hardwall, 4 days old , summer heat, nightmare

[spreadandlay]

been doing some patching and making good, some decent walls some fiddly bits, but i was really really struggling to get the pva level right, trying to find a balance between having 1 second to trowell it or it pushing about! anyone got any hints? or tips,
I gave it all a good coat of pva say a 1pva ; 3 water, that sucked in aboout half a second, then another, let it dry, then one more and hit it when tacky, i got it all around in the end but it was quite the day!

 

[Micilin]

You could try soaking them first .

If you apply PVA the day before it will kill the suction for you. Although we like a bit of suction to help us, little or no suction is better than too high suction. The finish will go off in it's set time, why struggle with it? For chases you could mix it with dirty water , or a little stiffer than usual, to make it a bit quicker

 

[NickB_99]

been doing some patching and making good, some decent walls some fiddly bits

were you building your patches up in two layers or all in one go?
Possibly in two layers would give the first layer chance to steady and take most of the hit for you.
If you were in two layers already - please ignore!