ᐅ New Construction Wall Finishing Drywall Prefabricated House

Hello,
I have already gone through the forum extensively but unfortunately haven’t found a really helpful answer yet.

We are currently building a prefabricated house of about 140m2 (1,507 sq ft) with a timber frame construction and have chosen the “painting prepared” option. This means that ceilings and walls are covered with drywall panels and have been filled and sanded. The construction description states that they will be sanded appropriately for a textured wallpaper called “Raufaser.” So I assume this corresponds to a Q2 finish.

Since we are complete beginners, we have been thinking for a while about how to finish our walls. If possible, we don’t want to use the Raufaser wallpaper. We keep reading that you need to apply an additional Q3 level skim coat before you can paint or use a painting fleece wallpaper. Others say that just priming and then painting is enough...

We’re really overwhelmed right now about what to do to make sure the final result looks good.

We would like to paint the rooms and not use pre-colored wallpaper. But what is the right procedure for that? What is the best approach? What makes the most sense?

What should I do about the ceiling? Does it need textured wallpaper? Is that advisable?

I would really appreciate your help.

We have joint tape (also on wooden stud framing with drywall) – it actually looks quite good (if you want very smooth walls) and, according to the painter, it is somewhat easier/more efficient and cost-effective to apply than paintable fleece. However, it was not necessarily recommended to me – it does not seem to effectively bridge cracks.

If you don’t want to hire this work out, joint tape is usually not an option anyway (it is more intended to be applied using spray equipment) – in that case, I would have just used paintable fleece.

Whatever you do, I wouldn’t underestimate it (like we did). Painting and decorating is a trade for a reason. I can’t say whether you as amateurs can manage to paint the filled joints and unfinished drywall walls without visible seams. Do you perhaps have a large open area on the ground floor with a high ceiling? On YouTube, everything looks very easy. We applied textured rollers twice in the dressing room, and the result is that we will have a professional painter finish the rest of the house.

Benutzer123 schrieb:

I cannot say whether, as non-professionals, you will manage to paint the filled joints and the unfinished drywall without visible transitions.

I have experience as a painter.
We only had drywall (plasterboard) on the upper floor and painted it ourselves. You can see where the joints were filled. Next time, I would have something like fiberglass mesh applied beforehand.

Or you can do it yourself, use the money you saved for something else enjoyable, and accept that it won’t look 100% perfect—which is rarely the case even with professional painters. Believe it or not, once you’ve lived there for a few months, many imperfections stop bothering you... at least we don’t spend every evening with grazing light on the wall, annoyed about this or that spot that we didn’t get perfectly smooth with the fine filler.

For 140m² (about 1,500 sq ft), skim coating the walls to Level 3 and then applying smooth fleece wallpaper, or finishing to Level 4 and painting directly, you’ll hardly get below 15,000 EUR. The materials, if you do it yourself, might cost around 1,500 EUR, or up to 2,000 EUR if you also need to buy proper tools.

As a layperson without experience, simply applying plaster on 140m2 (1500 sq ft) at Q4 level just because the material is cheap? If someone has the craftsmanship skills, the time, the motivation, and the patience: why not!? Probably very few.

Otherwise, there are a few options between applying paint directly on Q2 level surfaces yourself and having Q3 plus smooth fleece or Q4 finish done by professionals.