Painting and Decorating London New Build Properties
Why the builder's finish on a London new build isn't good enough, common decoration problems to expect, and how to plan your first proper decoration programme after moving in.
Painting and Decorating London New Build Properties
Moving into a new build property in London and finding the decoration disappointing is a near-universal experience. The walls look white and freshly painted, but something is off: the sheen is uneven, hairline cracks appear around door frames within weeks, nail pops push through the plasterboard in the ceiling, and every scrape and mark shows because the paint has no depth or durability. This is not a fault of the paint itself -- it is the inevitable result of the specification and process that volume house builders use to prepare and paint new properties to schedule.
Understanding why the builder's finish falls short helps you plan an effective first decoration programme, and knowing when to decorate is as important as knowing how.
Why Builder's Finish Falls Short
Volume house builders operate under significant programme pressure. The decoration team follows the plasterboard and skim plasterers through the property, and the interval between plaster application and painting is typically two to three weeks -- far less than the six months or more that new plasterwork ideally needs to dry out and stabilise before its first proper decoration.
The result is paint applied to plasterwork that is still releasing moisture and still subject to significant shrinkage movement. As the plaster and the structural frame continue to dry out in the first twelve to eighteen months, cracks appear -- most visibly at junctions between ceiling and wall, around door frames and at any point where different materials meet. These are normal new build settlement cracks and are not structural; but they are unsightly, and they are a direct consequence of decorating too soon.
The paint specification itself is typically a single mist coat over bare plaster followed by one, occasionally two, coats of a standard vinyl matt emulsion -- often own-brand or budget-grade. This gives a flat, clean appearance at handover but has very low durability: it marks easily, cannot be washed without leaving sheen marks, and provides a thin film that amplifies any subsequent cracking.
The Right Time to Decorate
For most London new build properties, the ideal window for first redecoration is 12 to 18 months after completion. By this point, the property has been through at least one full heating season, the plasterwork has dried to equilibrium with its environment, and the majority of settlement movement has occurred. You will see the cracks that need filling before they are hidden under fresh paint.
If you are in a leasehold flat with a service charge, check your lease before decorating: some leases restrict the use of certain materials or require landlord consent for first decoration. In practice, internal decoration to the demise of your flat is almost always permitted.
Waiting 12 months does not mean living with cracked and shabby paintwork in the interim. A skilled decorator can prepare the surfaces properly, fill and paint over settlement cracks in a way that looks clean at the time while accepting that further hairline movement may occur before the final stabilisation of the building. We can provide a programme of interim redecoration followed by a full first decoration at the appropriate time.
Common New Build Decoration Problems
Nail pops occur when the nails or screws securing plasterboard to the timber stud frame back out as the timber dries and shrinks. They appear as small circular bulges in the plasterboard surface, typically in ceilings or in the upper sections of walls. They are remedied by driving a second fixings immediately adjacent to the original, sanding back the bulge, spot-filling with a flexible filler and repainting.
Tape joints -- the joins between adjacent sheets of plasterboard -- can crack or ridging can develop if they were not properly embedded in skim plaster during construction. These need raking out, re-filling with a jointing compound or fine surface filler, sanding back to a feathered edge and repainting.
Settlement cracks at door frames and ceiling junctions are best filled with a flexible decorator's caulk rather than a rigid filler. Rigid fillers will re-crack as movement continues; flexible caulk accommodates the remaining movement and can be overpainted cleanly.
Uneven sheen occurs where the original coat was applied inconsistently, or where the bare plaster absorbed the mist coat at different rates across the wall surface. This is solved by a proper full preparation repaint rather than by spot-touching: the whole surface needs a new coat applied consistently to a prepared substrate.
The First Decoration Programme
A proper first decoration for a new build flat or house in London should include the following stages:
Survey all surfaces for cracks, nail pops and tape joint issues. Mark them for remediation before any paint is applied.
Allow all remediation fillers to cure fully -- typically 24 hours for fine surface fillers, 48 hours for deeper repairs.
Apply a full mist coat to all newly filled areas, followed by two coats of the specified finish. Where entire walls have been refilled or the sheen is very uneven, a full mist coat across the whole wall followed by two finish coats will give the most consistent result.
Joinery -- skirting boards, architraves, door frames -- typically needs repainting in a quality water-based or oil-based eggshell or satin, as the builder's spec on joinery is almost always thin and uneven.
Ceilings can often be left if the finish is acceptable; where there are settlement cracks these should be caulked, sanded and repainted in a full dead-flat emulsion.
Paint Specification for New Builds
We recommend Little Greene Intelligent Matt, Dulux Trade Flat Matt or Farrow and Ball Estate Emulsion for walls in a new build redecoration. These have better washability, better hide and a finer texture than budget emulsions.
For high-traffic areas -- hallways, children's rooms, kitchens -- a durable eggshell such as Dulux Trade Diamond Eggshell or Little Greene Intelligent Eggshell is worth specifying from the outset. The additional cost over flat matt is modest and the durability improvement is substantial.
On joinery, Farrow and Ball Modern Eggshell, Little Greene Intelligent Eggshell or Dulux Trade Quick Dry Satinwood are all significant improvements on the builder's gloss.
Belgravia Painters provides first-decoration programmes for new build properties throughout London. Contact us to arrange a survey and quotation.