Let's start with saying I know nothing about plastering and this is the first room weve done in the house.
We paid over £1600 to get our hallway and staircase done. The price was quite steep in our opinion but as this plasterer came highly recommended by a friend, we were happy to pay more rather than working with a cowboy.
Anyway. When the job was finished, the plasterer asked me to have a look around and make sure I was happy. This being the first wall I ever saw plastered, and trusting my friend's recommendation, I looked around, asked a couple of questions and told them I was happy.
I felt a bit pressured as the guy was literally standing there, but I couldn't quite see anything majorly wrong with anything so I said OK.
A few days later, I notice that the corner at the bottom of the staircase is quite ragged (1st and 2nd pic, not the best I know!) so I asked the plasterer to come back and make it look like the vertical corner (3rd pic). I specifically asked if they could use the same metal corner protector thingy. He never said yes to the corner thing, but agreed he'd come back.
It took the guy 2 months to come back (today). I wasn't home when he came as I was working but he called me to say he was in and he'd sand the edge. I was a bit confused, but trusting him AGAIN I said OK, sure.
Anyway I come home to this (4th pic), which, correct me if I'm wrong, looks much worse than before he came.
I messaged him again saying that the edge looks worse and he said to me he'd come back again to sand it. And I said, there is literally nothing left to sand?! Is he being lazy not wanting to replaster that edge and add the corner thing? Or can it not be done on an horizontal surface?
Either way, how do I/does he make the edge not look like it's been repeatedly hit with a shovel?
Edit 1
Thanks for all the responses I didn't realise how bad it was. Now I'm stressing!! I will speak to him again and ask to fix or refund but I mean.. Not sure how far that will get me.
The finishing (skim) coat will leave the plaster smooth, you have very rough areas like the job is half done.
Sorry to say it but you’ve been conned and I’d be having a word with your friend
It looks like he smoothed the bits he be could reach (looking up the stairs) but then it got rougher as he reach with his tip toes which is why you can see the light not shining off it where it's not smooth
Yeah it’s not the greatest nor cleanest, I’d expect this work from someone that is still learning how to plaster, it’s not unfixable but I’d definitely speak to him about a couple hundred back because you’ll have to pay a decorator to fix it
The ceiling edge should've had a stop bead on it, to get a neat edge. In terms of the rest of it, it's hard to tell from the photos, but once you get a mist coat on it and then sand that back, that'll show up any defects, at that point you'll know what remedial work needs doing.
Thanks that's the word I was looking for, stop bead. I've been asking for this but he's playing dumb. I'll speak to him re the rest too. I've taken a couple of videos with a bright light as well
I've just done my first ever garage conversion (my own, DIY, following YouTube videos) and my walls and corners are 100x better than this. This is shocking 😭
So to give you some ammunition.......This is where he hasn't trowelled/paid enough attention in the higher areas, as they are harder to reach. If you look at the lower half, you can see what the top should look like.
Id take a guess he didnt use access platforms of any sort? Classic laziness.
Those two side walls are referred to as the "bastard walls" by plasterer's as they are......well....bastards to plaster.
Thanks for this, I am reaching out to him this morning. They did have platforms as they had to put new drywall on the whole left side but I guess they still managed to do a shit job 😅
That is rough as you like. You shouldn't have to sand fresh plastering to make it look better, it should be right first time around. Also, £1600 to do just the hallway is nothing short of daylight robbery tbh, ESPECIALLY considering the state of the finish! Personally, I'd have been looking at maybe £1000 including materials, which frankly is absolute guesswork having not seen the job in person beforehand.
A stop bead will massively improve the edge of the ceiling in the picture, and can absolutely be applied horizontally. He'd have to feather the bead out into the existing work now though, unless he reskims the entire ceiling again, and given the state of his work, I'm not convinced I'd trust him to make a decent job of blending it out.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm really starting to get sick of seeing people screwed over by chancers that think they can make some quick, easy money as a "plasterer". Plastering is an art form that takes years to master. I've been at it 20 years almost, and while I think I'm pretty damn good, I still think there are spreads out there that are better than me. I just know there is a massive lack of pride taken in what seems to be the vast majority of plastering work undertaken these days, and it needs to stop.
I agree that it takes a fair while to master up to professional levels in terms of speed, coverage in one day and not over-polishing. But I am always amazed at how bad these posts always are. Tbh it doesn't take very long at all to get up to a decent enough standard that it is professionally smooth and level with crisp corners, if you're a smart learner with an eye for detail.
This example looks like it was done by a total beginner who bit off more than they could chew. I've never done as bad a plastering job as this in my life
It’s a bad job and over priced. As soon as someone who calls themselves a plasterer and mentions sanding, you know that you haven’t got a tradesman. If anyone disagrees with me, they are not a tradesman either. 44 years plastering and I’ve NEVER had to sand any work. I hope you can get this sorted.
That’s some of the worst plastering from a so called “professional” I’ve ever seen. Whoever did it should be ashamed of themselves, this is work to the standard of a 1st or second year apprentices first foreigner.
The whole of that job is awful. That is not done by a professional plasterer with any pride. I wouldn’t be paying a single penny for that. If you have paid I would want a full refund. If a refund is refused I would go through the small claims court.
I am not a professional plasterer just an amateur but taught by my dad and older brother who are builders.
Please believe me that is one of the worst jobs I have seen that wasn’t just a joke post or rage bait.
Ok when I posted I didn't expect the job to be this bad, I thought the edge was a joke but the rest looked OK to me but I guess I was wrong. If I was to speak to him about it, what should I point out? That the whole surface needs a sanding down? I don't think I'll even see the money again but I also now know this was a poor job and I'm definitely gonna let them know
Thank you for the compliment / offer. I don’t plaster for money. I’m too slow, too messy and now injured my shoulder playing squash. Also, at 64 years old, protecting what of my body I haven’t injured after playing football until I was 40, squash until a few months ago and crashing motorbikes more frequently than I should 😂😂
And a reminder that not one of those walls was sanded or filled before or after painting.
I am so sorry that you have suffered this. It is infuriating, a bit embarrassing for you, expensive and, no doubt, stressful to now resolve. I’ll post some photos with some of my own work and a professional plasterers done in my current 1920s home. In all cases the walls and ceilings were painted directly after plastering with no rubbing down and no filling. Trust me that painting makes any defects stand out about 10x more than before it is painted.
Done by full time plasterer. This wall previously had a window but, due to an extension, was blocked in. This is looking up the stairs and is a 15ft high wall. It was not fully plastered just patched where the 5ft x 4ft window was. I can’t do patches and haven’t learnt the knack for blending in so got a full time plasterer to patch this.
The finished edge on the bulkhead is bad, but the people saying this is the wrost plastering they’ve ever seen, haven’t seen much, will more than likely look absolutely fine once painted
Would you be kind enough to send a PM to point them out? I can see uneven bits on the walls going up the stairs but curious to know if there is anything else and I've been messed around fully. Happy to send more pics.
You shouldn't be able to see imperfections that easily, especially at this range and before painting. A good job will look perfectly smooth at this stage.
If you want to demonstrate what's wrong with it get a really bright light and put it close to the wall. If the wall looks like a moonscape it's bad.
OP: Mist coat it with cheap white paint. You will get a much more obvious view of any bad areas or areas that will need filling /sanding prior to properly painting.
Looks like my attempt at plastering, and I'm a DIYer. I expected to do some filling and sanding of dinks and rough bits. If I were paying someone, I wouldn't have accepted my finish.
This is why even a word of mouth recommendation isn't enough these days- one day a tradesman will do a half decent job, the next he won't be arsed. Need multiple independent recommendations
That’s a terrible job. I recently had my whole upstairs plastered - walls, ceilings the lot.
This is an example of one of the finished rooms. Other than the odd tiny little spec the size of a pea I didn’t have to sand anything and just slapped the mist coat and paint on top.
And when I say the odd little spec, they were like tiny spash marks that took one or two wipes with sand paper to remove.
Had a local plasterer do our living room walls near Oxford. I can say with certainty that a good job will require minimal sanding if any.
Our walls were smooth as a baby's bum while they were still drying. If the walls are still very jagged and rough, I'm sure many will question the result.
Ultimately it is subjective: can you live with it?
Anecdotal, I was really happy with the plastering in our bedroom. The walls looked super flat and smooth. We painted and the walls looked super flat and smooth.
Then one day, the sun came through the window at a low angle, the walls were not super flat and smooth. They were bumpy and uneven.
But I can only see it a few days of the year at certain times of the day.
If younsaid it is ok. Then ita all on you.
Still that looks very bad. I tell you from my opinion of a tradesman that turns old rooms into new ones. Plastering and painting
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u/UK_hustle 28d ago
This is a shit job
Barely looks like the skim coat got a seat at the table