RE-PLASTERING OLD HOUSE

[DeletedUser]

I have recently brought a 1940-1950's house and have stripped some wallpaper off one of the bedroom ceilings. The plaster underneath is grey and has cracks in it. Money is tight at the moment so I was hoping to do a plastering course and re-plaster the house myself. Having only attempted plastering once, which was a bit of a disaster, is this going to be a mammoth task? considering I will only have weekends to do it and virtually every room in the house will probably need doing.
Any tips would be gratefully received, when I tried plastering the bathroom ceiling I think I used something call smoothover as that ceiling had been covered with plasterboard and artexed. Trouble is even then most of the plaster ended up on floor or on my head.

 

[makitaman]

Whenever you see a pro plaster walls and ceilings it looks so easy.I would hazard a guess that if you started to replaster your entire house after doing one bedroom wall you would think 'what have I bitten off'.
Also remember that the standard of finish on the walls is what you and any future buyers will see. By all means have a go yourself, try doing the smallest room to start with and see how you go. Take your time and be patient, it is possible to achieve that perfect blemish free surface but it takes alot of effort and practice.
Good luck

 

[Tozzy]

I was actually looking at plastering courses last month and was totally gobsmacked at some of the prices. Having said that, it's probably well worth the money as these particular courses cover everything and involves intensive training. I would quite like to try some courses, but don't really exhibit the confidence. I'm not saying that I would never be able to complete the course successfully, but it would be quite a nerveracking experience. Anyway, the course is over £2000 , but if you're under 19 (which I am), then you can take the course for free . However, it's not long until my birthday so, I don't think I'd be eligible to attend the course free of charge. Ah well, I will just have to train myself and hope it all goes well.

Anyway, I agree you should do small room first. Read as much as you can. Always develop a strategy. Skimming and hoping for the best is not really always going to deliver expected results. If the job doesn't turn out as expected, ask yourself what went wrong and try to resolve the problem.

Money is tight at the moment so I was hoping to do a plastering course and re-plaster the house myself.

It could possibly be cheaper to bring in the professionals than to do a course and you'd have your house plastered with a really nice smooth finish, but I'm not sure about price comparisons.

I really can't wait to have a bash at plastering as I've never done it before. To be honest though, pointing to me seems rather complex so, I dread to think what plastering is like . Then again, I'm still trying to decide on the best strategy for pointing.

Good luck .

 

[noseall]

cue the Hovis music...........da...de....daa.....de....daaa....

when i were a lad......


seriously, the best way to learn plastering is to labour to a pro. i learned by watching and trying to repeat what i saw.

 

[JohnD]

Of all the DIY jobs, plastering is the one where it is most difficult to do it right until you gave practiced on lots of houses belonging to other people and also the one where any poor worksmanship will be staring you in the face for as long as you live there.

Save up and find a good pro

 

[Tozzy]

cue the Hovis music...........da...de....daa.....de....daaa....

when i were a lad......

lol slightly different to... erm, say someone like eminem? lol I don't really follow the pop charts.

seriously, the best way to learn plastering is to labour to a pro.

You mean hire a pro and then pay them a bit extra to guide me through? Do you reckon they'd mind? Would be good if they guided us through. Having said that, they might not like being put on the spot like that . I don't know about anyone else, but when I'm working, I feel a bit uncomfortable people inspecting what I'm doing; puts me off.

 

[makitaman]

Unfortunately hiring a pro and paying him a bit extra won't help you. For a start of you'd need to be with them on a few jobs to learn the basics, and most just don't have the time to show you. This isn't just plastering but all the trades, when I'm on the job as it were it can be quite awkward when customers start to ask more in depth questions. By all means having a chat is fine but when you've got your head down you need to get on and get out to the next job.

 

[simon_t]

Hi,

I've had a go at plastering and found it to be an absolute b*****d I was chasing the wall to lay the wiring into the plaster and each time I hit the plaster with the chisel lumps of plaster the size of saucers fell off!

In the end I just removed all the plaster and wire brushed the wall to remove all the dust and crap and gave it a go.

If you decide to try make sure you have all the gear you'll need at hand and as the others have suggested start small. The one bit I would really recommend is preping the whole wall with bonding\PVA and don't try to get away with plastering on bits you haven't, it'll crack and look crap...I know I tried and ended up knocking it off and starting again (But at least I know for the future ).

Also try getting a "Derby" so you can skim over the surface and level it off. Or any rigid straight edge will help. And when to find out how to plaster cleanly up to the ceiling into the corner, please tell me as mine look s**t and will need plenty of snadpaper action to bring them up to standard.

Good luck and let us see how it turns out, nothing ventured, nothing gained...and only a few quid lost in the process

 

[Tozzy]

Hi,

I've had a go at plastering and found it to be an absolute b*****d I was chasing the wall to lay the wiring into the plaster and each time I hit the plaster with the chisel lumps of plaster the size of saucers fell off!

Why didn't you just patch up the parts that fell off? Would have saved you a hell of a lot of time and effort. You would have had to repaper too, but that's nothing compared to plastering .

 

[DeletedUser]

Thanks for all you advice, have recently found a local company which offers plastering courses for £250 which is for 5 days. So, I plan to do a course once I have some money and if I turn out to be rubbish at it then I just wallpaper the entire house again, wallpapering I can do. Am planning to start with the spare room first for practise, noting ventured nothing gained.

 

[simon_t]

Why didn't you just patch up the parts that fell off? Would have saved you a hell of a lot of time and effort. You would have had to repaper too, but that's nothing compared to plastering .

Because the areas that fell off allowed you to see that the there was a gap between the plaster and the wall, it all just came off by hand

Next house we buy I'm going to go around the whole house with a toffee hammer to check how sound the plaster is and get money knocked off, hopefully.

Anyway you live and learn and now I have extra respect for plasterers

 

[AndersonC]

Ask/look in the building forum. There is stacks of stuff on plastering.

You need to learn a hell of a lot, I've ben picking up my plasterting skills gradually over the last 12 months.

Mixing is a vital element - you have to get the consistency spot on, and get it well mixed.

Use of a hawk and float may seem easy, but try it when you've got a hawk full of plaster running off - this takes some time to get used to the wrist movements required.

Getting used to the amount of pressure to use with the float on the wall is another thing that requires mastering, this varies with the different stages of skimming and the condition of the wall.

All in all, I recommend doing patch up jobs yourself to learn the basics, and getting prefessionals in to do large areas and ceilings. It will take years of practice to get to a sufficient standard to plaster a whole house properly - and you aren't going to get that unless you take a job as a plasterer's mate.