Hi I am looking to change career and plastering was an option i would like to take. What courses are out there for someone looking for a career in plastering are these 4 or 5 day crash courses any good as far as finding work on a professional level or would it have to be a more intense course .
As an end user, I would say that the type of course is far less important than field experience - I'd pick a guy who's been in the business 20 years any day over someone fresh out of training...unless the inexperienced guy is so stupidly cheap as to warrant a try-out.
My guess is that you would have to start by earning next to nothing just to get satisfied customers on your CV and the possibility of referrals building up.
RM
I agree on both counts; however, you still need to learn how to do it in the first place. I'm sure many on this ng would agree that plastering is a bit of a black art; certainly it's one skill where I just can't get anywhere near touching a professional, no matter how much I practice.
However, with all due respect to the pros, plastering is not rocket science, is it?! It's a matter of knowing how to do it right, and
*then* practice, practice, practice. I'd certainly leap at the chance of attending a course if there was one available near me.David
I wonder how much can actually be taught, and how much is just down to practice? I'd think it's mostly the latter.
I did the level II NVQ and it was worthwhile for me. Partly because I thought a 35 year old female entrant to the plastering trade would be laughed out of court and partly because the teacher was very helpful. Having someone look critically at my technique and demonstrate and say 'try this' was very useful as I suppose it is with all hands on skills. The course took me six months and I didn't think it worthwhile to do the NVQ III afterwards.
But much more valuable than time on a course is time spent labouring for a good plasterer. I was lucky enough to find someone who did interesting things like spun arches and lime plastering. Labouring is bloody hard graft, much more so than the actual plastering, but we all have to go through it to build up the muscles in the plasterer's elbow :-)
Anna
-- ~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Pargeting, decorative and traditional / ^^ \// lime plasterwork |______|
So claims from those company's that run these courses that you can plaster like a pro after a 5 day course are a bit misleading .
I'm halfway through a 12 week evening course in DIY plastering at East Berkshire college at the moment. From having no experience at all I'm now at the point that I would happily skim a wall at home. As has been said in an earlier post, it's not rocket science but you do need lots of practice to get the hang of it. The nice thing about doing a course is that you can use someone else's wall to practice on. The teacher has been helpful with advice on getting the mix right and other general tips but I think most of it is just down to experience.
As also previously mentioned, I would imagine that working with a plasterer would be great way of learning.
Mark remove pants to reply "I may be synthetic but I'm not stupid."
Having done a plastering course, I would say mostly the former. I could plaster perfectly immediately after the course, as could all the others on the course. What has improved over time is my plastering speed.
Doing plastering as a job has lots of other things you learn over time. The teacher mentioned some examples. One I recall -- if you are plastering and only the housewife is at home (sorry, terribly sexist;-), ask to borrow the vacuum to clean up after yourself. Most housewives will bring the vacuum in and then do it for you, since they are pleased you want to leave it clean and tidy, and they often don't like the thought of someone else using their vacuum cleaner! You'll go away and get glowing recommendations on how tidy you were, but actually you did nothing different than just walking out and leaving the place dusty - the housewife did it. However, you left a completely different impression as a result of trying to do it...
I take a vacuum cleaner (Aquavac) with me for most jobs, and do my best to leave things neat and tidy as that does leave a good impression.
Besides, using a regular VC for some of the DIY materials can cause the VC to choke. I'd rather be using a proper "DIY" VC to take most of the nasty stuff away, leaving relatively little for the regular house VC.
PoP
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