Easiest way to fill electrical chases?

[jertum]

Hi,

New here so apologies if this is in the wrong place.

We've just bought our first house and had the place fully rewired, which has left a lot of ugly chasing up the walls in every room. It's an old Victorian terrace and the plaster is mostly original or really old, so it's inevitably caused a lot of cracking and crumbling.

We plan to have the whole house re-plastered as and when money allows, but in the meantime we're going to have to fill the chases and use lining paper to get the place in a reasonable state.

I've been using Polyfilla Deep Gap for some of the worst cracks/holes before the rewire and have found it to be very easy to use and it sets hard, which is quite reassuring. I was wondering if it'd be a suitable product to use for the chasing, as I've bought quite a few tubs from a local discount DIY shop - although it's still pretty expensive for such a small amount. It can apparently fill holes of up to 20mm, but can be applied in layers for deeper holes. Given that most of the chasing goes back to brick, do you think it'd form a strong enough repair to last a couple of years until we can afford to re-plaster? I'm a complete amateur so the easier the better really...

 

[Notch7]

Forget polyfilla

Get a bag of easifill.

Always get dry mix products.

Maybe even a bag of bonding.

Brush off dust first and maybe do coat of pva, then easifill / bonding plaster -it sets hard so leave it 3 to 4mm below surface.

Then finish with top coat plaster.

 

[nickjb]

+1 for easifil. Good stuff, easy to use. For a chase I would fill to a couple of mm below the surface then go over it again with a final skim. The key to a good finish is timing the sanding. Just after sets but before it gets too hard. Then it is a couple of quick wipes with the sand paper. They do a bag with several smaller sachets in. That is quite good for a DIYer as it lasts

 

[jertum]

Thanks for all your help with this - much appreciated. I ended up using hardwall and skimmed over that, which actually went OK considering my lack of skills!

 

[atlantisweb]

Another vote for easifil worked better than ready mixed products and way cheaper