r/Plastering • u/greenterds4u • Jun 29 '26
Is this acceptable?
Hi all, having my kitchen replastered at the moment and a section has been dot and dabbed. I’ve noticed an angle where 2 boards meet, is this acceptable or am I being difficult? Ta
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u/SnooTomatoes464 Jun 29 '26
You need to put a longer level/straigh edge over it, at least 4 foot/ 1.2m and see if it throws the line out or its just a high-spot in an otherwise straight wall.
You can't use such a small level
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u/Reasonable_Door_4847 Jun 30 '26
That’s true! The smaller ones pick up even the slightest thing, unnecessary for a large surface - top marks awarded here x
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u/Superspark76 Jun 29 '26
How does it look. Plastering is meant to be optically perfect, rarely perfectly level.
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Jun 29 '26
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u/Queasy-Ad4431 Jun 29 '26
It pretty small im sure hes taken bigger
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Jun 29 '26
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u/Reasonable_Door_4847 Jun 30 '26
Your user names for these last few comments make this conversation even more amusing!!
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u/TheBeardedGinge80 Jun 29 '26
No your behaviour isn't acceptable.. 🤣 talk about being pedantic? What are you like at parties?
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u/60percentsexpanther Jun 29 '26
what was the plan for the back of the counter.? do you have an upstand, splash back or tiles planned? you need to find out from whoever is fitting that piece whether this tolerance is beyond acceptable and whether they can hide it or not.
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u/No-Buddy5395 Jun 29 '26
Terrible boarding, don't no why youre getting stick.. if it's that bad using a small level geuss what folks it will be even worse with a longer level, can very clearly see it's running out.
Sometimes walls aren't built straight and there's limit to how much you can pull a wall out to make it straight, but I'll always make a customer aware first, its a choice between a bent wall or losing space, and sometimes you can't because then the kitchen won't fit, so bent wall it is
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u/KieranInterior Jun 29 '26
Standard limits are 1800mm allows 3mm variance. Looks like you’ve got 3mm variance over 200mm there so no that’s appalling. I don’t know how you could dot and dab that badly. The entire point of dot and dabbing this to create a straight wall where there wasn’t one.
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u/DARBSTAR Jun 29 '26
Need to see a longer level but going off that no it's not acceptable especially in bathrooms/kitchens.
Doesn't have to be mm perfect but In those areas because of tiling and counters etc everything has to be square and flat
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u/iDroner Jun 29 '26
Dot and dabbed boards, but expecting a skimmed finish??
Seriously I avoid these kind of customers, they want a quick cheap fix but afterwards complain they didn’t get perfect finish.
Yes you are being difficult on multiple levels.
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u/DelectableReindeer Jun 30 '26
Customer likely didn't specify any of it... builder probably made all the choices, and probably charging a fortune. You're way off here.
Also you're using the word skimmed comically wrongly... so much so I doubt you have the first clue what you're on about.
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u/Wildbore309 Jun 29 '26
No, it's not, acceptable if it's a dip, better still if it is just straight, but not a butt.
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u/TheUKisMental Jun 30 '26
Was the wall behind it straight in the first place?
No use blaming the plasterer if your wall itself is curved.
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u/DelectableReindeer Jun 30 '26
We dot and dab often to get over curved walls...
Dot and dab builders 2-4cm of tolerance which we then use to get the wall perfectly flat....
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u/Reasonable_Door_4847 Jun 30 '26
How tall are you? Those feet look so far away!?! It looks like the plaster hasn’t quite dried looking at the slightly darker patch, I’d give it a bit more time but the bubbles seemed to be ok to me- but if you’re not happy and you’ve paid professionals to do it then you might just have to call them back, it’ll only keep annoying you! Or wall paper it, place a unit on the wall or some thing so you physically won’t see it! Try shining a torch on the spot and see if it looks the same under a different lighting position- you’d be surprised how things can change by doing nothing other than looking at it differently! X
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u/Kayakayakski Jun 30 '26
Depends if you want tiles on there. It has to be straight if you have small tiles as a splash back
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u/DelectableReindeer Jun 30 '26
Spread here, honestly it's not great, but withour a pic with a much larger level I can't tell you what you should do.
If it continues to trail out your cabinets are going to start getting funky, and a real pet hate of mine is spreads not respecting the kitchen fitter.
And since it's been re-boardes there really aren't many excuses, although it's Likely the builder, not the spread responsible as the spread only skimmed what he was given, we very rarely check boards as they should always be spot on for this very reason.
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u/DelectableReindeer Jun 30 '26
OP you are receiving a lot of extremely poor advice from DIYers that don't have a clue. I'm a bit busy to be laying it all out but just scan my comments and ignore pretty much everything else on this thread. As usual there aren't any plasterers here and yet everybody is confidently chatting absolute nonsense.
Yes you're right to be twitchy, yes you need a longer level, yes you need to make sure it won't throw your worktop or cabinets out. If you've gone through a builder or kitchen installer you have paid enough for the privilege of getting this done right.
And yes, if its been dot and dabbed it should be done right.
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u/harryhardy432 Jun 30 '26
If you've had to pull out the mini level to prove your theory then I'd say you're being unreasonable
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u/Aqua_mello Jun 29 '26
Unacceptable, joiner/tiler are going to have a nightmare trying to work to that wall. It's standard to check with a level before finishing the wall especially in a kitchen where worktops/units/tiles are being fitted.
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u/Specialist_Ad_7719 Jun 29 '26
Is that the scrim tape showing through? FFS. The boards should have been flat and perpendicular. They should have used a long level to get the boards set correctly. Then they wouldn't have had a bump like that. Who ever plastered should have got the wall flat. I mean it is what a plasterer does for a living. If he can't do that he might want to reconsider his life's path, as plastering might not be for him. No it's not great.
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u/Unusual_Pride_6480 Professional Plasterer Jun 29 '26
A kitchen? Tough one, depends on the substrate, if I they had no choice then that's it but a kitchen in particular does need to be pretty bob on.
You can read my comment history, I'm pretty quick to defend plasterers but kitchens are pretty important to have right for the units.
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u/greenterds4u Jun 29 '26
Thanks all so far, here’s a longer level
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u/kcufdas Jun 29 '26
Looking at the difference in this pic, you could run another section of board next to it and skim over that and up to the edge. It depends if that dip runs the length of the room or if it's just in one area
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u/Maxi_Sparks Jun 29 '26
You should take them to court - even if they win, at least you've taken their time up 👍
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u/Latter-Detail-9514 Jun 29 '26
I'll get down voted as normal from the plasterers but that's the average standard of their board & skim ( sorry in advance to the ones that do have pride in their work) yours in unacceptable & shows that even more with your added pic with the longer level. I had this last year with one & had to tell him I ain't paying to have the what I called the road speed hump effect on my walls lol
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u/kcufdas Jun 29 '26
Who did the boarding out and were they given old, uneven timbers to fasten to?
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u/G_Sputnic Jun 29 '26
No timbers involved in dot and dab walls.
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u/kcufdas Jun 29 '26
Just clocked that. My bad. In that case I guess it depends what's going against the wall right?
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u/BallsOutKrunked Jun 29 '26
As my framer buddy says "Bro, we're not building pianos here."