So you want some plastering advice?

If you are looking for plastering advice so that you can attempt a diy plastering project then the best advice I can give you is "leave it to a professional!". I have yet to meet anyone that gets it right first time. When I first started labouring for a plastering firm at 14 years old, one of the plasterers gave me some advice. He told me to get a bit of plasterboard and keep plastering it. Despite feeling like a goon as the girl next door took the mickey out of me, I set about plastering my plasterboard. Badly. For a time! After following the advice of the plasterer and adding around 3 inches to the thickness of the plasterboard, I finally got the hang of it.

Plastering is an art like any other. It requires time and practice to produce a genuinely well plastered wall or ceiling. Don't just think that because you have seen how easy plastering 'looks' when performed by a professional that you can expect the same results. You may call me a liar, but I doubt it!

Ok, I have given you the best advice on plastering I possibly can but if you are still going to go ahead then you had better take note of the following plastering advice. Just don't say that you wasn't warned....

Advice on tools needed for Plastering

The best advice I can give you on Plastering tools is get a decent trowel. I am completely biased, as they're all I have ever used but I recommend the purchase of a 14 inch Marshalltown trowel. A smaller trowel may sound like an easier way to start but the less trowel you have the less area you cover. These will generally set you back around £50 from your local diy store but my advice to you would be to buy a cheap Marshalltown trowel from Ebay. To be honest, whilst you are there you may aswell try and get a deal on the lot. There are shops on Ebay that sell all the items you require and if you purchase multiple items from the same seller then I bet you'd get a big discount if you haggled! I always do it myself...

My advice on the tools you need for plastering would be to get yourself the following items:

• A hawk
• A trowel
• A gauging trowel
• A Plasterers whisk/drill
• Adequately sized mixing buckets
• A spot-board
• A decent platform/hop up
• 3x brushes: 1inch-6inch-dustpan type brush

That little lot would cost you a small fortune at your local diy store. Have a look at it on Ebay and I bet you save yourself a good few quid.

Plastering tools on Ebay

Advice on Plastering materials

The advice I give on plastering materials is very straightforward. The one piece of advice that you really should take note of this:

"Never ever use one of the 'one coat wonders' or other 'magical' commercial diy products. They really are useless. You can't work them right and they aren't capable of producing an adequate finish. Or maybe I am just biased...

The only products you will need to use for common domestic plastering are:

• Backing coat plaster or bonding
• Finish coat plaster
• PVA adhesive
• Beads-For forming edges
• Fibre-tape or scrim

You can purchase these from your local diy store, the larger ones usually being cheaper. In general, plastering materials are actually very cheap.

Plastering advice: Keeping a clean work area

This piece of advice may sound like I'm teaching you to suck eggs but get this part wrong and you will make your plastering project that much harder.

Plastering is a race against time once it goes on, believe me. The last thing you need is to be trying to work around things or being tripped over whilst holding a hawk and trowel. It may sound like a bit of slapstick but a sharp trowel can do some serious damage. If you fell neck down on one then your head would probably end up in your bucket of gear. That doesn't mean that you need to undertake your plastering project wearing a suit of armour. Just use common sense. If it looks like it may be a problem, fix it beforehand.

Advice on preparing walls for Plastering

OK, my advice to you here is simply to ensure that all walls are completely free from any hindrances before you actually start plastering. By hindrances I am referring to:

• Protruding nails + screws

Get rid of them. Even if you make a bit of damage, you can't flatten in screw heads, believe me! If you can't unscrew the offending article then try and hammer it in. Do so to a point where your hammer head leaves an indent and the head of the screw is farther back than the level of the wall. If you can't hammer it in or unscrew it then you will have to pull in out using the claw of a hammer or a nail bar. The only problem with doing it this way is that you are liable to pull off large chunks of plaster. If you do this then you will need to make good. We will get to that soon.

• Wallpaper and flaky paint

You cannot plaster over wallpaper. It needs to be removed. Use a wallpaper steamer or plenty of warm and soapy water. Apply the water with a big brush or a sponge. If there are more than one layer of wallpaper then you will probably find it helps to score the paper with a stanley knife before you steam or wet it. This allows the moisture underneath the first layer of wallpaper making the job easier, hopefully. You should endeavour to remove all wallpaper including the backing or lining paper.

• Repairing cracks before Plastering

Before you begin plastering you should attend to any cracks in the existing plaster. If you just skim over cracks they will re-appear. Providing they are only surface, and not structural cracks then you should tape them over with fibre-tape or scrim. For larger cracks it sometimes pays to make them bigger and then fill them with bonding before applying your finish coat plaster.

• Switches and sockets

I need to clarify one thing before we go any further. I do not advocate homeowners performing electrical work. I recommend that you consult an electrician before doing anything to your domestic electrical system. However, it makes life a hell of a lot easier if you can undo the faces of switches and sockets. If you don't do this you will not only plaster your electrical accessories into your wall, you'll also end up with lines around them. Trust me! To do this safely I recommend that you turn off the breaker for the sockets on your fuseboard. If you can, just turn the whole fuseboard off. I cannot see what's been added to your electrical installation and it may be that the labelling on your fuseboard isn't as accurate as it should be. So yes, for legal reasons you should turn the fuseboard off before trying to plaster around the wiring of sockets and switches. If your metal trowel clips a live core then you will get blown across the room and your trowel will have a hole in the side of it. Then it's good for nothing! Please use common sense when it comes to electricity. If you don't know, don't touch.

• Apply PVA solution before a finish coat

Before you set about putting a finish coat on you will need to prime the area to be plastered with a part water, part PVA solution. Read the instructions on your PVA adhesive to ensure that you are using the product as the manufacturer intended. What the PVA does is puts a film over the old work. The PVA film then stops the water in your plaster from being sucked in so quickly and ultimately cracking. You should apply the PVA solution with a roller or a big brush, making sure that you cover all of the area you are going to be plastering. Some good advice at this point would be for you to wear a long sleeved top, gloves, have covered anything that could get PVA dripped on it. PVA can be difficult to remove when dried and when it goes on stained timber the work required to get it off usually means you would need to re stain the timber afterwards. Not good. So keep some kitchen roll or a cloth handy so that you can clean any accidents up as you go.

You should apply the PVA solution quite thickly. Don't completely paint your brush dry before dipping it back for a refill. If you miss a patch then it will dry faster than the rest of the area. Not great for a glass like finish!

If you go ahead without PVA please send in pics so we can all laugh. You have been warned....

Advice on mixing up Plaster

When mixing up plaster you need to ensure that all of your tools and buckets are clean. The reason being that when plastering the worst thing you can have in your plaster is lumps. Lumps are a plasterers nightmare and they will only get into the plaster for the following reasons:

• The bag of plaster you are using is old

Plaster goes off if left sitting for a while. If it's left in damp conditions it will be completely useless. If you use plaster like this then expect it to dry before you have even picked up your hawk and trowel. It will probably go red hot and produce steam too!

• You didn't clean your buckets out properly!

I mean clean. So you could drink out of them. This means the outside too. Ignore the cleanliness of buckets at your own peril..

• Drying plaster has been falling off of you...

....And into your bucket of plaster as you are mixing it. You need to be as clean as possible during plastering. Easier said than done, I know.

• You haven't mixed your plaster properly

If you think it's been whisked enough, whisk it some more!

Ok, assuming you have read the above then now you need to get yourself a bucket that's half filled with water. You will use this in conjunction with your dustpan type brush to clean off your hawk and trowel during your plastering project. This should be replaced with a clean once every once in a while as it will soon fill with plaster.

It's not ideal to have to mix up new buckets of plaster whilst you are halfway through plastering your wall or ceiling. It's good advice to follow the rule of better to have too much than too little.

OK, so now you have your cleaning bucket set up it's time to get your water for your Plaster. As a guide, just over half a bucket of water will produce a full bucket of Plaster. Again, you will have to judge the amount needed as I cannot see the size of the wall or ceiling you intend to Plaster after reading this Plastering advice!

You should now pour the Plaster into the water. Get your whisk going but be careful not to go to quickly as you'll just splash Plaster everywhere. Keep going until the mix has the consistency of say........thick Custard??? I don't know, how else do you explain the consistency of Plaster to someone?

Using your gauging trowel you should now clean the edges of your bucket. By sliding the side of your gauging trowel around the circumference of your bucket of Plaster you will rid the sides of any dry Plaster so that it can be thoroughly mixed in.

You will now need to mix the Plaster so that there are NO LUMPS in it WHATSOEVER. You cannot produce a flat surface with lumps in your Plaster.

Advice on making good before plastering

Before you even think about applying your finish coat you will need to make good any sections of plastering that are damaged. For the most part these would be blown patches of plaster or chases left by electrical wiring.

To make good blown areas or patches of plaster you will firstly need to hack out any damaged plaster, right back to brickwork if necessary. Once you have done this you will need to rid the area of dust and debris by using a dustpan type brush. After this you should apply a PVA solution to the patch and the area around it. This will prevent the plaster from drying out too quickly and cracking.

The advice I would give you when it comes to bonding is to mix it with a stick and to a thicker consistency than a finish coat plaster. Mix it up too wet and it will 'sag'. The only time you should use bonding in a wet state if for leveling and feathering off.

You need to apply the bonding using your trowel, making sure that you are pushing the bonding into to hole completely. On deeper sections you may need to apply 2 coats of bonding.

If, even after you have run your trowel or straight edge over the bonding it still hangs proud, simply rake some out, trowel over it again to keep the edges of your patch clean and then wait for it to dry enough to push another tight coat over it.

You must ensure that the area you have bonded is the same level as the existing wall and that all excess bonding is removed from the edges.

Basically, the flatter a surface is, the easier it is to Plaster.

Advice on Plastering with finish Plaster

Assuming you have a nice lump free bucket of plaster on your spotboard and you hawk and trowel have both been wetted down, you are ready to apply your finish coat plaster. Decide where you are going to start from. I favour plastering from left to right but you do what you feel comfortable with. My advice when plastering walls would be to start at the top and work down. But again, it's important that you do what comes most naturally to you. You should apply the plaster thinly and try and smooth it over as you go. If you leave the lines left by your trowel as you lay your first coat on and the plaster dries faster than you anticipate then you will have a hard time trying to push them in when it comes to laying it down before a second coat.

Once you have the first coat on then you need to let the area dry slightly before laying it down. Laying it down is simply flattening the plaster down, removing lines and filling dips. To fill any dips you should just use the build up on the edge of your trowel. Wipe some finish coat plaster over the dip or discrepancy and then use your trowel to rule it off. Once you are satisfied that the first coat is flat enough then you should mix up your second coat of plaster.

The advice I would give you here is not to make it quite as thick as your first coat. It's easier to put it on tightly when it's wetter. The purpose of the second coat of plaster is to face fill anything your first coat missed. Thin is the name of the game.

Once you have applied your second coat of finish plaster then you should have a cuppa. If your plaster lets you! You will need to be your own judge but you should get 5 mins before you need to start laying down your second coat. The idea now is to flatten the surface of the plaster. You will need to apply slightly more pressure now, taking care not to dig your nearly finished area of diy plastering with the corner of your trowel. Or your neck....

Work on the area until you have covered it completely. Some sound advice here would be to warn you that if you play with finish too much you will kill it. Generally, if you can get rid of the discrepancy with 2-4 trowels over it, leave it until you get round to that area again. You should lay the plastered area down at least twice without wetting it. Make sure you fill any small holes with the build up on the side of the trowel as you go too. This is what will be noticed when it comes to painting. There's no point in plastering if it's going to need ten ton of filler afterwards.

Advice on polishing up your Plastering

Once you have given your finish coat a couple of dry trowels then now would be a good time to go and get a clean bucket of water and start wetting your ceiling lines and wall joints in. You should dip the 1 inch brush into the clean water and use this to make your lines cleaner. Once you have wet your lines in then you need to apply some water to your plastered area. You can do this by dipping your 6 inch brush into the clean water and flicking a couple of brushes worth at the area. Don't overdo it. A couple of flicks will do. The idea being that you apply the water and then skim it across your work and ultimately off of it again. You must trowel water across the area, in full, making sure that you leave no watermarks behind you. These dry up rough and will probably require sanding and filling.

Advice I give when people ask me how many times you need to wet trowel your plaster? Twice. You can polish it as much as you like really but to be honest, it's a waste of time. Once painted, the glass like finished is lost anyway. Also, if it is too polished the paint will have a hard time sticking too it. Honestly!Advice on cleaning up after Plastering

The advice I would give you on cleaning up after plastering would be simply to pick up the dust sheets, take them outside, tip them out and then sweep up and bin the rubbish. Plaster is very messy, dependant on who is doing it of course and requires that you suitably protect anything that could be damaged. Here are a few possible plaster cleaning situations and what you can do if you are in the same predicament.

• Advice on getting Plaster off of carpet
The worst thing you can do is try and wipe plaster off when it is wet. You will just end up wiping it in. You should leave the plaster to dry for a while. Once it hardens you may be able to prise it off in one go, but don't bank on it. Once you have removed the main bit then you should leave the residue to dry and then give it a scrub with a dustpan type brush. If this doesn't work then I would suggest you invest in a carpet cleaner from Ebay

Alternatively, bill the plasterer and get a carpet cleaning company in.

The best piece of Plastering advice I could possibly give you, AGAIN!

Seriously, get a professional plasterer in. It really isn't as easy as it looks. I admire you for trying though, so to those of you that do and succeed I take my hat off to you!

To those of you that have a go and balls it up......

Making contact with NRP Plastering Services is simple. There are a number of ways that you can contact us.

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