Hatch fill & skim job. Feedback and advice for next time

[600rob]

Hi guys,

With the good help and advice from a good a few of you on here I recently boarded up one side of large serving hatch of about 1500x1000 and skimmed it over.

In short I did the following as advised:

I built a timber frame into the existing stud work. Boarded it out with 12.5mm PB inset by about 3mm from the existing plaster.
Removed about 40mm of the existing plaster around the perimeter of the hatch so the old plaster was flush with the new board.
Scrim taped all joints and drywall screws then skimmed the new plasterboard.

It was my first attempt at anything like this but I came out really well and im happy with the job considering id not tried it before.
As a result ill definitely try my hand at jobs involving minor plaster work again
(Only gets better with practice right!)

Now on to the fault finding bit…. The areas that I wasn’t so happy with are the edges where the new plaster meets the old. When painted there is a visible ridge/slight bumpy surface in a few places. The worst being the two of the corners.
Overall it’s not too bad and you only really notice the raised edges when the light hits at a certain angle.

However id like some advice on what I may be able to do to improve it if it is possible without having of skimming the entire wall.

Also can you guys tell me what I could have done better to blend in the edges better and make the join less visible?
Hopefully you guys can advise and ill be able to put it to good use when I do the other side!

 

[loply]

You need to skim it and raise it ever so slightly above the surrounding area, then feather the plaster in as best as possible by spreading it thinly.

As the plaster sets you can blend it in more using a wide soft paintbrush. Keep blending it using a bit of water as required.

After this it may need a gentle sand but you can usually get it more or less invisible.

The trick is the skimmed area must be slightly proud of the surrounding area, use a long straight edge to check. If not you will always have a ridge around it which will stand out.

 

[600rob]

Thanks for the advice mate.

Do you recon there's much I can do to correct my first attempt?