Hi any questions on plastering I will try to help you with and a opportunity for other plasterers to help too thanks Richard !!
Hi I'm plastering my house with a skim coat after I peeled the old wallpaper and found the 1930's plaster to be a bit too rough to paint. I bought a preshaped Marshalltown 14" and a few bags of Multifinish and am doing OK. By that, I mean that after painting some of my first walls, the finish looks smooth, flat and generally acceptable. It's probably not as good as a very experienced plasterer could achieve but its at least as good of a job we paid for in our previous property. I wanted to post my technique so people can advise if there is anything serious I am missing. As I go slowly, I typically only do 1 wall a day, but as its my house there's no hurry and I am saving the £10k that was quoted by the plasterer/decorator that viewed the job. Most of my walls are 3-5m long. My process is: 1. Scrape walls and wash with sugar soap to remove all little scraps and old paste. 2. Masking tape the skirting and door surrounds and attach polythene floor protection. Remove switches/sockets and tape up wires into back-boxes. 3. Roller the wall with PVA (or actually some BAL bonding/sealing liquid). 4. Apply first coat of multifinish (containing a few glugs of PVA) and leave relatively rough until its semi set. 5. Apply second coat of multifinish (again containing a splash of PVA) and gently work until its in good order (flat, smooth, few trowel lines) 6. Have a cup of tea and a bit of shortbread. 7. Trowel the finish with water until smooth. I find the multifinish gives out a light brown 'cream' which is very fine and can be spread into very fine holes, scrapes. Alternatively I may patch a spoonful of plaster in a location where I've notched the finish with my trowel or just can't iron out a trowel line. I'll generally continue wet smoothing until its obvious that the trowel isn't picking anything up and its possible to run a dry trowel across the plaster without it sticking, but I don't usually spend much time or energy dry troweling. Is there anything drastic I am missing? Thanks Paul
Never used Stixall, but as it comes in a tube like silicone I'd be worried its a little thick? Although if you add it into the water at the start (like I do with my PVA) perhaps you can mix it and dilute it down. The idea with PVA is to plasticise the plaster and delay the set a little while. Plaster in general seems to already stick pretty solidly to whatever it comes in contact with. What are you trying to achieve with Stixall? It seems to be a grab-adhesive so would probably encourage the plaster to go off faster?
I use a hand sprayer, find it better than a brush, & prefer a Plaziflex plastic trowel to my metal marshaltown, & the plazi is great on curve surfaces. https://www.refina.co.uk/plaziflex-trowels.php And YOU DO NOT NEED TO ADD PVA TO PLASTER, no end of grief when you come to paint the wall.
As I'm so new to plastering, I'm uncertain about plastic trowels. At what stage are they better? Apparently you don't use water with the plastic trowel? I put PVA to try and prevent my plaster from cracking - I get a number of thin hairline cracks appearing in the weeks after the wall has dried out. I don't think the cracks would show through paint, but I was trying to add a bit of flex into the plaster to stop them appearing at all?
The main reason for cracking is the wall sucking the moisture out of the plaster, wet the wall first before plastering or prime with water/pva diluted 5/1 will reduce the suction of the wall & also if the room is too warm when plaster is drying, it will crack. As to plastic trowels, use them for laying on,finishing & skimming & I use water in a hand sprayer to polish off,others use wet brush, taking care not to over polish the plaster. Using a plastic trowel is lighter, easier on the arms,faster, especially doing ceilings, the plaziflex has replacable blades available in various widths. Delehedy is another nice plastic trowel.
Well, if experienced guys are loving the plastic trowels, maybe I should make the leap earlier rather than later. I could trial one on a little piece of wall somewhere I'm sure. I have 1 ceiling which I cannot avoid doing so anything that makes that easier is worth it. There's also a case of 'if it ain't broke...' though. I mean my Dad still paints walls with a brush and I'm trying to get him onto rollers. Probably the room is too warm during drying. Wife's fault. I have started turning off the radiator in the room I've just finished so maybe that will help.
Being lightweight is what impresses,no strain on the wrist, arms,etc, skimmed one artex ceiling here & it was hard going with a metal trowel, did artex ceiling in kitchen with plastic trowel, was quicker, easier to polish off & no arm ache. And you can't cut yourself with a plastic trowel, any nicks in the blade can be rubbed out,with bit of fine glasspaper.
I use without foam, the foam blades are used for curved or contoured surfaces. You don't need water to skim with them, but I do use some water, old habits I'm afraid. Do you homework before buying, I'm a bit out of touch with Plaziflex,Delehedy range today, my Plaziflex dates from 2010, so there will be improvements with the newer version, the old white blade has been replaced with a grey blade,& black blade is still the same.
You don't put pva in with finish !! Plus buy a flexy trowl your one could be leaving Lines because it's new !!
[QUOTE="Jack of almost all Trades, post: 1494212, member: What are you trying to achieve with Stixall? It seems to be a grab-adhesive so would probably encourage the plaster to go off faster?[/QUOTE] As your a new member, I'm guessing you've not been introduced to kools before !