Advice on plaster types

What's happened to cause this? What's the undercoat?

Sounds as though you want a bag of Thistle multi-finish, this may not be quite right though dep. on the answer to the above.

I had a television cabinet in the corner of my sitting room. When I dismantled it I found that the previous owner had skimmed over the wall over some painted woodchip or similar textured wallpaper but had not removed the corner unit.

So I have 2 patches of painted textured wall paper where the corner unit was.

It would have taken 10 minutes to dismantle the unit. Go figure!

I have very disappointing results with readymix plaster, so I switched to Polycell finishing skim. Easy to sand and goes on (and stays on) well.

There's a lot of plaster types

Browning plaster (perlite) - Brickwork, Coke breeze, Clay tile partitions, Thermalite blocks, Concrete bricks. Bonding plaster (vermiculite) - Concrete, Stonework, Cork slabs, Surfaces treated with PVA. Metal lathing plaster (perlite with vermiculite & rust inhibitor) - Expanded metal lathing, wood wool slabs. One Coat Plaster - Used for any surface as undercoat and finish.

I plastered with some one coat that the window lickers (fitters) mixed up for me and it goes on well, but does shrink when used for patching work in heavy applications.

You need one of these

Paul.

Also since this is in a corner, can someone give me advice as how to do the corner bit.

Cheers.

Goto builders yard and ask for a bag of "multi finish",getting it out of sheds has a possibility of it being out of date whereas builders yards renew the plaster frequently.

Thanks,

I assume Jewsons is classed as a builders yard.

Yep, if you have one near to you? or look BM's up in the yellow pages

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

Um. So you're going to skim the wallpaper? I'm not keen on that... if you do, brush over with 5:1 water:PVA and skip before it dries.

Get a bit of batten about 3' long, and knock some 3" nails into the bottom, so it looks like a mace. That's for mixing.

Get a 99p plastic pail from somewhere, for mixing.

Get a bag of multi-finish.

Get a steel float and a piece of 180 grade wet'n'dry, stick this to something flattish, and rub the trowel over at an angle as if when plastering, to wear in the edge a bit (this stage not strictly needed).

Get a bit of ply about 10" square, and a bit of batten to make a handle. Nail the handle onto the board through the middle (this will be your "hawk" for holding a dob of plaster on when you do the job. You could buy one... Make sure it's wet when you use it.

Protect the floor, and anything else worthy nearby.

Prepare the wall.

Put about 3" of cold water in the bottom of the pail. Sprinkle in plaster, while stirring, until it's like thickish custard, but no thicker. Stir until there are no lumps.

Get some plaster on your hawk, and scrape it from there onto the wall with your trowel. Spread it out in an upward motion, tilting the trowel as you go up and the plaster on the trowel gets less.

When one wall's covered enough, smooth the plaster out until it's reasonably flat with your trowel, using a sweeping action with the blade at a shallow angle to the plaster. Go in more than one direction.

Leave it until you can tell that it's firming up, and when you touch it, it's like plasticene.

Spray on a little water from a household plant sprayer, and smooth the plaster more, paying attention that the joint between the patch and the existing isn't proud of or below the surface of the new. You can scrape the surface back a little with the blade of your trowel, if you need to, with a bit more water spray.

Tidy up the corner with the edge of your trowel.

If you don't think it's good enough, scrape it off, and try again.

If it's "good enough", remember you can fill minor defects, but sanding plaster is really not recommended!

Clean your plastering tools properly.

When you've done one patch, do the patch on the other wall.

There should be a "use by" date on the side of the bags.

Thanks Chris

thanks Paul

cheers for the info.

I have Sydenhams and Jewsons. In general which one would people say is best?

I would do this anyway.

Mark.

Steel floats pull water to the surface of plaster. You should apply plaster with a plastic or (homemade) wooden float and only use a steel float for finishing.

Colin Bignell

oops! so thats where I've been going wrong...never the less my plastering finish is A1 even if I say so myself.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

You apply plaster with a steel trowel. You couldn't possibly apply plaster with a float, and there's no such thing as a steel float. You don't use a float for anything relating to plaster finish coats.

I made a typo there, if you read the whole sentence you'll see: "Get a steel float and a piece of 180 grade wet'n'dry, stick this to something flattish, and rub the trowel [...]" ^^^^^^ Thare you are, apols.

He's only skimming, and I've never even seen *that* done with a float.

I don't, unless it is base coat and I am throwing it.

I can and do.

There is. Even stainless steel floats are available:

I do. I also get some very nice finishes that way.

Colin Bignell