I recently removed the bottom 10" of render/plaster on a party wall in my newly-bought home. This is in the front room and dining room.
The plaster had bubbled up and the render was crumbling, but only at the very bottom of the wall. I later found out it was because the next door neighbour had a leak in the 1980s which had soaked the bricks; previous owners of our house never re-plastered the wall. Bricks were exposed for around 4 months through Winter and were bone dry. We are on concrete floors and the how was build higher than most on the street due to floods in 1947.
After taking the advice of a family member, I wet the bricks with a sponge and then used Mapei Tile Adhesive mixed with sand to coat the exposed bricks as render. This was then leveled off leaving a set back of around 2-4mm for the new plaster to go onto. I know it's not the traditional way of rendering, but the advice came from somebody who has been working on houses since the '60s - I've seen their work and know they do things from experience and skill.
The walls have been rendered now for 4 weeks so they have had time to fully dry.
What are the best steps to go about applying a skim coat of plaster to this - would Thistle Multi-Finish be sufficient? It's a fairly small area (10" of the bottom of the wall), so less of a challenge, but I do want to take some advice before starting. I have skimmed large plasterboards upstairs where I dry lined a bay window and I'm very happy with results, but appreciate this is slightly different.
Thank you and look forward to hearing from somebody.
The plaster had bubbled up and the render was crumbling, but only at the very bottom of the wall. I later found out it was because the next door neighbour had a leak in the 1980s which had soaked the bricks; previous owners of our house never re-plastered the wall. Bricks were exposed for around 4 months through Winter and were bone dry. We are on concrete floors and the how was build higher than most on the street due to floods in 1947.
After taking the advice of a family member, I wet the bricks with a sponge and then used Mapei Tile Adhesive mixed with sand to coat the exposed bricks as render. This was then leveled off leaving a set back of around 2-4mm for the new plaster to go onto. I know it's not the traditional way of rendering, but the advice came from somebody who has been working on houses since the '60s - I've seen their work and know they do things from experience and skill.
The walls have been rendered now for 4 weeks so they have had time to fully dry.
What are the best steps to go about applying a skim coat of plaster to this - would Thistle Multi-Finish be sufficient? It's a fairly small area (10" of the bottom of the wall), so less of a challenge, but I do want to take some advice before starting. I have skimmed large plasterboards upstairs where I dry lined a bay window and I'm very happy with results, but appreciate this is slightly different.
Thank you and look forward to hearing from somebody.
