ᐅ Plastering walls in the second quarter with textured roller plaster or other recommendations?

Hello

we have a newly built semi-detached house

all walls and ceilings will be finished with a Q2 level skim coat

we do not want to use wallpaper but instead plaster and paint the walls or use colored plaster

How can we make the walls look nice as a DIY project?

we plan to plaster the walls as smoothly as possible ourselves using filler compound

What should I do next—just paint them? Or what do you think about textured plaster? What would you recommend?

First of all, the drywall has already received the Q2 finish. What type of plaster are you using (lime-cement, gypsum, clay)? I also have Q2, specifically gypsum plaster. It’s mostly smooth enough that even my very particular wife said it meets her standards for smoothness.
I mentioned elsewhere that it’s as smooth as a shaved middle-aged man’s buttocks. While not exactly a compliment, for a wall it’s quite smooth and at least free of orange peel texture and bumps.
Here and there, some sanding will probably be necessary, but overall, I’m confident that one or two good coats of paint will result in a nice surface.
I’ve been told there is also Q2 plaster that’s more like an 80-year-old’s skin—or a teenager’s skin with blemishes. Such plaster can be improved with a textured roller finish that can mask minor irregularities. To achieve a baby-smooth surface, especially with lime-cement or clay plaster which is more challenging to work with, multiple rounds of filling, sanding, and possibly applying painter’s fleece will be needed.

I’m not sure exactly how they will be plastered. We only know that everything will be finished to Q2 level.

Online, you often read that Q2 is only suitable for wallpaper, and for painting you need at least Q3.

I have seen Q2 walls at some acquaintances’ places, and they had a lot of holes, so additional filling was necessary. Maybe that was just an extreme example.

So, if you want a textured finish, you should go for roll-on render, and if you want a smooth finish, then possibly fill and sand over the Q2 first and then paint, right?

As mentioned, with gypsum plaster you can be lucky, and depending on the requirements, you may not need to fill and only need very minimal sanding.

Check the building specification again or ask your builder/general contractor.

Textured plaster is also available with a very fine grain, which I wouldn’t really call a texture. It’s just not completely smooth, but rather rougher. However, the fine plaster finish does not hide unevenness (if there is any) as well.

A "poor" quality level 2 finish also needs to be sanded and filled before wallpapering if you want to apply smooth wallpaper. Uneven quality level 2 is only suitable for textured wallpaper in that case.

Look – feel – then decide.
Q2, 3, 4 can sometimes just be numbers in the end...
As an idea, I suggest textured plaster, which we will use, for example, on the ceiling.

And don’t overlook that smoothness, or whatever you want to call it, comes in all scales.

For us, the Q2 plaster is also very smooth up close when you touch it. But when you look at it on a larger scale, there are slight waves across the entire surface. This can only be seen with a straightedge or, even better, with grazing light.