All the plastering techniques I've read about essentially say: plaster, wait a moment, plaster, wait a moment, plaster. Is there an alternative technique that takes account of the fact that I'm human and absolutely utterly need to go to sleep for at least eight hours between coats?
JGH, stuggling to stay awake long enough to find the strength to pour myself a cup of tea.
Do less walls in one go?
On the first and only room I have fully skimmed, it took me 4 days - one per wall.
Partly because I did not totally know what I was doing and partly because in the 6 hour slot I had, that was all I could manage including cleaning up.
I did other things in the bits of spare time.
Less walls or fewer walls?
Less walls - only do halfway up, then come back in a couple of days and do the other half? How do I get them to join evenly?
Fewer walls - I only do one wall at a time anyway. Partially so that when I do the joining wall there's a solid edge to work to and I'm not trowelling out lumps of fresh plaster, but mainly because I'm so knackered by the time I've done one coat of one wall I can't manage to do any more.
This current wall is going to be tiled anyway, so.... ;)
JGH
That would be "less wall". But fewer, if you wanted to be clear :)
Yes - my experience too.
Are these big walls?
It's a good idea not to put a polish on those - I have seen pro plasterers actually go over with a sponge to rough up the surface, after making sure it is flat and in the right plane.
is polishing ever appropriate? emusion won't easily stick to it, nor tile adhesive - is it best for wallpaper (removal of, later) or summat?
Jim K
I gave up and got a man in.
This one here and the one to the left out of shot:
JGH
Not unreasonable. So did I after the first room.
However, I was glad I tried - because I was able to become "good enough" for all those odd jobs like window reveals after fitting new windows and other patching up.
Looks about 2.5m wide?
That would be about the same as one of my walls in the room I did.
I did have to race to get the 1st coat on. I did get some breathing space on the second coat - though possibly I left it a little too long. With that and cleaning up I think it took me about 5 hours end to end including tools out and tools away - I had to do the school run so doing 2 walls was not possible.
The real plasterers who I hired for the rest of the place did a room twice the size in one go - straight round and round again for the second coat. Ceiling was a seperate job. I admired their fitness.
The problems most people have when plastering are:
1) trying to get it smooth right away - forget it, just get the wall covered as quickly as possible - a 10ft by 8ft wall should take one person no longer than 20 minutes to plaster 1st coat. 2) mixing the plaster, then realising they're not ready to apply it - walls not pva'd, tools not to hand, can't find anything to stand on, socket boxes not in etc etc. 3) mixing it too stiff - it needs to be wet 4) taking too long mixing / overmixing / making too stiff then trying to water down with mixer - what many people don't realise is that from the first moment the powder hits the water, they've got about 40 minutes before it's as hard as a dog's head 5) putting little tiny blobs on the wall and trying to spread them out with each motion - it needs long sweeping movements and each trowel full should cover about 4 square feetso to recap: make sure the wall is ready and you have all tools (clean!) and equipment ready, mix the plaster to a smooth paste slightly thicker than custard, and with no lumps, get the wall covered in long movements, starting at the top and working down to the skirting board, ignoring all lines, marks, lumps, bumps hollows and everything else, then when it's first coated, clean off all trowels etc and wait ten minutes before putting a second thin coat over, this removes 90% of the marks and you shouldn't have broken a sweat
I was taught: clean enough to eat off and buckets clean enough to drink out of !
Oo, I was taught bottom up. Maybe that's why my knees are so painful. Going from a crouch to standing up on each sweep, each time fighting the temptation to kneel down which would leave me unable to stand up again without putting all the tools down :(
Oh, and I take my shoes off. It lets my feet flex and bounce as I go up and down.
JGH
Did you get a blister on your palm just below the 1st finger ?
Did you have to keep going with the raw flesh underneath ?
Anyone know if lime plaster is more or less strenuous? I believe it takes somewhat longer to go off?
I hadn't fully accepted how important this was when putting up some coving a long time ago. Loaded the plaster onto the coving, and it had gone off before I could lift it into place. :-(
Chris
No - but my arms were falling off afterwards.
As Phil L suggested, probably poor technique. The fact I got an end result was more than I was hoping - to become an *effecient* plasterer in only a week would have been a bit much to expect :-o
BUT: it needs to be reasonably flat right away although ridges and dents are OK. It it is too wavy or undulating, you will have problems with the next coat. Just throwing the stuff at the wall does not work ! The trick is to get a good "sweep". If you try and do it too slow that is when you get variations in the thickness. Practice with a trowel and a wall and no plaster. If you can get a consistent "ringing" sound on the edge of the trowel you are getting there.
Ha! I seem to do that sort of thing a lot. Got the grout applied and suddenly get in the car and rush off to buy a sponge (well not quite ...)
Yes.
Yes, but if the first coat is *too* uneven, you will have problems. The first could should be almost flat on the large scale but need not be smooth. The time to polish off (not too much though) is when the plaster has set enough to he like modelling clay that can be manipulated.
Also, good lighting is important. If there is light at a shallow angle it shows up imperfections much more. But if you try to work to too high a standard the job can become "impossible". If you complete a job with flat lighting and then shine a light from a shallow angle you soon realise its not as good as you thought ! Even the pro plastering I had done needed sanding where a wall wash uplighter was going. I tried on a practice board - a piece of contiboard where I could easily scrape off when dry. I eventually gave up as I cannot spend enough time to be happy with the results.
Simon.
You have a lot longer to smooth it off - I think they used it to train on years ago. Simon.
Lime takes ages to go off, no rush at all. It does shrink as it dries though, so expect to have to rework it to get a good surface.
NT
Mind if that goes on the wiki?
NT
I plastered the attic once - because it was there, as they say. Could I go from bricks to smooth finish ???
Not too bad an effort, if I say so myself, but ... never again
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