How good should our new walls be?

[Richard C]

got "We've never had a problem in 20yrs he's been working for us"

He’s avin a larf! As I said earlier, just ask him if he would accept that standard of work on a job completed in his own house; usually gets them as the answer is obvious unless they live in a hovel!

If that guy's a plasterer, which I doubt, he's an absolute disgrace & has no idea, what the hell has he been doing during his 20 years of experience; he didn't bring a white stick & dog with him did he!

 

[roy c]

Now,now Richard thats no way to talk about an old blind plasterer

 

[Nixdorfer]

Thanks for the replies so far,

Knowing I'm not the only one who thinks it bad has given me the confidence to pull them up on it now and insist its sorted properly. They try and fob you off with excuses when they think they can get away with it.

Found out a mates relative is a plasterer so managed to get him to call round tonight. He just confirmed what you all said... its a bad job (rough as a bears xxxx was also mentioned)
He's marked a load of the faults out on the walls and some I'd not even noticed, so at least they can tell someones had a look. He was a bit bewildered how it could be so far out in places.

The brickwork and floor also came under criticism but that's yet another problem. We may get an architect to give us a report on the state of everything as we've lost confidence in this firm and just so there's no more surprises later.

See what tomorrow brings

 

[roy c]

The one consolation you have got is that you haven't paid them all their money. Some others are probably not so lucky......

 

[Nixdorfer]

Update:

Had them round today, went as expected really

As soon as he came in the plasterer mentioned the beading he'd joined and said he's sort it, I didn't realise he'd also done it on the other side. Then also mentioned a bit on the wall next to it saying he'd skim some marks out.
Apart from that they both couldn't see any other problems I had to take them round and point them out even though the plasterer last night had drawn around them all in biro.

The basic feedback was 'you can't expect it to be perfectly flat, its not a machine finish' , 'its because you didn't have any skirting boards to work to' , 'your wiring was sticking out too far'

Basically told him its a bad job where he then got stroppy and said I might be better giving the job to the other guy. Told him I just want flat straight walls at the end of the day whoever does it.
He whinged a couple of times on the cost of materials to fix it, seemed to be more worried about his pocket than the walls.

Mentioned one of the worst bits of wall could do with the board replacing as its too far out. Its only 750x550mm, he pulled his face and said you're looking at £120 of board to sort it all out!! since when did a conservatory use 24 8x4 sheets of board?
They then asked for some more money towards the final cost due to the time its taking and they're out of pocket

Gonna have to make it 100% clear if its still not right after he's been again they aren't getting a bean till it is.

 

[jbonding]

120 quid for boards lol The cost of all the materials is around 60 quid in total. Get it redone and deduct the price he aint gonna get it right second time round i can guarantee you that.

 

[Nixdorfer]

Amazingly two days earlier he was saying how he liked conservatories as its only £50 of materials and £150 labour for a days work.

In hindsight it was probably a mistake to give him a chance to fix it, he's more likely to mess it up than fix it. But if its not right then they don't get paid

His and the DG guys attitude sucks to be honest and I can see this dragging on and on.

 

[roughcaster]

You would never fit skirting boards to a wall, and then skim the wall to suit the skirting. You can fit "wooden grounds" to a wall and coat out to the thickness of the "ground", but that would be Float and Set plastering, and mostly onto solid walls, not when skimming plasterboard.....The shape that your walls are in, you would need more than a skim coat to straighten them out, and you're right, to try and skim over rough areas of skimming is not a good idea. .......And if the wiring was sticking too far out, then whose fault was that? He plastered the wall. Get the surveyor back as RichardC suggested, and don't pay any money up front for the plasterer to buy materials to sort out his bodged work. Mention involving Trading Standards too.

Roughcaster.

 

[Nixdorfer]

Seemed a daft way of doing it to me as well, that why it said I'd add them myself later so they'd have to plaster the full wall.
The wirings only 2.5mmm twin and earth pinned to the wall so hardly massive. The rest was trunking that I'd chased into the brickwork and all the boxes were sunk leaving them 10mm proud.

I don't recall seeing a surveyor of theirs, I doubt they have one.

The plasterers turned up this morning and is on it right now so we'll know the outcome when I get back this evening. I'm not holding much hope to be honest. I have a feeling he'll just try and smooth it to look better but the walls will still be all over the place.

If its not spot on this time I'll get someone else in to do it right and give them the bill.

 

[Richard C]

Seemed a daft way of doing it to me as well, that why it said I'd add them myself later so they'd have to plaster the full wall.
The wirings only 2.5mmm twin and earth pinned to the wall so hardly massive. The rest was trunking that I'd chased into the brickwork and all the boxes were sunk leaving them 10mm proud.

I don't recall seeing a surveyor of theirs, I doubt they have one.

The plasterers turned up this morning and is on it right now so we'll know the outcome when I get back this evening. I'm not holding much hope to be honest. I have a feeling he'll just try and smooth it to look better but the walls will still be all over the place.

If its not spot on this time I'll get someone else in to do it right and give them the bill.

How’s he doing it? I would expect to fill & rectify out the problem areas first & then re-skim the whole wall, it’s the only way you can really guarantee you wont see the join. It is possible to “blend in” locally but Multi/Boardfinish is not particularly easy to do this with, it requires experience & fair bit of hard towelling. Be wary if he’s’ not rectifying first & then re-skimming the whole wall, you may well end up with a series of “plaster blobs” that stand proud with rough edges around them that no amount of paint will hide. Looking at the photos, in all honesty, I don't think this guy is up to it & the rrectification work is likely to look worse rather than better.

As the others have already said, the rest of the excuses on skirting, cables etc are just a load of old carp. If you’ve any pride in your work, you just don't walk into a room & plaster what you see; preparation (& sometimes condemnation of what your presented with) is everything & a part of the job. I wouldn't plaster over poorly presented/prepared surfaces or boards even if I was told “just go ahead“. The finished result is your reputation & I would walk away with the words “if you don’t want to put it right or pay me to put it right, get someone else to do it“.

 

[jbonding]

In a conny there are only usually 4 skim beads involved they are a pound each and matching them up on a 3 foot section is embarising, i ve never seen it in my life, ive matched them up (2.4 TO 2.4) in the past, but this is penny pinching and bad. Like i said in a previous post this guy is not capable of putting it right, It is easier to do it the first time round, a lot harder to put right.

 

[roughcaster]

In a conny there are only usually 4 skim beads involved they are a pound each and matching them up on a 3 foot section is embarising, i ve never seen it in my life, ive matched them up (2.4 TO 2.4) in the past, but this is penny pinching and bad. Like i said in a previous post this guy is not capable of putting it right,

It is easier to do it the first time round, a lot harder to put right.

Snap. Agree with ya JB.

Roughcaster.

 

[roy c]

Very unusual to have to join beads, but sometimes when you haven't got the full lengths to finish a job and you have two"cuts" that will make the lenght it is easy to put them together by putting a matchstick inbetween them or a sheradised pin and nipping the bead up..... Have also joined standard angle-beads together with a p/board nail with the head cut off..

 

[roughcaster]

Going off topic Roy, but in answer to your question about a stranded whale in Scotland, it wasn't in our neck of the woods,"beach".

Roughcaster.

 

[roy c]

Sorry rc when I seen Moray on your heading I thought it was Moray Firth up in Scotland. Because when we were up in Edinburgh and heard about it I thought old Roughcaster would be watchin' the goings on ...Sorry about the "old"