Bathroom painting help - bare plaster and wallpaper glue

[sarah759]

Hello!

I have never painted a room on my own before in my life, this is my first house so bear with me please…we are in the middle of a bathroom refurb and I have some questions…

1. We have an area of bare plaster (skim coated) above some new bathroom tiles (above the shower/bath), pic attached. We maybe should have painted first but what’s done is done, the fitting was all a bit rushed, we’ll be careful not to get paint everywhere. The plaster is mostly on the wall but we are going to have to go over the ceiling as well as it got on the ceiling too. I understand I should do one or two mist coats of paint first. What type of paint should I use for the mist coats - white emulsion? matt or soft sheen?
2. The opposite wall had wallpaper on it (over a painted wall) that I have removed (most of it just peeled off, a few bits I had to wet and scrape off but overall it came off really easily. But the wall still has a bit of a shine in places, pics attached. I understand I should give it a wash with some soapy water and a scrape/rinse. Do I then need to do an undercoat it to seal any remaining glue? If so what type of paint? There are also some chips in paint I was going to polyfilla.
3. The colour we have chosen for the walls is a Dulux colour and as it is a bathroom we are going with soft sheen over matt? Is that right?
4. What type of paint do I need for the ceiling? Should that also be soft sheen? What we have at the moment on the ceiling looks pretty matt to me but I want to use whatever is recommended.
5. On the rest of the walls that are just painted, I assume I can just paint over with the colour we want, no prep needed.

When referring to types of paint, please imagine you are speaking to a 2 yr old as I don’t fully understand the difference between emulsion/vinyl/matt/satin/sheen/eggshell etc..! (This is the main reason I’m posting, I could probably work the rest out for myself). So please be specific as you can in what type of paint you’d advise I use for each bit, thank you very much! I was hoping if I need to seal the plaster and the gluey wall, I would be able to use the same white paint for both. And maybe for the ceiling too!

Thanks again in advance.

[OchAye]

Sarah

Hello!

I have never painted a room on my own before in my life, this is my first house so bear with me please…we are in the middle of a bathroom refurb and I have some questions…

OK

1. We have an area of bare plaster (skim coated) ... SNIP... I understand I should do one or two mist coats of paint first. What type of paint should I use for the mist coats - white emulsion? matt or soft sheen?
2. The opposite wall had wallpaper on it (over a painted wall) that I have removed (most of it just peeled off, a few bits I had to wet and scrape off but overall it came off really easily. But the wall still has a bit of a shine in places, pics attached. I understand I should give it a wash with some soapy water and a scrape/rinse. Do I then need to do an undercoat it to seal any remaining glue? If so what type of paint? There are also some chips in paint I was going to polyfilla.

Start from the paste. You have two options. You either remove it completely or you sand it to be smooth enough and use Zinsser Gardz.

To remove it completely use warm water (soap or sugar soap) lots of water on the wall to get the paste activated and than gently scrape it off and you will probably have to use scotch-brite pads to remove the paste. You will know when the paste is removed as your fingers will not slide on it, assuming you got it well wet in the first place. You MUST rinse as well afterwards with clean water.

You either remove ALL the paste or you use Gardz after you have sanded the walls and you are happy with the surface. Gardz can also be used to seal your new plaster and any other surfaces you got.

For mist coating your bare plaster (under the circumstances) and if you do not use Gardz you can use any paint you buy for the final coat but you dilute it with some 20-25% water (waiting to be flamed on this )

3. The colour we have chosen for the walls is a Dulux colour and as it is a bathroom we are going with soft sheen over matt? Is that right?
4. What type of paint do I need for the ceiling? Should that also be soft sheen? What we have at the moment on the ceiling looks pretty matt to me but I want to use whatever is recommended.
5. On the rest of the walls that are just painted, I assume I can just paint over with the colour we want, no prep needed.

a. There are trade paints which people here value more (me too although I am a DIYer) and retail paints that you get in the usual shops.

b. Another thing to consider is the level of sheen you want on the walls (matt, soft sheen, eggshell and some which are a bit more shiny than matt but not as shiny as the rest).

c. Finally, and you can't know yet as you have just moved in the house, is whether the bathroom will suffer from mould (condensation from steam). If the bathroom was at no risk of mould because of e.g. ventilation, good heating, you only have cold showers, you could use any paint you wanted. But the normal advice is to use an eggshell paint (it has less sheen than soft sheen) or a specialist paint like Zinsser [the name escapes me and colour choice would be an issue]. Dulux Crown etc. make trade paints with mould inhibitors and so on. they will cost you an arm and a leg for a problem you may not have.

Eggshell as 1st choice for the walls and for the ceiling. Soft sheen 2nd choice. If mould may never be an issue you have more choices.

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Usual preparation is sanding down, filling any problems. Brush a touch of watered down paint (25% water added) over any filled areas and let it dry before painting. If you suspect the walls are contaminated (e.g. nicotine) then see my comments above about washing down with sugar soap.

I know I have not answered all your questions but it is getting dense. If it helps a little