We have a little project putting in a pantry in the outside cooking area. The render/plaster just completed yesterday and my humidity thingy is showing 80%. Which it has for days on end now. When I did our house, I waited 2-3 months for the dry season to start painting. But, now I'm ready to go whenever it's time.

So, cement gurus: when can I attack?

in high humidity, the cement plaster/render is happy as a clam. seven days is advised for wet curing - kept out of direct sun and wet as much as possible. This wet curing minimizes shrinkage cracking. Prior to painting, you want the plaster/render to be dry. I'd wait a month in the wet season, and several weeks in dry season, because you dont want to paint over wet cement due to risk of paint film blistering.

Thanks. I would like to put in shelving strips/support and have everything ready to go for the eventual painting. Do you think I can drill holes for the plastic anchors for that after, what? a couple weeks?

This f_ing humidity saps me so much, breaking it down to micro daily projects isn't all that bad.

Sorry, just saw this... you can drill it in a week after render application. The true strength for anchors will be in the substrate, not the render.