mucky plasterer

Just hired a plasterer to skim a ceiling. he dropped his gear off last night. His hawk and trowel look worryingly messy - obviously done previous plastering work but not cleaned the tools, to the extent that there is about a half-inch of caked-on plaster on the hawk.

I do a bit of plaster patching and have my own trowel&hawk, which I keep scrupulously clean cos I think it makes the job easier and better. I'm sure Ive seen other professional plasterers keeping their tools clean after a job.

Should I be worried?

i would cover everything with sheets and maybe tape the doors up, plastering a ceiling is perhaps the messiest job aprt from artexing it.

Sounds as though he may have just been in a rush when finishing his last job but then again it only takes 1 minute to clean it all off.

Keep an eye out.

A had a labourer working with me recently. Borrowed one of my bricklaying trowels (without asking). I didn't discover it until the following morning, (with 1/2 inch of mortar on it ). I let him keep the trowel and gave him his bus fare home.

BTW, He had been warned. I had previously caught him using a spirit level to scrape mortar off the walls of the mixer bowl, 14v cordless drill (battery end) to hammer nails into 4x2, and he had even attempted to cut a dense concrete building block with my mitre saw. The trowel was just the last straw. I had even given him one to abuse at will, but no, he had mislayed that, so took one of my good uns.

Coming back to your plasterer, I'd be surprised if he only has one Hawk and Trowel. Chances are, he's got at least one of each that he keeps immaculate. He may well keep these jealously guarded at all times. Perhaps he'll bring them with him when he starts the job. (just trying to be optomistic)

Well, he's been and gone. Big mess, but not a bad ceiling job. Bit of scrim visible here and there but nothing a paintcoat won't hide. I had a "disposable carpet" laid anyway.

how do pro plasterers do it? that uniform silk-smooth finish, I mean!

biggest patch I ever did (about two square meters) needed 3 hours sanding to get it half-ways acceptable. And then I thought it was so bad I wallpapered.

Look here:
//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19996
for really helpful information on plastering - and good luck.