Preparing for plastering

[tryandtryagain]

Hi All,

First post - go easy!

In the past, i've always been a 'we'll get a bloke in' kind of guy - for most things other than painting! And it's usually been my father in law for anything easy - but things like plastering are beyond us.

Times aren't the easiest financially with 3 young kids so going to try to give things a go myself.

Job nr 1 for us is the porch.

The wife is on my case so need to get a move on.

Needs:

- re-plastering
- new plastic window boards
- new 'composite' type door
- floor tiling
- painting

Painting isn't a problem.

Plastic window boards i'm going to have a go at.

Composite door - found one (but any recommends for suppliers appreciated)

Floor tiling - again, going to give it a go.

Plastering - probably going to chicken out on this one - it's a small area, perhaps 6m2 or so tops - £100 i'd hope for a guy for a day - but want to make it as easy for them - thus as cheap - as poss.

So - how do i prep for them? At present, walls are 'artex' type plastered with a patterned type finish. I'm guessing that if i just get someone to skim over this, it will look skimmed over.

So, do i hack the plaster back to bare brick and make it as smooth as possible?

Any help greatly appreciated!

 

[stevethespreader]

leave it for the plasterer to prep then you only have him to blame if it goes wrong bad prep= crap job

 

[tryandtryagain]

Thanks for the response Steve.

Just a quick one though - the wife has maybe said to rip off the existing render and leave the walls back at bare brick.

Is the condition of the walls below likely to be really bad to the point where they can't be cleaned up and made to look ok? Guessing render has been on 20 years or so - if not more!

 

[stevethespreader]

Is the condition of the walls below

not sure what you mean by below was you going to add some pics? anyway there should be no need to remove render if its sound the artex could be skimmed over or scraped off , if skimming over, the high points on the artex should be scraped back for a flatter surface, why dont you upload some pics?