plastering, is this a good idea ?

[Kethry]

Hallo

I've got a ton of plastering to do, like most of a (small) house. And although I'm quite competent at most DIY tasks, electrical, plumbing, Joinery etc, I've never plastered anything in my life. So I figure it will be fun to have a go at 1 or 2 walls and if I can't manage a reasonable job, then I'll just have to get a professional in, (which I can't really afford at the moment).

I know that the usual way for a novice plasterer to get the wall level and flat is to attach wood battens to the wall as a guide, then remove them and fill the gaps. There are also some flatness guides you can buy from Wickes that you just plaster up to and leave in the wall.

As a third alternative, what if I fix plasterboard strips to the wall with drywall adhesive and use those as a guide, then leave them in and just skim over the whole lot. I've got lots of plasterboard off cuts I could use.

Just looking to save a little work, or money. Batons have to be removed and filled and the flatness guides are not so cheap. I figure if you leave the wooden battens in place the plaster will crack as the wood shrinks and expands, but a plasterboard strip should be stable enough to skim over.

What do you think, is this a stupid idea ?

[Tim S]

Kethry coughed up some electrons that declared:

Have a look at youtube for "Ron the Builder" "plastering". There's some stuff in the wiki too.

I learnt in part from that. My first and only major job was skimming a north facing room. It was OK ish - flat and stable, but the polish isn't great - bit rough. Looks great with matt paint, but I did pay a plasterer to do the other south facing rooms.

What I learnt is I can do it if I must, but I'll never be *that* good. All useful experience though. Makes me more confident to do small jobs and repairs though.

Get a Marshalltown Permashape trowel and a power mixer for your drill. Using an ordinary steel trowel if it's not broken in is doomed for skimming. Mixing large batches of plaster by hand is also doomed.

For the bonding coat, I agree on the wooden battens - little to go wrong with that approach.

HTH

Tim

[george (dicegeorge)]

re:

ditto here...

i'm thinking of roughly plastering the walls then getting an expert to skim over and do a luverly job but how could i mess it up and make their job harder, such that theyd have to remove all my work?

If I dont use PVA correctly beforehand would my plaster have to be removed?

I hate wasted work.

[g]

PS

[Tim S]

george (dicegeorge) coughed up some electrons that declared:

They never used to, though I expect they would have wetted the walls down first and scraped off the paint(?). You really should use PVA (cheap enough) and *definately* on friable or painted surfaces.

Apply one dilute PVA to soak into the bare plaster bits and another less dilute coat an hour (+/-) before plastering and plaster to the the tacky, not dry, surface.

Cheers

Tim

[Stuart Noble]

Tacky or dry makes no difference IME.

[Tim S]

Stuart Noble coughed up some electrons that declared:

Fair enough - I was going by quoted random wisdom, that may be wrong...

[Stuart Noble]

Logically it doesn't matter because the pva isn't acting as an adhesive, it's only reducing the suction of the plaster.

Also, it's not always practical to time the plastering that accurately. At the rate I go most of the wall will have dried anyway.

[Andrew Gabriel]

It doesn't matter because PVA is water soluable, so providing the PVA is very recent, it will soften and go tacky when you smear wet plaster on it anyway.

Depends where you're using it. Under bonding coat, then the adhesive isn't required because it's in the plaster (hence the name). Finish coat on the other hand has very poor bonding properties in comparison, and if you want it to last, you'll need some bonding to keep in in place on many surfaces. (You can put finish coat on a sheet of glass if you PVA it first.)

The PVA won't have dried for long enough that it won't immediately be tacky when wet plaster hits it.

Don't use PVA when you're applying next coat and previous one has not quite fully set and still wet (which is the ideal), i.e. within about 4-5 hours of applying the previous plaster coat or 48-60 hours for a previous sand and cement coat. Don't use it on plasterboard either, with either MultiFinish coat or Plaster Board finish.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I find producing a decent flat and true base coat the easy part - although time consuming. Getting a good finish is the skill - and one I've never mastered.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Find yourself a 2 day plastering course at a local building trades college. Plastering is easily taught in person, but it just doesn't work for most people to read how to do it or watch videos, etc.

Go and learn how to do it properly. It really isn't worth trying out DIY methods, they really aren't any easier, but give a poorer result.

The only downside is the number of requests you'll get to plaster walls/ceilings/rooms for friends...