Plastering Skills

Making Plastering Easier

Before you can successfully apply plaster to the wall some basic plastering skills such as hawk and trowel control will make plastering so much easier - giving you confidence.



Holding hawk below board – push some plaster on to hawk.




Hold trowel at bottom of hawk, tip hawk up and slide trowel up hawk to transfer plaster on to trowel.




Turning trowel through 90º let plaster slide off bottom off trowel back onto hawk. You should find this has neatly gathered the plaster together.




To load your trowel with half the plaster on the hawk – place trowel at bottom of hawk and push into the pile of plaster.




When there is sufficient plaster on the trowel keep the trowel exactly where it is, do not move it, and tip the hawk away from it. Half should remain on your trowel and half on the hawk.




Plastering Skills - Loading the trowel with greater accuracy



Load up hawk with approximately half a trowel full and give hawk a slight shake to flatten the plaster.





Turn hawk upside down and you should find plaster still sticking to the hawk.





Knowing that you can hold a loaded hawk upside down enables you to have more confidence to load your trowel correctly. Place your trowel flat on the plaster, turn hawk up and slide the hawk away from the trowel





The plaster will now stay on your trowel even if held in the upright position – allowing you to take all the time you need to position it on the wall in exactly the right place. This is especially useful when working in corners and up against window frames.


Plastering Skills Video




All rights reserved. No part of this online plastering guide may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author. Copyright © Paul Harper DIY Plastering 2012

plastering skills video

Plastering Skills Video

plastering video






All rights reserved. No part of this online plastering guide may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author. Copyright © Paul Harper DIY Plastering 2012