Siporex walls

[Lamos]

I hope I've spelt the name right, I'm asking about internal walls made of white-ish, very lightweight building blocks, about the size of breeze blocks.

Can anyone advise me about how to decorate walls built of this material? The builder told us that the surface was ready for paper or paint but they look a bit rough and very absorbent to me.

If any of you can share some hard learned lessons I would be glad to hear from you.

Lucie

[Mysfloss]

try a search for beton cellulaire or the  siporex website.

[Lamos]

Thanks - that was where I started but it wasn't very helpful.

It seems to be a fairly standard building material - but perhaps no one else on the forum has used it....?

[moos]

Lamos, I've used siporex blocks quite a bit for internal walls, and have found it great to work with. If you use the special mortar (comes in a big bag and you mix it like polyfilla) you can get very thin joints which scarcely show. Then seal the surface with pva and skim it. As I've quite liked the slightly gritty look, Ive skimmed it with a mix of white sand and lime, with a tiny bit of cement. If you've only got a small area to do, and you'r not keen on plastering/rendering, you you could smooth it out (if necessary) with a mason's toothed comb and then with a large decorators trowel or spatula, skim the holes etc with polyfilla.  

[Lamos]

I am really grateful for this information - thank you. I shall be following it soon.