My builder has skimmed most of the walls in our house and after a week they're almost completely dry and I thought ready to paint.
However he has informed me that although they're dry as I'm the one paining I'll have to take responsibility for sanding them.

I thought the whole point in getting the walls skimmed was so that I'd have a surface ready to paint but now I have a choice, either pay my builder £60 to sand the walls or do it myself. Firstly can anyone explain to me why the walls need sanding as for the most part they seem very smooth and do I have to sand the entire wall or just the bits that aren't perfectly smooth?

And how should I go about painting them, from what I've read I should prime them with a mixture of water and emulsion paint but I've also heard some people paint them first with a mixture of PVA and water, which is it?

In terms of priming them, our plaster recommended a mixture of about 1 part PVA to 4 parts water which worked well and prevented the paint soaking up too much into the plaster hence less coats required.

your right in a way, when the walls are skimmed they are supposed to be ready to paint, but you need to sand them, not madly, just get some sandpaper and sand them gently, the reason being, is there will be nibs on the walls (bobbly bits), and they will show thru when you paint.
Also, no matter how the walls look now, there will be trowel marks etc.., and in the daylight it will pass okay, but come eve with light on you will see them.

What you do is sand walls like I said, then put a mis-coat on the walls, thats emulsion mixed with water, like a thick runny double cream, this will seal your walls, no need to fork out on PVA etc, this will do the trick, (trust me I am a decorator), then you will see slight imperfections, ie trowl marks slight gouges, then you fill them (depending how fussy you are), rub down when dry, and put on 2nd coat, when dry just slightly rub down the walls again, and do third coat, and maybe fourth coat.

Do not use paint that says vinyl matt/silk for new plaster, as it takes 6 months to dry out properly, its touch dry now, but underneath its still drying, and vinyl retains the water, therefore go for trade emulsion, or even paint for new plaster, and after six months do what you like.

Do not use vinyl paper either for 6 months, but you can use lining paper.

Save yourself £60 and rub the walls down yourself, at least he had the decency to tell you, the times I have gone in after the plasterer, and the amount of making good I have done you would not believe.

Hope this helps.

Jinx,

A bit off topic...but do you work after the same plasterers as me!

Do they EVER find the floor? Mine seem to think the floor stops 6" off the skirts!

Excellent and precise advice by the way!

P.S....Dont sand "blobs" get a decent scraper and "scrape" them off, dont sand them. Better finsh.

Lol slater, they are a nightmare, I cant see why they dont have a wet cloth handy and wipe of the excess round window frames skirtings etc..., but of course they are losing money if they stop and do that, in and out quick is thier motto lol.

thankyou for your nice words, your right the blobs are better scraped off, I forgot to mention them, I meant the little nibs, like pinheads can be sanded down, they are the bu55ers that show thru the paper when you least expect them, but like I said depends on how fussy you are, being a female and very fussy, makes more work for me lol.

I have spent at least a day sanding after every room has been plastered!!! Skirting boards that were plastered up to are the worst!

Not only blobs I find but I also take extra care with the internal corners and wall to ceiling joins as I find these are usually a bit lumpy. To get a straighter corner I fold a bit of sandpaper to get a straight edge and run it up and down till I'm happy, or wrap it round a bit of wood. Cork blocks not too good for this as not a 90 degree angle on it to get the precision.