Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Feb 24, 2007 1:34 pm Hi, could I get some feedback on what is the norm regarding the number of coats of paint a builder would normally include when building a new house. I have been told by my builder that I can only have a few colour choices all in various shades of beige or off-white, because they only do 2 coats of paint ie. an undercoat and a topcoat, and the colour selection is limited to those pale colours that do not streak or look unfinished with 2 coats. Is this pretty standard, or is my building company just being cheap?
PS I do not want beige walls, so it looks like l will have to pay the builder an extra $1000 to have a third coat of paint in the colour I want, which is a pretty camel colour. Regards, Sandii Re: Painting a new house 2Feb 25, 2007 11:02 pm Are you planning to live in this hous or sell it? If you live in it can you handle living in it with white walls for a couple of months? The reason i ask is that no matter how many coats of paint you pay for, in a couple of months when the walls have settled you will have cracks EVERYWHERE and will have to repaint again.
We lived in our house unpainted for a year and are so glad we didn't paint straight away. The white plaster just looked llike we had painted our walls white, and sure enough just like we'd been told,cracks slowly started to appear.Hairline cracks are not to do with quality, they occur in ALL new homes as they settle into the foundation. Generally you only need to do 2 coats of paint if you are painting an existing painted wall a light colour, and 2-3 coats if doing a dark colour. ( all depending on the quality of paint you are using) If you are painting a bare wall ( in your case) then you need to do a base coat to prevent the plaster soaking up the paint unevenly and looking patchy. Then paint 2-3 coats of the colour that you require. If you have patience and a spare weekend then invest in 2 paint rollers: a crap one (usually the pink ones) for doing the undercoat as it will prob be oil based and you will need to throw the roller out, and a good quality roller ( usually the white ones) for the colour coats. My fiance and i painted the entire house ourselves and made use of an edging brush for cutting in and doing the cornice joins, and also an old rag in a bowl of water to clean up any mistakes before they set. And if you do get any paint on cornices, dont stress, just let it dry and then go over it later with a tiny brush and some white paint. Re: Painting a new house 3Feb 26, 2007 6:52 am Hmmm, not sure about the cracks - is that for a solid brick home or with a frame, or doesn't it matter?
I do believe that builders will come back after a certain time (say 3 months) and check everything again to make sure it's still ok after settling. I have been told they will touch up the paint if needed, as this is the reason they don't like using 1/2 and 1/4 strength mixtures - you will never get an EXACT match again (which to me doesn't add up, as all of the colours have a colour calculation based on the hue/RGB so you'd think if they had that they could reproduce it just as easily as the named colours). I have been told by a friend that used to work for the company that includes Bristol and Taubmans that Metricon use a tinted base coat (to the colour of the final walls) and one colour coat. We will ask the builder about this, as like you I don't think that one coat of colour is enough - considering you NEED an undercoat. To my knowledge though, I don't think there are any limitations of the colours you can choose through Metricon. Ray. Second Time 'Round Hi, Have used the Dulux 1 step, oil base on my walls(white set), out of can it’s already a more thinner product than a final coat paint Also in water base Water or… 3 5024 Thanks mate, is there a standard off the shelf type breathable product I can apply DIY? Thanks 2 8212 |