general info

by luca
(italy)

Hi,
long time ago i've bought your plastering guide just to get some ideas and practical hints. Indeed i have an entire flat to plaster and i've tought, with some practise, i could do it myself. Then lot of people told me was an impossible mission bla bla bla.......and so started to call for experts.
Recently many of the so called experts told me that a first layer should be done with the glue that you normally use for applying tiles in the bathroom. To me this seems to be a weird idea. They justify this by saying that in this way it is easier to fix creeps and holes in the wall. Then procede with a second layer with a much more fines plaster coat.
by reading your guide i had the impression that if the wall is not in bad conditions after having fix crepes and holes i could procede with one-two layer of plaster.
what's your view on this ?

At this point i'm seriously thinking to go back to my original plan, buying your dvd, practising and do it on my own.

Thanks,
Luca

Answer
Hi Luca
Not sure if you have a wall that is back to brick or you are re-skimming an existing plastered wall.
If the wall is back to brick:
The wall would have to be really bad to need 2 backing coats. One solution would be to carry out the following:
Once the backing coat is mixed up , fill any deep hollows to allow this extra depth more drying time. Then proceed with the backing coat in the normal manner.
If the wall is porous this method should work fine - but if the wall is not porous and you have a lot of deep holes then you may need to leave it to set before applying a greater thickness, as it will start to slide off the wall. If you are leaving any areas to set before applying more backing coat then make sure it is scratched adequately to provide a mechanical key.

If the wall is plastered already and needs re-skimming then:
The skim coat should just be viewed as a thin coat of 2mm or so thickness that will provide a smoothness, but will not flatten. This needs to be applied to a flat surface so if you do have any holes / undulations then these should be filled with a backing coat before the skim coat is applied otherwise it will be impossible to achieve a nice finish.

Hope this makes sense

Paul