Polyfilla

Yes, do it in layers (the instructions on the pack will advise this, too). Otherwise if too much, the stuff will fall out of the hole before it sets, and/or it will take an age for it to dry out properly anyway.

Certainly ordinary plaster goes off... it sets too quickly, which is very likely to cause cracking. Polyfilla is chemically different but I expect may behave similarly... personally I wouldn't use a 3-year-old pack.

David

Use one of the modern 'lightweight' fillers like

I tend to use one big underfill to within a 1-2mm of the surface which may well crack as it sets but that doesn't matter, and then a thin coat polished off with a wet trowel or scraper to match the surrounding surface. No sanding required.

I tend to use plaster rather than polyfilla. I always use plaster which has gone well past it's use-by date for filling, because it sets quickly. I do recall using what must have been very old polyfilla in the past, and don't recall any resulting issues.

That is what I do too... any shrinkage cracks are welcome as they help to provide an extra key for the final finishing coat :-)

I have never had a problem with old polyfilla, even when it was stored in open packages for a few years.

Steve

I used it once to do around the reveal of a patio door. Never again! I'd much rather buy two bags, one of Browning and one of finish. Much easier to work with!

With which product did you have the problem? Polyfilla or single coat plaster?

A variety of Polyfilla whose name escapes me but was something about filling big holes.

I've never had any problem with one-coat plaster.

Certainly the flexible and fine surface ones are pretty bad. I imagine that they have some kind of plastic content because they are pretty much non sandable

So you can't sand filler now. What's the world coming to?

Personally I do sand filler when needed. Don't you bother? Did you want to own up to any other bodging?

But not fine surface filler?

Plaster or jointing filler are a better fine filler anyway.

If you get the results you want using plaster, fine, but it doesn't mean it's a better fine filler. It isn't a filler at all, having none of the qualities of a filler.

That depends on the job at hand.

Single coat plaster. It might have been easier with polyfilla. A browning layer followed by a skim would certainly have been even easier.

Gyproc joint finish I found the best fine surface filler. Is it still available, or is it superceded by 'Jointex' combined filler and finish?

I'm not sure. The last one that I used was made by Lafarge, IIRC, or it might have been Knauf. At any rate, most manufacturers seem to have at least two jointing products - setting and drying types and/or a combination.

I prefer to use a slower product and to sand in between thin layers for most applications. It takes longer but produces a better result than loading in large amounts AFAICS.

If the job in hand doesn't require a fine filler, then don't use one. Doesn't change the fact that there is such a thing as "fine filler" which performs a function that plaster, or jointing compound, doesn't

Was a few months ago last time I bought some at B&Q