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Plastering - help! No room for top coat

Hi What should i do? We had some patio doors fitted but i'm left with about 2 foot of block wall to plaster up on the one side.

Yesterday, i put an angle bead up and then rendered the wall with plastering sand and cement. I then used a straight edge and shuffled/scraped it to get it something like flat with the existing wall, filled in any low spots, roughed it up and scratched it. The wall was well out of shape and i was pleased to get it all looking straight, especially the corner with the angle bead.

This morning however, i have realised that i have left the render almost flush with the existing plaster. Ive tried scraping it back and sanding it back but its not really touched it. I have barely any room for the top coat of multifinish plaster.

I figure i have several options:

  1. Go ahead and put the top coat on but expect a ridge of a few mil. I dont know how bad this will look (probably terrible), but it will be hidden by the curtains. I could also paper line the walls after to help cover it.

  1. Keep scraping and sanding all day until i have it deep enough to get a good top coat on.

Any ideas? I cant believe i didnt scrape it back to allow room for the top coat. I've seen it done before quite a few times. Will i get a top coat on? has anyone made this mistake or seen it before? How bad will it look?

Regards,

Reply to
James
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I forgot to add - If i try to skim it/top coat it now and it ends up looking terrible, how hard is it to remove the plaster.?

Reply to
James

It would be difficult, even supposing you wanted to. Plaster generally won't feather in.

You only need to do it over 6-12" or so up to the join (and likewise at the bead). I often do this the next day, and the sand/cement surface is still crumbly enough at this point that just dragging the edge of the trowel across it or rubbing it with a float a few times takes off enough. What mix did you use? I normally use 1:1:6 cement:lime:sand.

The other thing I've done is to reskim the whole wall, but it wasn't a mistake -- that was the intention at the time.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Couldn't you do a smooth slope down to the old plaster level - if there's no line, it probably won't be noticeable.

Reply to
Mike Harrison

Chip a few inches out from the jpoin with a boulster and give yourself a slope in.

Reply to
Michael Mcneil

You could just scrape it back. Or if its too hard...

As long as it isnt actually proud this shouldnt be a problem. Theres no law saying you must apply 3mm of gypsum. Mix up some lime putty, or use filler, and use it to smooth the surface off, ie to fill between the grains. Smooth it on pressing it fairly hard, and very gently sand after. I /havent/ tried this, but I would expect it should fill in all the surface irregularities ok.

Regards, NT

Reply to
N. Thornton

Polycell's "Finishing Skim" product is ideal for this. I've been chasing the plaster in my walls, putting in cables, and then covering over with one-coat plaster. I get this as smooth and level with the surrounding plaster as I can, and then get it finally smooth with Finishing Skim. However, I'm getting much better at polishing in the first place, so probably won't need to FS the final rooms.

Reply to
Stephen Gower

For the tidiest job if you don't want to hack off the plaster I would probably add a second lot of angle bead and skim the whole wall again. Shouldn't take too long if you're OK at plastering and dead cheap. You'll probably need to prime the existing plaster with a 4:1 PVA solution.

Reply to
Brett Jackson

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