Plastering

[interestrateripoff]

Anyone got any tips on plastering. I need to do a small area under a bay to fit the skirting board to and avoid large gaps.

The wall is a mile out.

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

Move house.

Failing that, Easi-fill and a big sander.

Failing that get a man in.

Its not lime is it?

[The Masked Tulip]

Black art. I would plan on going to night school for a few weeks to learn how to do it.

[workingpoor]

You can do it, get a hawk 'n trowel and a £5 bag of plaster from the local builders merchants.

Mix plaster in bucket until thickish snot like consistincey move fast get it on the wall....It will level itself out to a certain degree dont worry about high spots.

Go for a smoke..........

Then this is the secret:

"Trowelling off"

You must go over the plaster as its setting with a wet trowel whilst constamtly dousing the wall with flecks of water, this action levels out the plaster and leaves a smooth finish.

You should have a veneer of water all over the area you are working not too much but it needs to be comstantly wetted.

A large fence paintbrush will do to flick water at the wall.

When putting the plaster on the wall do not let te trowel ever go flat to the wall always keep it slightly on one edge, if it goes flat it will stick dead pull a load of plaster back off with it.

The trowell never stops moving during trowelling off. (leaves a line or mark)

Also if you are not confident with the flick of the trowel to take plaster of the hawk you can hold the hawk against the wall and scrape the plaster off the hawk onto the wall with the trowel.

It's just a flick of the wrist scoop the plaster off the hawk and flick your wrist over like going full throttle on a motorbike. (another couple of jogs will level out the plaster on the trowell)

Steel hawk n trowel is better than the plastic ones

(clean tools never let plaster dry on the tools, the face of the trowell must be A1 smooth check for divets before buying)

The plaster for skimming is called multi-fill around £5

[onlyme2]

If making good down to the floor level put a batten of wood to plaster down to giv yourself an edge to work to. If thick coat required used bonding and make it a stiff mix and make sure noone fo it proud of the finishing depth. Also using a two coat method for the top cost is easier - just lay on the first coat to get coverage and as that is beginning to set lay on second coat. Sometimes the hardest bit is mating in new plaster with old - the trick is to wet down the interface between new and old - what happens is when the new plaster first gets laid on the old plaster edge it dries and will not work to a finish. Also make sure whatever you are plastering to is dust free and good surface to beging with - diluted pva wash will sort out most problems.

[porca misèria]

Plastering is a skilled job. Get a professional.

Unless it's a small and basically cosmetic job that doesn't really need plastering and can be done with simple stuff like polyfilla.

[blobloblob]

I'm willing to do my own plumbing with a fair degree of confidence, I'll do electrics slowly checking my work 50 million times as I go and I'll even do the odd bit of carpentry. However, I've f***ed up every bit of plastering I've ever attempted. I would love to be able to do it, even though I probably only need to do so every 5 to 10 years. Good luck and if you succeed you have my ultimate respect.

[SNACR]

I have mastered it in the past but the problem is it isn't one of those things you only need to learn once, like riding a bike, and takes quite a bit of time to get back into the swing of it. I would always do it and look at it as a hobby interest as I don't ever get tradespeople in at all but, not sure if it's worth investing in the kit and the time for a smallish one off job.

[StainlessSteelCat]

Since it's a small area and will be covered by skirting board - you might as well have a go as it probably won't matter if it isn't perfect as you can sand to a certain extent. Do watch some YouTube videos. I might even be tempted to polyfilla it depending how small as it is easier to sand down.

Between us the missus and I have become a not quite awful plasterer. I do the initial substantive work, while she takes over and does the finishing (which I have no patience for). A liberal brushing of PVA glue/water mix over the area to be plastered is essential if you don't want your plastering to dry out too quickly. Neither of us would consider doing a large visible area again. Plastering is akin to alchemy - the work takes on a certain look when it is going well which you will instantly recognise if you've seen it done before, but it is not always easy for the amateur to repeat.

[MrPin]

I plastered my whole kitchen once. I was quite good by the time I got to the third wall.Start with the lumpy plaster to fill the holes, then use smooth stuff on top.

[onlyme2]

Between us the missus and I have become a not quite awful plasterer. I do the initial substantive work, while she takes over and does the finishing (which I have no patience for). A liberal brushing of PVA glue/water mix over the area to be plastered is essential if you don't want your plastering to dry out too quickly.

That is the reason to go for the two coat method as well. the second coat having been appied to a setting backing coat does not stiffen up as quickly / unevenly. The trick is knowing when to work it and when to leave it. In small areas it really is not that diffcult. Youtube will demistify some of the approach.

Here's one example. in next video the plasterer mentions a well worn in trowel - if you try a new trowel you will struggle, it will stick and drag, tyzack ready to go trowels are good for beginning becuase they have been well ground and rounded.

[workingpoor]

Yes i skimmed 1 large wall with my cousin who had done quite a bit of plastering we used his worn in hawk n trowel.

It's not "easy" but i did get the hang of it, a smallish area for a beginner should be ok with a bit of swotting up on youtube.

Actually if i remember we did PVA the wall first with watered down solution and i think we did do 2 coats i think the base coat was mixed slightly thicker than the top coat.

Had a plasterer in for a quote & he wanted £200

we did it for £5 and an afternoon / evening of our time.

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

Yes i skimmed 1 large wall with my cousin who had done quite a bit of plastering we used his worn in hawk n trowel.

It's not "easy" but i did get the hang of it, a smallish area for a beginner should be ok with a bit of swotting up on youtube.

Actually if i remember we did PVA the wall first with watered down solution and i think we did do 2 coats i think the base coat was mixed slightly thicker than the top coat.

Had a plasterer in for a quote & he wanted £200

we did it for £5 and an afternoon / evening of our time.

A single bag of plaster will be closer to £7. Plus trowel + hawk + mixing tub + mixing paddle + PVA + whatever.

£200 is a piss take but so is a fiver. For a very small job it isn't worth it but there's no way I'd attempt a large wall probably on show as a complete amateur.

[workingpoor]

Well we had all the gear but yeah point taken.

£5.95 if we are splitting hairs.

http://www.wickes.co.uk/British-Gypsum-Thistle-Multi-Finish-Plaster-25kg/p/220056

That'll do a 5x3mtr wall

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

Well we had all the gear but yeah point taken.

Giant Purple Slug will be along shortly to cost your labour too

I'm lucky in that I've got an ok plasterer who will do foreigners for £100 a day. Skimmed a 3m x 2m room in a day which I thought for fair for the rate.

I can even make a tragic mess with easi-fill, let alone real plaster so I'd leave it if it were me.

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

Well we had all the gear but yeah point taken.

£5.95 if we are splitting hairs.

http://www.wickes.co.uk/British-Gypsum-Thistle-Multi-Finish-Plaster-25kg/p/220056

That'll do a 5x3mtr wall

Sorry, I could have sworn it was £6.59 when I bought some recently.

[workingpoor]

That multi finish plaster is the one for skimming

it was quite easy to use.

[Steppenpig]

if it is repairing a small area then you may be able to use a baton (larger than the repair) to drag the plaster up and keep it at the level of the surrounding good plaster.

[SNACR]

if it is repairing a small area then you may be able to use a baton (larger than the repair) to drag the plaster up and keep it at the level of the surrounding good plaster.

One of these ??

[libspero]

Is it safe to say that if walls are difficult, ceilings are impossible?

I have a couple which are starting to show their age (original ceilings in a 1930s house).. is there any percentage in skimming over the existing plaster, or is that a hiding to nothing?

[Steppenpig]

One of these ??

Sömewhere out there, there's a chearleader who no one wants on their team.

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

Sömewhere out there, there's a chearleader who no one wants on their team.

Somewhere out they're, theirs a cheerleader who know won wants on there teem

batten down the hatches..

[sPinwheel]

One of these ??

Invisible chearleader?

[SNACR]

Invisible chearleader?

HPCers seem to be really struggling getting the right tool for the job.

Cheerleaders have poms poms (and great tits quite often I've happened to notice)

[Caravan Monster]

Is it safe to say that if walls are difficult, ceilings are impossible?

I have a couple which are starting to show their age (original ceilings in a 1930s house).. is there any percentage in skimming over the existing plaster, or is that a hiding to nothing?

Might be lime plaster on lathes at that age. If not too far gone, could be possible to get slurry or a fine plaster into the cracks, which is straight forward enough.