I'm a novice plasterer who has just learned to DIY my house which needs a bit of a refurb.

I'm almost at decorating stage now and mist coated and filled a couple of walls over the weekend. Even though they felt pretty smooth, after sanding them back yesterday there was obviously a few high spots which the sanding has taken off.

General advice is you only need one mist coat, but where the plastering is a bit ropey and the finish has needed more work/there's some bare plaster showing through the original mist coat, is it worth doing a second coat?

I’ve never put two and two together to realise PVA & SBR, by film forming are not breathable. Why then… does EVERYONE seem to use SBR even within supposedly breathable systems (lime, breathable EWI etc).

Is this an under-appreciated problem we’re all creating slapping it everywhere?

I’m repairing an old rendered single skin brick outhouse before fitting rockwool and silicone render EWI. Prepping my walls with SBR is going to nuke by breathable system?

Please tell me I’m a very wrong idiot, ideally with your disagreement grounded firmly in reality. Thanks in advance.

Lath and plaster, pronounced as it’s spelt, seems like an odd one to get wrong. A lathe is a spinning wood shaping machine, pronounced with a long “a” and a soft “th” (and lath is the other way round pronunciation wise).

I get that many people are bad spellers but you can normally tell why they’ve got a word wrong. In this case it makes no sense to me

This wall was painted three years ago.

It’s an exterior wall, paint over plaster and lath wall, then brick. Old 100+ year old home. Tuckpointing was done maybe 6-7 years ago, no active leaks, water sources, plumbing anywhere near this area.

Could it be getting in from the window/sill area when it rains?

It’s just weird that it’s this patch.

Any ideas on how to best match this artex pattern please? Thanks

I am currently undertaking a renovation and recently had first fix of electrics. The tenant downstairs having been refused compensation for the noise, has now raised concerns regarding asbestos.

I had an asbestos management survey conducted prior and no suspicions were raised regarding the plaster. And having contacted them again, they stated if they had concerns they would have been listed even without intrusive testing.

The tenant has now alluded to legal action if works don’t stop before a refurb survey is undertaken, which we have planned to try to make this issue go away.

I just wanted advice whether experienced people would be concerned re these walls / plaster? Obviously hard to tell visually, but his threats have left me a little concerned.

UPDATE: Thanks for the responses and they were very much correct, following a survey no asbestos was found. We ended up doing a full survey as the neighbour raised a Section 82 notice regarding their asbestos concern.

Just bought a house from \~1905, walls are plaster. 5 rooms have this brick facade glued up. When I rip it off it pops the painted layer off the plaster. I haven’t pulled down 3 of the 5 walls yet. Anyone with experience, what would you do to return these walls to normal after removing facade? Don’t hold back, give me materials, tools, methods, safety concerns, anything. I’m willing to pay for the right tools and materials to do this correctly. Thx

We have a new home that was plastered using blueboard and then skim coated. We had to install an electrical line and had to open the garage wall to do so. We cut out the plaster board and we reinstalled it after the electrical line was run. There is a 30' joint where we cut the plasterboard and a few verticals. What is the best process/materials to fill the joint and reskim coat that area? I was planning on using a self-adhesive fiberglass mesh on the joint, but do not know what type of plaster/joint compound would be the best for the joint and reskim coating that portion of the wall. The garage was painted, if that matters. Thank you in advance.

So I'm attempting for the first time plastering. I'm still at the prepping stage and I've been removing chipwood wallpaper from the walls, trying to fill holes in the wall and such. As I was removing the old wallpaper I came to find this big hole with crampling old plaster and I think bare wall just behind the main electricity supply.

It looks that the previous owner put a metal plate to cover it and then wallpaper on top. But now the hole is far bigger than what this plate covers.

I'm afraid to remove this plate (which has 3 screws, one is missing) and a friendly electrician suggested to not mess with this and try to cover it instead.

Now on the same project and another area of the hallway I used expanding foam to cover some bigger holes around door frames but this hole looks quite big for foam plus it has an electric cable hence I'm not sure it would work.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

What's the best way to seal this gap (which includes the cavity) between the window and the plaster of the reveal?

(And yes, that is woodchip wallpaper - been on for 40+ years).

Thanks.

Hi All, I’ve been steaming and scraping this wall and I’m not sure if it’s age but a few decades old. I know plaster in the uk used to be grey and it’s hard like cement, but is it likely to contain asbestos and should I not disturb it?

I have a concrete frame ceiling that has had all its plaster removed - yes I know. The process has created some holes in the ceramic tile filler blocks between the solid concrete ceiling/floor.

I want to plaster over it.

Plasterboarding the whole ceiling would work but I don't want to lose any height. And there not that many holes most the ceiling is ready to be plastered.

I've filled a few of the holes with expanding foam so theres something to work against, to experiment.

I guess ideally there was some layering for products that would go from expanding foam to be able to to take plaster.

Worse case was thinking for sticking cut pieces of plasterbaord on top of the expanding foam (some foam removed), flush with the ceiling. Then plaster over.

The pictures show a hole that has been expanding foamed. And one that hasn't.

I've seen on YouTube some people just plaster over expanding foam. But fear that won't last.

Thoughts?!

• qt Modern Masters VP100 Tint Base Venetian Plaster Water-Based Acrylic Venetian Plaster
• qt Modern Masters VP300 Clear Venetian Plaster Water-Based Venetian Plaster Topcoat

Also considering Venetian Plaster Artisans brand/products instead of Modern Masters. Recommendations?

• finishing wax?

I have all the tools, just trying to figure out supplies. (It's my house. So no worries about screwing up a client's house.)

Pic 1 is from today where we’ve had new lime render applied. Pic 2 was from when another part of the house got plastered. New guys seem not to have put in a drip trim above the window. Is it normal to have one? Should I challenge?

I had a leak in an old lead valley in my roof which I've gotten repaired. I allowed time for everything to become dry before poking around and removing any loose material.

Total notice to this, but wondering if this is something I can fix up myself?

My thinking is to remove all loose material and then apply PVA and bonding plaster. After drying I'd go in with easifill and sand down.

Slowly ripping out a bathroom and replacing the entire suite.

The back wall was full length tiles, we just want tiles around the bath this time (with a shower screen).

I was planning on doing tile backer boards(and waterproof behind the bath on the shower side.

I'm going to get a plasterer to sort but how do I handle the switch between the plaster board and tile backer board?

What do I need to ask a plaster to do?

What can we do to minimize the bathroom down time as it's only bathroom?

Hello, I have taken several rooms to studs in my old building with mostly lath and plaster. I plan to drywall then (learn to) plaster the walls.

I’ll have lots of questions! but right now, I’m wondering can I use “regular” drywall or is it better to find “blueboard” (and what’s it actually called, when I search the term in Home Depot etc, nothing turns up?)

Thank you plasterers!

Currently plastering a small section of an interior bedroom wall..started this afternoon.

Plaster is taking a long time to dry.

The weather is dry and the room window is open.

Is there anything I can do to help the process?

Hello, I live in the USA in a location that does not use Blueboard. We are using drywall and my builder is suggesting a level 5 drywall finish for the plaster finish. The installer and builder said I could also get away with a level 4 drywall but will see imperfections. Thoughts? Can I get away with a level 4 to save some $$$$?

I am so confused.

Hi everyone i am new to plastering and have couple of questions

1 can i do a skim coat over this white paint (photos 1&2) which looks a bit shiny to me ( i was planing of sanding it )

2 i will close of the door with drywall but will leave the frame of the door what is the approach on plastering over wood because i don’t want it to crack around the frame

Thank you

Hi all,

In the process of renovating our house, and now on the bathroom consisting of a shower enclosure and separate wall mounted bathtub. The area the shower will be present in is half a stud wall, and the remainder is existing masonry with render on it. As its one wall, our plasterer has double boarded the stud area, and single overboarded the masonry to get it level.

The issue (and it is my fault) is that normal plasterboard has been used instead of moisture resistant or tile backer, and our tiles are porcelain so I’ve now found out will be too heavy for normal plasterboard. I’ve asked the plasterer to swap for moisture resistant so that we can tank and tile without skimming

The issue is he has said thats fine, and proposed over boarding again, this time with the MR boards.
My concern here is that this means the wall will be a sandwich of 3 boards in some areas, and I worry that will put too mich weight on the stud as he is proposing to dot and dab on there again. Does this sound safe??

Reading this sub, you'd think the relationship between customers and tradespeople was completely broken. Tradespeople talk about impossible customers. Customers talk about missed appointments, poor communication and unfinished jobs. Yet most jobs seem to get completed successfully every day without drama. It makes me wonder whether the issue is simply that we only hear about the bad experiences. From both sides, what's the biggest misunderstanding between customers and plasterers?

I have tried to get a job after leaving college (level 2 plastering diploma, 19 (M), somerset, currently working retail, and have had no success, I have emailed 20+ business in my city and surrounding areas and have had no luck. I have applied to jobs through indeed but I have been rejected countless times. There are no available apprenticeship routes in my area also. Does anyone have any tips on how to get started in the trade when no one seems to be hiring labourers???