Which plaster to use?

[Bob Minchin]

As a result of a slammed door (the wind took it - honest!!) the plaster and lime mortar render has come off all down the latch side of the door frame. I've taken off the architrave, chipped off all the loose stuff, soaked the exposed blockwork in diluted PVA, nailed and screwed galvanised expanded wire mesh into the gap and just put sand and cement render into the holes and cut it back just below the original plaster level.

So far so good, it is all staying in place and the family have been warned not to breathe within a 10 foot radius whilst it dries.

My question is: what is the best sort of plaster to skim the surface with? Ideally I only want to buy a small amount and having no experience with plastering at all, possibly need plenty of working time to get some sort of decent finish on it.

Once the render has dried, should I use more pva on it to slow the drying time of the plaster down or will this just make it hard for the plaster to stick to the wall.

Recommendations and tips welcome.

I've got plenty of portland cement, would a cement & water mix be any good?

TIA

Bob

[Roger Mills]

How big an area are you talking about? I assume it's maybe 2" wide all down the door frame?

If so, don't mess about with plaster - use Polyfilla. Smooth it into place with a 2" or 3" wide paint scraper. Leave it slightly high, and scrape and/or sand it when set. Then mix up a bit more - slightly more runny than the first lot - to go over any little indentations, and sand it again. This should then be smooth enough to paint.

Roger

[Bob Minchin]

Thanks Roger,

I'm part way through your suggested approach and all is going well so far.I like the idea of scraping rather than sanding to reduce the dust. I'll try that once the first coat is dry.

Bob