About to plaster walls but...

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R3X

R3X

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I have now got all my tools and a £5 bag of 25k plaster for my walls.

Walls have had wallpaper removed, scrubbed and cleaned and patched with fillet and sanded down already. Watched few youtube plaster on wall vids also.

But question I have can I add PVA mixed in with equal water to the walls and then use plaster or do I mix the PVA + water and then add this to the plaster power mix ?

Also can it says 2mm and 2 coats max ? Can I not add 3 or 4 layers of plaster if say required ?


Any advice before plastering is appreciated since first time !
 
thanks was getting confused with the back of the bottle saying mix it in the plaster.

Do I let the pva dry completely or just apply it to the wall and then plaster straight away?

Also one coat only? many suggest first coat is just for coverage and then 2nd coat to cover further and dry and smooth off evenly...
 
Oh crikey I hope this goes well for you! Are you really planning to attempt to skim walls after watching a few youtube videos with no experience whatsoever?:eek:

How many walls do you plan to cover with just one bag?

It's, erm, quite an art from. Not just a matter of following some instructions.

Maybe you're just a natural at this stuff and it'll be fine?

Good luck! You're braver than me anyway :). I did everything in my renovation including structural alteration, window replacement, all water and heating plumbing (except gas), tiling, stud walls, plasterboarding, all electrics, built the kitchen...

Plastering - I got a pro in!:)
 
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R3X said:
thanks was getting confused with the back of the bottle saying mix it in the plaster.

Do I let the pva dry completely or just apply it to the wall and then plaster straight away?

Also one coat only? many suggest first coat is just for coverage and then 2nd coat to cover further and dry and smooth off evenly...
Click to expand...

It wont go completely dry. Well it will but then it'll go to its non dry state when you add wet plaster to it.

I'm pretty sure all my plasterers only do the job once. If the wall needs building out it'll be done with bonding plaster not multi finish.
 
Ill see how it goes with the first coat, just noticed after watching like 30 plastering wall vids on youtube many do apply a thin coat of finish plaster more about coverage, any air bubble or any uneven parts the 2nd coat takes care of it but since they smooth it out on the 2nd coat guess it can be done on the first coat?

Still would be interesting to hear other opinions on this !
 
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Liampope said:
Oh crikey I hope this goes well for you! Are you really planning to attempt to skim walls after watching a few youtube videos with no experience whatsoever?:eek:

How many walls do you plan to cover with just one bag?

It's, erm, quite an art from. Not just a matter of following some instructions.

Maybe you're just a natural at this stuff and it'll be fine?

Good luck! You're braver than me anyway :). I did everything in my renovation including structural alteration, window replacement, all water and heating plumbing (except gas), tiling, stud walls, plasterboarding, all electrics, built the kitchen...

Plastering - I got a pro in!:)
Click to expand...

You did all but then got a pro in to put plaster on a board? :D

I could not even do one of those things you did since am useless at DIY but thanks to youtube and learning how people do it you can do it too.

Fixed a faulty valve the other day in my water tank and it cost £8 while the repair man wanted £185 for a 10 minute job, fixed a TFT I was about to replace with a £150 replacement with a 58p capacitor and did not die in the process haha

This is the internet era am surprised you shyed away from plastering !

I have watched 30+ and even tiny women are mixing plaster mix with clean water and just spreading it on the wall ! < and that is without PVA !

Am sure it will take time and practice to master but am not looking for amazing results first time. In fact I will practice on a very small wall on top (where no one looks) so ill apply a very thin coat (1mm) and smooth it out and see how it looks for now. If it is not good ill apply a second coat and make it even worse and then come on here saying you were right :p
 
I have to admit when I look at one part of the wall and then the rest of the house I do instantly loose 100% motivation and look to go back to sloppy lazy man style of just paint on top of dirt and several layers of paint or wallpaper again ;)

I have had to keep telling myself no lazy excuses and just try it.

I will pop back here with my first experience haha
 
I taught myself to plaster, its not that difficult to get a good finish to be honest but what is difficult is the time it takes to do so. I am so insanely slow at it that I decided it simply wasn't worth my time or bother to do it myself anymore so I found an excellent plasterer and never touched a bag of multi-finish since!
 
Yeah was very tempted to get some quotes but concerned plasterers would take a mini fortune for what feels like £100 per room be it one guy or 2. I reckon they may charge a fortune per room!

Once its done painting is more then ok for me to do alone.

Looking over at all those youtube vids the guys have shown videos of young guys doing an entire wall in 5 minutes.

Followed by a guy in his 40s saying you will kill yourself if you carry at that pace :p

Looking at the other vids a good 30-60 mins per wall ?

I have all the time in the world and not in any rush well the family want it done in 5 minutes but that is never gonna happen !

Anyhow awaiting for the PVA mixed with some water to dry and then give it a bash !
 
Really keen so see how you get on
Plastering is an art
If you take too much time then the surface will start to dry and you'll never get it smooth
Plastering is one of the few jobs which has to be done well
 
Yup see exactly why people just call the plaster out !

I did a very small wall at first but ran into problems.

Applied PVA mixed with little water and applied to small wall and let it dry.

Added clean water to plaster mix in bucket and stirred well to get rid of bubbles, consistency looked good not too runny or thick and it stayed on the trowel.

Applied thin layer (like 1mm) to wall and waited 15-20 mins and smoothed it over as best can. Wall looked awesome and better then before.

Now onto the issue its starting to dry up and I see lots of hair line tiny cracks forming, I doubt this is normal ?

Any ideas on this one.... could it be the PVA ?
 
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its "usually" because its drying too fast, this can either be because the house is to hot or the base is sucking water out of the skim. The fact that you used PVA though should limit the amount of suction.
 
R3X said:
You did all but then got a pro in to put plaster on a board? :D

I could not even do one of those things you did since am useless at DIY but thanks to youtube and learning how people do it you can do it too.

This is the internet era am surprised you shyed away from plastering !
Click to expand...

The stuff I took on required mostly knowledge - of the regulations, best practice, etc, and just basic practical skills. The knowledge is what you can learn from the internet.

The closest thing I did to a task that requires true skill, heaven forbid even talent, was the tiling. That went fine even though I chose probably the most difficult possible style of tiles and pattern for my walls (hindsight is a wonderful thing). But plastering is all the way on that end of the scale, imho - very little actual knowledge required - mostly pure skill which takes a long time to learn.

I used to do summer work on building sites, so watched a few and they make it look easy, but really it's magic. I tried a small patch once and it didn't go well, admittedly that was without the benefit of Youtube training, so I was probably scared off more than I might have been. It's internal corners - I don't understand how they are possible. If it was just a flat edgeless wall then maybe - just maybe :).

So that's why I got a pro. Even for a pro with a mate it took 3 days if I recall to do my little two bed bungalow but that was including the ceilings. And that was with me doing all the prep, drylining where needed, scraping the ceiling artex smooth enough, etc. It was a thing of great beauty though. It was the stage of the whole renovation that suddenly made it go from construction site to finished house. And the corners all so perfect, especially to the ceilings, that I didn't even want to hide them with coving, so left it clean and modern looking.

So I totally admire you for having a go and wish you good luck! :)

As for your current problem I'm not sure. If you have mixed correctly I'd say cracks forming must be from drying too quickly. Possibly as your coat is too thin or house too warm, etc etc. Also, when you watch a pro they seem to know if it's drying too quickly and will revisit areas and splash/spray water on if required.
 
R3X said:
Yup see exactly why people just call the plaster out !

I did a very small wall at first but ran into problems.

Applied PVA mixed with little water and applied to small wall and let it dry.

Added clean water to plaster mix in bucket and stirred well to get rid of bubbles, consistency looked good not too runny or thick and it stayed on the trowel.

Applied thin layer (like 1mm) to wall and waited 15-20 mins and smoothed it over as best can. Wall looked awesome and better then before.

Now onto the issue its starting to dry up and I see lots of hair line tiny cracks forming, I doubt this is normal ?

Any ideas on this one.... could it be the PVA ?
Click to expand...

Before it dries you should spray it with water and keep tooling it up to smooth it out. The water will create a very thin slurry of plaster that will fill any hairline cracks that have developed and also stop the plaster fully drying out too fast.

It doesnt matter too much on the first coat, just make sure you tool it up well before it dries on the second coat and mist the surface on the final tool up.

I'm no expert, but did manage to do a very good job of the few bits I have done around the house. I just watched videos on youtube and had a bit of a practise on a small wall before tackling larger areas.
 
I think that is where I went wrong I tried just one coat of plaster about 1mm for now, it felt like it needed a 2nd coat just after 15-20 minutes.

I did not spray water and smooth it out more and I did not factor in this heat! I just spread it on first and waiting 15 minutes then used the trowel to spread and smooth it over as best can and then dry. It was only a few hours later it developed many cracks.

Should I leave it to dry overnight and apply a second coat of skim and smooth it out tommorow and use water spray gun in case I see dry cracks or do you guys think I should scrape it all off and clean the wall and start afresh?
 
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