On 9 Jul 2006 13:54:20 -0700, "steve" wrote:

Hi,

I'm going to re-skim one of my bathroom walls. I got some
Artex-Rawlplug Finishing Coat plaster from homebase and I've plastered
a small patch. It looks OK, but it is quite dry and although quite
hard, is very very slightly sandy. Is this how things should be?

Yes, if you rub up against unpainted plaster you get dust on your
clothes. You have to paint it to stop the dust. Just use emulsion and
follow the instructions for new plaster.

I was
hoping to paint directly on top of the finishing plaster - is it OK to
do this, or is the dryness of the plaster going to cause problems for
the paint? And finally, have I used the correct plaster? I was in B&Q
the other day and saw that in addition to the Artex-Rawlplug Finishing
Coat plaster, they've also got Artex-Rawlplug Gypsum Multi-Finish
plaster, though I'm, not too sure what the difference is.

Thanks for any tips, and apologies for my barrage of questions!

Steve