Plastering window returns.

[AL_n]

My plastering abilities enable me to do a fairly good job of plastering a flat wall. However, I've never yet had to do the window returns after installing a new (larger) window, until now. Is there any special tricks/tips anyone can offer, and in particular, can a decent edge be achieved without the use of metal edging strips?

The returns I have to plaser are a bit rough, having been patched up with bits of plasterboard etc. I would have liked to make the job easier by lining the returns with plasterboard, but if I do that, the finished surface will be too near the edge of the window glass to look good.

Thanks

Al

[The Natural Philosopher]

tape any joins with glass tape and then just go for it.

sand any rough bits down, and use decorators caulk to the frame..

[John Rumm]

Use the beads - get them all square and marking the finished levels etc. Makes the actual plastering so much simpler since you then have nice straight corners to work from.

Add skim beads to the corners of the reveals then - that will let you skim 3mm or so over the PB and have an edge to rule off against.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yes, but it's more difficult. One way is to fix a piece of timber along the reveal, projecting out from the wall, and to plaster up to it as though doing an internal corner. Then remove the piece of timber after the plaster is set. I stick wide plastic parcel tape down the side you're plastering against to stop the plaster sticking to the timber. This gives you an incredibly sharp corner - painful if you bump into it, and fragile if you knock it with something hard, so you'll probably want to sand it a bit afterwards. Alternatively, if you do another finish coat afterwards, you can use an external corner trowel which will slightly round off the corner.

If the unevenness is more than about 5mm, level it off with scratch coat first (I usually use bonding coat). It won't work very well if you try to do that with finish coat.

[AL_n]

[e-mail] (Andrew Gabriel) wrote in news:j0kqo4$2j1$ [e-mail]:

Thank you for this suggestion. I was thinking of doing something very similar to that. The parcel tape suggestion sounds excellent.

Thanks to all for the other suggestions.

Al

[Weatherlawyer]

nt-email.me:

That is the way it is done.

Buy a small gauge trowel and mix 4 to 1 in a bucket. Clean off the reveal to the brick or whatever and wet the wall with a spray bottle or pop bottle with a hole in the top. Put a little oil on the timber if you are really nervous. Diesel will do or you can buy some really good stuff for a tenner or more a pint in a chain saw oil shop.

You have to cover half the window frame; say about an inch. Use clean water and a small paint brush to was off exess splashed over the line. If you are going over aluminium be bloody quick about that.

Just slap the stuff in and scrape it off level. The timber can come off straight away if you are happy with your work, wait until it has set if not. Just let the cement settle after scraping level, then tap the timber to crack it loose.