plastering!!!

[PEM]

Today as the plasterer informally use is on hols I thought I'd have a go at a ceiling having just fixed 10 JCC LED's.

I like to work on the 60/40% rule only then wearing 40% of the plaster home.

Failed!!!

It is a dark craft is plastering and no matter how I do it the industrial sander and poly filler is much needed.

Any of you guys mastered this dark craft? If you have please share the secret with a lesser mortal.

 

[shanky887614]

Getting plastered, on the the other hand, I'm more than capable of doing myself.

unless we talking about darting then I would rather be completely newcastled

[video=youtube;sHnBppccI0o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHnBppccI0o[/video]

 

[7029 dave]

There is an art to it, it's all in the wrist action.!!

 

[NDG Elecs]

Actual witchcraft.

Your right there. I have seen spreads actually make backboxes completely vanish !!

My current client has the right idea - he gets his various properties fully skimmed and then asks me to rewire them! Not grasped the concept of ' first fix' me thinks......

 

[PEG]

I know it is fashionably expected to diss our spread allies,but a good plasterer IS an artist. I was shown by my mates grandad how to set grounds and work with gelatin and alum,egg n' dart etc he said gypsum was chemical based and not "proven",bless im' ...It is a craft that is hard to do well if you are not doing it all the time,some of my spread buds say it takes a few days to "flow" after a holiday or break,so to just start skimming a ceiling one day would limit your facility to err...I have done two good ceilings at my first house,but i had already vandalised a few more,learning. It's like lovemaking...if you try too hard,you leave a mess and nobody gets thanked...:broken_heart:

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Watch a plasterer. Use proper materials and the correct tools same as a plasterer. Most people make a balls of it because they cut corners or use 'one coat/easyplast' type junk.
Do it the same way as the spreads do and it doesnt take much practice to be filling chases to a high standard. A bit more to be plastering walls and ceilings granted!

 

[PEM]

Didn't think anything in plastering could evoke a sexual conortation how wrong! Maybe it's all in the wrist action and that's where I'm going wrong however never used both hands for plastering.

 

[J@mes]

I'm in the middle of modernising my home and we're having every wall and ceiling plastered after 40 years of artex and woodchip wall paper.

It's an art, witchcraft, absolute mystery. Seriously. But the guy doing it manages to get an absolute mirror smooth finish on every surface and it looks amazing when it's been painted. Even where I've chased out new socket and lighting points.

Sure, he costs a fair bit of money but I'd probably spend the same in plaster and end up with rooms six inches smaller if I tried to do it!

 

[SPARTYKUS]

I agree, its witchcraft.

 

[PEG]

My mates dad,proper old school spread,manages to get his body,van and work area all looking like a hookers' bedsheet...but the wall?...like float glass :saddam:

 

[SPARTYKUS]

My mates dad,proper old school spread,manages to get his body,van and work area all looking like a hookers' bedsheet...but the wall?...like float glass :saddam:

remember one telling me once if the decorators annoy them they can keep running the trowel on a patch of wall over and over again at the end and actually make it so smooth paint won't adhere to it. Like glass!

 

[PEM]

Finally finished ceiling albeit with the aid of a sander and large amount of polyfiller.
Any of you guys who can't master this dark art thought about a plastering course or is it the case that if you don't do it everyday you'll never master it?
Me thinks probably leave it to those who can or is that defeatist?

 

[7029 dave]

remember one telling me once if the decorators annoy them they can keep running the trowel on a patch of wall over and over again at the end and actually make it so smooth paint won't adhere to it. Like glass!

Good point, remember some old spread telling me that too

 

[imago]

is it the case that if you don't do it everyday you'll never master it?
Me thinks probably leave it to those who can or is that defeatist?

It's not so much that it can't be mastered. Applying skim to a good finish is simply a matter of basic technique and lots of practice. However it genuinely is a perishable skill, so unless you're at it at least every week you drop off.

On top of that there are a lot of things to consider before you get to the skimming stage. As with electrics, there is no substitute for experience.