We are replacing the kitchen and we want all the walls and ceiling skimmed; the walls are tiled floor to ceiling and the guy who quoted us for skimming said that the price will depend on the condition of the plaster after removing the tiles: if the plaster is damaged, he will have to dot and dab. He also said he doesn’t do any wet plastering, so I’m left wondering if dot and dab will take much space away compared to traditional wet plastering The wall is just over 3m wide and I’m afraid that if we lose some space due to the combined thickness of plasterboard and plaster blobs, we might not able to fit 5x 600mm wide kitchen units Also, is dot and dab going to be a pain for hanging wall units?
Get another plasterer. Once the tiles are off, it is easy enough to clean up the remaining adhesive and not worry about damage. Then, have the base coat repaired before a final skim - unless you are retiling. Yes, kitchen cabinets which are always heaviliy loaded will be a pain to hang with D&D. edit to add: If he cannot do base/bonding, then you need to ask what the skim will be like!
He's probably thinking if the plaster is a bit loose, it isn't going to skim reliably and overboarding will give him a good surface. If you really are so tight for dimensions you need to be careful anyway because if you have done a check distance at say 1805mm the chances of actually getting 3 x 600 units into the space are chancy - walls are almost always not truly square and when you try and fit a very square cabinet into a not square hole it is often pinched to the extent you can't get it in. It is far safer to plan for 2 x 600's and a 500 in such a tight space. (some suppliers also do 350's and 450's etc.) Filler pieces can then be scribed to the walls for a neat fit. You could also if you really do need to save the last few mm ask the plasterer to look at using 9mm board instead of 12mm and plasterboard foam adhesive instead of dabs - the foam will secure much thinner than traditional dabs so you'd save another few mm there. As to securing wall cabinets to D&D PB - there are literally millions of houses out there with this, and it really is NOT a problem if you use appropriate fixings.
It may not be "he can't do wet plastering" as "no-one will pay me the proper price to do proper plastering and let it dry in between, so I don't bother to quote it"
So, what will the skim be? A bucket of polyfilla? Becasue as far as I know, a plaster skim needs water and is wet!
Come on - we're being silly now. We all know what is meant - the guy doesn't want to do basecoat plastering but is happy to board and skim. I doubt very much that it is "not capable" and is almost certainly "don't want to".
I've seen his previous work at a friend's house and I can assure it looks good and he was using the classic multifinish plaster
I have abandoned dot and dab forever. It's just a quick and dirty and will never compete at any level (except price) with the real thing. If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing it properly!
With my devils advocate hat firmly on , to say D&D cannot compete at any level except price is stretching it. Some benefits of PB:- Its faster - much faster as it doesn't need the same drying time. D&D PB has a marginally better "U" value than wet plaster because of the air gap (not much I admit) D&D opens the possibility of using insulated PB which can significantly improve insulation With foam adhesive it provides a barrier when fixing to salt-poisoned bricks (first hand experience of this) Not saying it is always better, because it obviously isn't - but horses for courses.
Pros and cons to both. I’ll use either method depending on the situation and house construction. I’ve probably solid plastered 80% of my house and only used PB in a couple of areas where it was more applicable or where I’ve used insulated PB, but that is down to the age of the property and my own preferences.
In theory, 12.5mm board + 10mm dab as against 11mm backing + 2mm finish, based on manufactures specs and assuming the walls are plumb and flat
D & D will generally take more space but if this is a consideration then using lots of small dabs and beating hard will cut the difference down, I had this issue in my kitchen and used 9mm board to minimise the thickness.
Or use foam board adhesive, which straight to a flat block wall will only add a couple of mm. This is also the disadvantage of foam. Without any "body", it is much more difficult to knock the boards into place flat against each other on a slightly not-flat wall.