intervals, stunk like hell, will show imperfections due to gloss...

I have also personally seen at my LFS I moonlight at, anti-mould, water-based 'enamel' paint not really stand up to the extremes of high humidity.

Rightly or wrongly, at this stage i have no plans of re-painting the whole garage (as the painting as far as i can tell is sound) but only the parts where i have to re-plaster. Does this sound stupid? or am i just dreaming and the whole garage needs to be done?

I was also looking at the plaster imperfections closely today again, and those thin timber fillets are also looking quiet tempting - i tried googling thin fillet decorated rooms but i came up with nothing... i was even thinking these fillets could be painted with fish-themed pics???? or maybe not.

Just as soon as this whole plaster fiasco is finished, I WILL BE in installing a small split system for heating the room (if i can save hard enough, it will be a small daikin ururu sarara as it has a ventilation feature)

i have no plans of using a dehumidifyer as they chew too much electricity, and are apparently noisy.

Conan why do you have to live so bloody far!!!

[Buccal]

Rightly or wrongly, at this stage i have no plans of re-painting the whole garage (as the painting as far as i can tell is sound) but only the parts where i have to re-plaster. Does this sound stupid? or am i just dreaming and the whole garage needs to be done?

I was also looking at the plaster imperfections closely today again, and those thin timber fillets are also looking quiet tempting - i tried googling thin fillet decorated rooms but i came up with nothing... i was even thinking these fillets could be painted with fish-themed pics???? or maybe not.

A re-plaster wil result in the lot needing to be done.

For your fillets, you can can use fiber cement sheeting from bunnings.

It comes in sheets sizes but for a small fee bunnings will cut these into your required size strips.

The sheeting comes in a standard of 6mm most common,,, 4mm fine to but will break easier when handling.

80mm wide strips I'd say by the pics.

Timber deck screws would be perfect with small counter sink heads with a small square key bit for the cordless to drive them in.

White sikaflex silicone (paintable) best though not needed if all is white color,,,,,, to caulk into strip to gyprock transition which will marry it right in for a plush look.

Get sandpaper to sand the two top corners of your fibro strips.

All these materials mentioned are water proof even with out painting/sealing.

[Topogigio]

Thanks man... I had since had a plasterer come in & quote me on re-plastering... This is so annoying, as I hate painting

[fortunerestore]

Re-plastering is a tough job but a necessary one. I am really very happy to find this post.

This has helped me solve most of my problems regarding plastering. I would like to thank you all for providing such descriptive and useful information. I got to know about many new products and their usage.

[Topogigio]

Ok. So this is where I am at:

Had 3 guys come around and I have been given the following options:

Option 1:

- pull everything down, gut the entire garage and start again!

Option 2:

- pull existing flush joints off & re-do again (where wall meets the ceiling)

- Existing butt joints to be paper-taped & plastered over a wider area to feather out the 'peaking' joins (this will be straight over the oil paint / bad plaster)

- use screws to fix existing villaboard to the thin metal roof battens (previous tradie only nailed villaboard to plasterboard, and i now doubt he even glued the villaboard at all)

As you can see, I am leaning towards option 2 because of cost... The only fear I have is whether new plaster over existing oil paint & plaster will adhere properly??? Can someone help please.