Out-of-date gypsum plaster goes off and sets too hard to allow any remedial work, short of messay power tools. The Wickes fine surface filler does allow some 'shaping' with a decent scraper like a steel ruler after it has set but before dry (unless they have changed the formulation since I last did so, a few years ago).
Power tools aren't messy.. I sanded all the walls in a 15x13 room using an random orbital sander without getting dust everywhere. You just need a good vac attached.
Don't fill so badly that you need to remedy it. Why do people do that?
NT
Because the whole point of using some 'old' plaster/fller is because it will set quite quickly (sometimes a necessity), but on occasions sets a bit too quickly while trying to get a nice flat smooth finish.
If time was not an issue then use fresh stuff.
If it's setting too quickly then you're using it for a larger area than it's suitable for. I can get holes plural done from the time it begins to stiffen to the point it's no longer usable.
But that doesn't really address the question of why so many people make such a mess of filling holes that they then need to come back later to sand the excess off.
I almost always* fill holes either flush or part flush, part below the surface, and instead of sanding later, fill again to get a smooth level finish.
Of course you can overfill & sand, and many do, but why make more work & a poorer result?
NT
DIY, I used it a lot a few year back as I decorated each room in turn. Back in 2009 it came in 5 kg packs, in tough plastic bags, which is fairly convenient, less wastage.
My 1976 house has very crumbly sand/cement basecoat plaster with a wafer thin skim of grey gypsum, needing a lot of patching.
Drilling holes would typically result in a hole about an inch across as the plaster just disintegrated !. I soon noticed that particular type of filler tended to set fairly quickly once it was 'old' so handy for fixing these holes or for example, like when changing a single socket to a double, needing a small amount of filler that set quickly but could (if necessary) still be mechanically smoothed.
Aye. FWIW I long ago did a cheap fix to avoid replastering when it was all crumbly. Dilute PVA _very_ weak & slosh lots onto the wall in one go, as much as it'll absorb. Soak it. When it eventually dries out the result was glued together enough to survive another 20 years before needing any work. It's not as strong as new plaster but quite good enough. The key is getting good penetration, so it needs to be very weak & saturated as near as you can. People have also used multiple coats of lime water this way.
NT
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