Is this a bad plastering job? urgent answer required

[dan2312]

We hired a plasterer to re-do 1 wall of our front room. It is the gable end wall of our end terrace. We had the bottom half of the plaster knocked\drilled off and re filled and had the entire wall re-skimmed. We noticed how the plaster was drying oddly at the bottom half, leaving strange streaky marks only at the bottom half, the wall appeared to be oozing salt.
Then we waited 3 weeks for it to dry (plaster had gone pale brown), my wife painted the wall with its 1st coat then we noticed this...

Untitled

• dan2312
• 10 Apr 2015
• 1

Untitled

• dan2312
• 10 Apr 2015
• 1

Untitled

• dan2312
• 10 Apr 2015
• 1

We have had the plasterer to come round and attempt to talk his way out of it by blaming damp coming in from the outside with little holes in the wall all down the side but our bricks and cement is fine and the other walls on in the inside are fine.
Then he said we painted it to early, then he said its damp in the cavity but we don't have a cavity because our house was built in 1850s and is therefore solid brick.
We need a quick answer because the plasterer has got someone whom HE knows is a SPECIALIST in damp to come round today and I'm refusing to be fobbed off

My opinion is that its been to skimmed to thin.[/img]

 

[stevethespreader]

Yes its a bad job don't pay him

 

[dan2312]

Could you give me a bit more details as to why its a bad job?

Is it skimmed to thinly or?

I paid him after the job was done, from what I saw the job looked fine and the bad work didn't really show until after painting, even through drying it was impossible to see.

 

[stevethespreader]

The finish is very poor I could do better with my eyes shut

 

[ree]

As above.


Pics 2 and 3 appear to show a kind of blistering effect caused by salt penetration.

You presumably had the bottom half knocked off because of past degeneration to the finished surface? If that degeneration was salt penetration then the plasterer should have known to use a sand and lime mix or a sand and cement mix but not to use gypsum plasters.

Pics of the outside of the gable wall would help, including one at ground level?

 

[roy c]

A lot of people think that if they have a "damp" wall then it is okay to knock it all off and re-render it and skim it, and it will be ok after the plaster has dried out! But what they don't realise is if they don't treat the problem of what has caused them to re-render and skim a room then the problem will come back! I worked for a while in the middle 80's thru to the early 90's in the dry rot treatment and damp proofing walls business. There were a lot of companies that jumped on this band wagon! We were introduced to "products" that could solve "All" of these problems. ie. Damp proof Treatment, (Drill holes in the wall and pump this magic fluid in!!) and the damp in the wall will be solved ! OK! you have solved the damp problem. So you now need a rendering system that will keep the damp out! Ok you will render the out side of the building as normal, but you must put these "Additives" in your mixes .So you put the Companies "Water-proofer" in your first mix. Then you put on your second mix with the recommended "Plasticiser" (with additives) in it.(This was outside rec commendation And everything will be ok.) Well we were told that we must tell the customers that the interior walls will dry out over a period of a certain time and "Salts will disappear over this "Drying out period," and to brush the salts off and not to decorate till the wall produces no more salts!I am talking about old Victorian stone built houses with walls 18" to 20" thick .I followed these instructions to the limit but I now find that a lot of the companies that gave this information out are no longer existing!!! So the moral of what I have been talking about is there are so many different ways to "cure " damp problems , But I think the only way to get a proper job done to the best of a persons ability is to pick an ole plasterers brain!!