We have been told that we must plaster the inside of our renovation before we can have the windows and doors made and installed, is this true? We would rather install the windows and doors first to make the house airtight, but have been told by the builders we must plaster the inside of the house first. We're located in Sicily.
Here are some member responses:
Usually it's because they won't want to dirty the new fixtures when they plaster - it's a messy job! There's no hard and fast rule - you're the client, so you can do what you like - but you're in Sicily so bear in mind that builders often only will do things one way, since "that's how its done in Sicily."
My house was re-plastered entirely before any windows and doors were fitted. The reason I was given was that the passage of air helped speed up the drying process. Mind you, that was in March/April and the weather was quite mild. I wonder if it would be the same if it was December? But the 'plaster' they used wasn't like the plaster I'd seen used in the UK - it was more like a thinned down fine gritty cement.
It's better to have the finish completed first and allowed to dry out. The builder cannot always finish to the standard of the original. We had the same problem here, that all the plastering was completed very well and the finishing "recommended builder" came in and messed up as much as possible with the good plasterwork, then said it was the work of the painter and decorator to correct it all.
I'm not sure you are being told the truth here. You should always make a house watertight first. Plaster afterwards. You don't have to leave windows open, the moisture in plaster (1 to 7 days at the very most) will evaporate into the atmosphere....through walls, ceilings etc. Cracking is mainly because of changes in temperature. You wouldn't leave windows open or as holes in the UK, so why should you do so in Italy? A further thought....paint with "fissativo" before plastering.
Plaster in the UK sense is a skimmed coating that is very thin put on generally plaster board... and is easy to dry out...when it happens here on say old walls...they are stripped of the original loose plaster work..and then basically a compressor blows a cement mortar mix onto the walls to provide a squared off look.. at places this coast can be maybe an inch or so in depth... then a finishing coast again of a mortar with much finer sand is applied... this is finished in circular patterns and is a rustic look.. a more polished finish requires what we in the UK would call plaster...drying times vary from a few months to several.. .. depending not so much on the weather but also more importantly the house... if it has /had damp problems already... in an old building not designed to have a virtually waterproof coating on internal walls it will never dry... however problems are not limited to only old builds... all you have to do is to go in quite a large percentage of Italian modern buildings and you will find damp patches everywhere... especially at ground lower ground level..it seems acceptable to them... many of these problems can be sorted by allowing air flow but this seems a sort of new concept here ...even though you can buy air covers in almost any DIY place to allow breathing blocks/holes in walls.. so i dispute pretty strongly that a house in Italy being sprayed with several layers of cement would dry out in a max of seven days... especially with no air flow.
Depending on the age of the house, there is normally a base coat that is sprayed on to level the walls as you require. This needs quite a few weeks to dry out, before the final plaster coat is applied, so air circulation is required. Most plasterers in Italy use a ready mixed coating as a finish, very thin coat, that would only take a few days to dry out. On that, it is better to put the sealer before painting.
Once the structural work was done on our house, we had to order the doors and windows and wait for 60 days to have them delivered. As the walls were finished off they fitted a 'falso telaio' which is a softwood frame that the windows and doors will fit into. The walls were then plastered around these frames. While we waited for the actual windows and doors to arrive, we fitted our own temporary glass panels into these frames. Very cheap and very easy to fit with pieces of beading and insulation tape. When the actual windows arrived we took them out and fitted the real ones. Never noticed the draft!
All of this depends on your 'base coat' - if you are going to use a cement based coat it needs a long time to dry. If you have a stone house - as in a pietra viva - common here in this part of Sicily, its best not to use a cement-based product, as it doesnt allow the stone to breathe. Nowadays a bio calce - lime based intonaco is advised as it doesn't reduce the transpiration of the stone, but it is much ore expensive - (about 15 euros a bag more expensive) but you wont get the damp or salt leaching that will occur with a cement base. Once that is done, it will need intonaco - a finer, more typical English plaster - but in 2 much thinner coats, which should be done by the same builder. You only need a fissativo if you're painting on gesso - as it will soak up all your paint, the new skimming intonaco is only slightly coarser than the intonaco you put over plasterboard - and produces a pretty smooth result. If you a want liscio liscio - Id say use the same intonaco as you use on plasterboard as your final coat, and sand between coats - then it will be a smooth plaster-like finish.
We've recently had our walls plastered (rendered) and, especially in winter, it will take 2 months or so to dry. Builders have fixed a softwood contro telaio against which the plaster is finished. They have made very simple windows (and door) with plastic sheeting which are opened whenever the weather is suitable.Putting windows (or any other joinery) in early, apart from delaying drying time, risks damaging the windows due to excessive moisture.