Plaster retardant ?

Self-taught, I can manage small jobs reasonably but when faced with a large wall I found that I'm too slow and the work was starting to go off before I could get a good finish. I know that I should become faster and more adept...

Is there anything I can add to slow the cure down and give me more time whilst leaving the plaster unaffected once cured?

Water

Reply to
Nthkentman
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Self-taught, I can manage small jobs reasonably but when faced with a large wall I found that I'm too slow and the work was starting to go off before I could get a good finish. I know that I should become faster and more adept...

Is there anything I can add to slow the cure down and give me more time whilst leaving the plaster unaffected once cured?

Reply to
Steve Eldridge

Use very very very fresh plaster. I once mixed a bucket of plaster from a bag that was a couple of months old. By the time I'd walked to the wall, it had set solid, trapping my trowel with it.

JGH

Reply to
jgh

There's always lime plaster

NT

Reply to
meow2222

I think there are two things - changing your technique, and making sure the plaster lasts as long as possible.

Longest setting time is brand new plaster a long way from its use-by date. As plaster ages, it sets faster. Very old plaster can set in the mixing bucket (and if it does this, it can get very hot). It can be useful to keep a small amount of old plaster for when you need to do something small quickly, like filling in a plaster chase.

Classic mistake to make is to spend too long titvating an area of plaster too soon (which won't work anyway), and then you run out of time.

When I plaster, my order of working is:

  1. Mix plaster, and pour out onto plastering board.
  2. Next, clean out the mixing bucket and mixing paddle thoroughly; it's dead easy to clean at this point, and you don't want any already mixed plaster to infect your next batch, as it will make it set faster.
  3. Slap it on - doesn't matter what it looks like at this point, as you can't start to tidy it up until it's started setting, so just concentrate on covering the area, and ignore all the lines and ridges.

Now, what you must realise is that as it goes off (sets), at each stage you can only improve the finish by so much. You obviously can't get a fine polish when it's sloppy, but it's less obvious that at each stage in the transition from liquid to set, the finish can only be improved to a certain point.

  1. Once the area is covered, try moving to where you started, and see if you can smooth it. That means that that you pass over it with the trowel, the size of the new ridges created is smaller than the ridges originally there. If they aren't, you're working the plaster too soon, and trying to work an area of plaster too soon is more likely to make a mess of it than improve it. Move on to another area. You may very well have to wait for 10 mins.
  2. Keep repeating this across the area - see if you can improve it yet, and if not wait. If you do this right, the ridges will get smaller and eventually vanish as the plaster gets further set.
  3. The final polishing can only take place when it no longer moves, as it uses the trowel edge to scrape off the peaks and drop them in the troughs.
Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Fresh plaster.

Yep, guilty!

That makes sense as I maybe rushed with the cleaning clock ticking away, done first, no worries except the rush to get on and of course the less time working the plaster.

That's what I do...

Yep, I try all this but, invariably, it has set too much because I'm too slow...

Reply to
AS

If you get some of the Polyfilla stuff to practice with, it goes off much slower. Also does not crack if put on thick. Also in the tub is a plastic "spatula". Much easier to use than a float. You can buy spatulas, a bit of stiff plastic about 200mm x 100mm.

I have used Polyifilla for a final coat when plastering mixed with PVA & water. Gets a much better result. (Covers up my shitty plastering.)

Reply to
harry

Similarly Artex powder or Gyproc joint filler. Even with the float it's far more forgiving

Reply to
stuart noble

It's a bugger that, first time it happens.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Had a bloody good pro plasterer working at my place a few weeks ago. He worked pretty much as described here. In discussion, he reckoned he deals with every area 7 times in the process.

I concluded that was one of the reasons my plastering has always been rubbish, as I had thought you slapped it on and smoothed it once-ish. Of course, there are many other reasons why my attempts have been pretty useless (!)

On the other hand, having found a good reliable bloke, I was surprised what a good deal it is to get it done properly.

Reply to
GMM

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