Substrate Guideline
MPlaster/Paint
What should I be aware of when preparing?
- Beads – Normal rendering and expansion beads need to be fitted to all corners and openings. These should be well fitted prior to plastering and finished flush the same as for decorating with normal paints.
- Dust – All dust and dirt needs to be removed prior to our applications.
- Anti-crack – We recommended that our anti-crack systems are used on top of all substrates as it reduces the risk of cracks appearing on the surface.
For better effect of decorative finishes, we usually recommend using skimmed plasterboard for your structure with preparation shown below:
- Plasterboard joints are filled and taped
- The walls need to be well skimmed with no bumps or ridges
Under limited circumstances with disallowance of using plasterboard, you can also find different preparations require for various types of substrates:
Apply decorative finished to dry-lined surfaces to provide the wall straight, plumb and solid.
Use a good quality jointing compound and suitable jointing tape to fully fill and tape:
- All joints between sheets (To be flush and finely sanded)
- Angle beads and expansion beads (To be fitted to all external corners and openings)
All blockwork/concrete require plaster coats prior to our finish.
Two coats of sand and cement with a fine float finish or most traditional basecoat plasters finished with a skim coat are normally sufficient.
All finishes need to be completed to a high standard being straight and plumb with no trowel or float marks. These need to be fully dry as per the plaster manufactures instructions.
New builds are prone to settlement cracks and we recommend our anti-crack system is used to reduce the risk of settlement cracks appearing through the plaster surface.
Do not use over wallpaper. Remove all traces of wallpaper and paste residue.
Any loose material needs to be removed, backgrounds filled and sanded.
Repaired substrates need to be fully dry prior to application of our plaster finishes. Walls need to be straight with no bumps.
Sand walls prior to all applications. Fill or replaster walls if required. Fillers and plasters need to be fully dry before application of our products.
For off-site on panel only
MDF or plywood should not be subjected to any moisture before or after our finishes have been applied. We recommend avoiding MDF or plywood as substrate for project on-site.
MLeafing
Steps for General Preparation:
- Suggest Gypsum board base substrate.
- Any grip and joint of gypsum board, need to skim and seal then reach to flat and smooth surface. (Generally 2 layer taping will be applied)
- Apply water resistance primer sealer.
- Then, apply 1 thin layer taping cover to whole area, reach to flat and smooth surface then is fine for special paint installation.
- Start very fine sanding
*Faults in the surfaces will show all imperfections, so please find the resilient panel for types of surfaces below:
| 1 | Walls | Preparations depend on types of walls. Please refer to the above section. |
| 2 | Porous:
Cement, Plaster, Unpainted Wood |
Metallic surfacer is suggested for priming |
| 3 | Glossy / Slick:
Plastic, Baked Enamel, Glass, PVC |
Priming necessary for some high gloss surfaces special primers or roughing of the surface with sandpaper |
| 4 | Non-Rustable Metal:
Copper, Brass, Bronze, Aluminum |
For satisfactory adhesion, typically a self-etching primer is required for aluminum and galvanized metal to cut through the slick surface |
| 5 | Rustable Metal:
Iron, Steel |
Prime the Iron and Steel surfaces with a high quality rust inhibiting primer to prevent rust from erupting up through the paint
Pay close attention to weld joints |
- Apply Primer (White or Grey color)
- Polishing to flat surface.
- Apply Primer again (White or Grey color)
- Spray hand brush paint (Different colours are required for different surfaces):
| For smooth and even surface | For thin and non-glossy surface | |
| Gold Leafing | Yellow / Gold | Gold |
| Silver Leafing | Grey | Silver |
| Copper Leafing | Copper | Copper |
- After completed the above base substrate requirement procedure, the leaf installation can be started working.