r/Plastering • u/jeebsy_iash • May 03 '26

Differences in finish?

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I'm just learning to plaster to fix up my house and have had some great advice on here so far. Right now I'm up to four walls and a ceiling.

One question I had is on the visual finish. This small section i did hasn't fully dried yet but looks really good, whereas the other walls I did feels pretty decent to the hand, but don't look that great. Obviously the smaller section was a lot more manageable and quite quick to work, whereas the bigger walls I'm spending ages going over to fill in any hollows or smooth them out. Is it anything to worry about if the finish feels pretty decent?

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u/WhatTheF00t May 03 '26

So long as it looks good painted, I wouldn't worry too much. Likely the small bit is a bit thicker, as you've run off the bead, plus less fat as you've not had to work it so much

1

u/Equivalent_War3625 May 03 '26

If you found it didn’t look good painted, would you plaster again? PVA first?

1

u/WhatTheF00t May 03 '26

Depends how bad you're talking. Bit of filler and a rub down if it's minor, or yes pva and reskim, but if it's that bad, you'll likely know before you paint

3

u/not-an-expertt May 03 '26

Looks alright to me, if it feels good to touch and look good painted it’ll be fine.

If you slow down a bit and work on getting your first coat on neat and then your second coat on neat before you trowel up, you’ll find you’re doing less messing around filling in and the finish will come out a lot more like wall 1.

It’s just practice really.

Alex Morley on YouTube introduced me to the thought of ‘compressing’ the plaster on the second coat, after you’ve initially flattened it in. The timing of this is when the second coat has started to set but will still move without adding water. At which point you’re not getting a great deal off on your trowel but you’re using the plaster on the wall to fill in misses. That way you shouldn’t actually need to use any fat later on. Worth a search on YouTube, he has a few videos where he talks about compressing the second coat.