Plastering

I tried it once.
I damped the walls down, made up what I thought was a good mix of plaster, put some on the hawk, then introduced the plaster to the wall.
Neither the plaster nor the wall said anything to one another, but something must have happened, because they had a falling out and the plaster decided that it's new, best friend was the floor.

As you said - never again.
 
Something I never do. I have a tame plasterer by the name of Sandy who deals with all my plastering needs.
 
arclight said:
Are you sure that you were not "plastered" when you attempted the job.
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Getting plastered should be a mandatory reward for anyone trying it! Damn YouTube videos lead you into a serious false sense of security as you reach the ultimate anti climax of failure. I'm going to make my own YouTube tutorial for plastering which consists of me using my mobile phone to dial an experienced professional.
 
One of those things that looks like it should be easy....but definitely isn't. I'll have a go at most diy jobs but I leave plastering to a pro.
 
I've been in the plastering game for thirty years, and still learning with the stuff, even plastering day in day out, you always seem to get the stuff on you'r-self.
its the most underrated trade, nearly everyone says '' it can't be that hard '' its just putting it on a wall and flattening it...yeah right' you try it,
its all practice ,and knowing how the stuff drys is the learning curve, all walls are not the same when worked on, but it is rewarding, to transform something crap, and make it look great ..
the money is no-ware near like the other trades ..approx £120 a day down our way..
 
Over the years I've plastered our entire house and it looks fine but I never got better with practice, the last wall was just as difficult as the first. I've watched many plasterers on site over the years and they do seem to be some of the thickest guys on site, but give them a float and they are amazing. They seem to have lots of time to chit chat, read the paper, stop what they're doing and discuss last night's game while waiting for the plaster to go off to the point that they can give it it's final polish, me i'm running round like an idiot covered in the stuff.
 
mark richards said:
I've been in the plastering game for thirty years, and still learning with the stuff, even plastering day in day out, you always seem to get the stuff on you'r-self.
its the most underrated trade, nearly everyone says '' it can't be that hard '' its just putting it on a wall and flattening it...yeah right' you try it,
its all practice ,and knowing how the stuff drys is the learning curve, all walls are not the same when worked on, but it is rewarding, to transform something crap, and make it look great ..
the money is no-ware near like the other trades ..approx £120 a day down our way..
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Seriously. Wow I'm surprised about that. More like three times that my way. I could pay you double and pay for a hotel and be quids in. I'm genuinely surprised about that.
 
I tried plastering a small patch of wall in the bathroom. No more than 50cm by 50cm. I still messed it up. Going to have another go when it's warmer. I think the radiator had something do with the problem.
 
It's a dark art, once perfected you are a god. used a few over the years and it's suprising how many are average.
 
dejongj said:
Seriously. Wow I'm surprised about that. More like three times that my way. I could pay you double and pay for a hotel and be quids in. I'm genuinely surprised about that.
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yeah, perhaps thats why we are fully booked ..:LOL: priced a place a fortnight ago, recommended by someone that we were already doing work, for, a million pound plus property it was a pub that was being renovated into a house the kitchen ceiling was approx 60 plasterboard's on its own, he wanted all the block walls dry-lined (dot and dabbed) and a s***load of plastering done, a nightmare to price, all the upstairs ceilings were vaulted so needed tower scaffold to reach the high points plus lots of nooks to play about with, my boss give him a price of £17000 which i thought was way low going on the size of the property probably 3 months work in total or longer,the guy said that he never budgeted for that amount and it was way over top ,not sure if he found anyone else, he didnt mind paying £50000 for a kitchen thou, perhaps hes fitting them on the block walls instead :LOL:
 
We've just done a full attic conversion, way over the top structural additions but the council insisted. 14x13 room, walk in storage room, large stairs and landing area very high up also with difficult access and kitchen ceiling was also redone for £640 which I thought was very good. It was a skim onto plasterboard and not full plaster. Three day job.

Unfortunately the plaster in the newly cut vertical canals where the new electrical cables where installed sank a little so you could see the indent when it dried and also the part where the new plaster met the original walls in the landing needed a little more blending so I had a go at it. Thankfully the plaster I used can be sanded easily but it wasn't fun trying to plaster it.

I kept making the mistake of trying to go over it again to get it better and often just made it worse.
 
My nephew is a plasterer and we have had work done by him. As per others remarks, not something I would attempt if I wanted the best of quality work!
 
andy700 said:
I tried it once.
I damped the walls down, made up what I thought was a good mix of plaster, put some on the hawk, then introduced the plaster to the wall.
Neither the plaster nor the wall said anything to one another, but something must have happened, because they had a falling out and the plaster decided that it's new, best friend was the floor.

As you said - never again.
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Did you not put PVA/water mix on the wall?
 
Some things are best to let to the people skilled to do them. I think plastering is one of those things! At least you gave it a go though.
 
Just finished with the sand paper and thank God it was very easily sandable. It actually now looks half decent although perhaps a generous half. I guess time will tell though after the undercoat has gone on but I'm not revisiting it as I'm now out of time. The house is 100 years old anyway so I'll just class it as 'character' from now on.
 
Just had some work priced up, two good sized rooms skimmed over artex ( wife hates it). £700
 
andy700 said:
Yes, that was the first thing I did as stated in my post, although it was water, not water and PVA.
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It really needed diluted pva on the wall first, not just water. The pva seals the surface and stops the water in the plaster mix getting sucked straight into the wall. That's why your plaster didn't stick. ;)
 
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