DO-IT-YOURSELF PLASTERING

If you are new to plastering, then before beginning any plastering task, be sure to give careful consideration to the hints and strategies that are provided in this article for appropriate job preparation. 1. choose your area: if you are a rookie plasterer, it is recommended that you begin your work in a spare bedroom that has an existing unsatisfactory finish that can only be improved upon. This will significantly lessen the amount of stress that you are under while you are working. Keep in mind that you may plaster and skim the walls as many times as you want, so even if the project isn’t perfect now, you can always go back and fix it as your skills improve. Plastering is essentially an exercise in self-assurance; thus, you may find it helpful to get experience in a less stressful setting before you attempt to plaster your own walls for the first time. Do not be concerned, however, since so long as you enroll in a respectable plastering course to follow, you will discover that the learning curve is not very steep, and you will be astounded by how fantastic your first results turn out to be. Remember that having confidence and adhering to what we at Mastering Plastering refer to as the “golden formula” to the letter accounts for the majority of the work involved in plastering. 2. Ensure that there is a sufficient supply of water: if cleanliness is close to godliness, then plastering is the holy trade. If you ask any plasterer, you will get the same advice, which is to keep your tools extremely clean and, most importantly, clean as you go. Plaster that has been mixed hardens to a very rigid consistency very quickly, as you have probably already seen. You could have ideas of cleaning dry plaster off of buckets and equipment after you have done your task or waiting until tomorrow to do so, but believe me when I say that dried plaster adheres like stone, and you need to clean completely and consistently as you go along with the project. This is due to the following reasons: Plaster can be removed much more easily when it is wet. Plastering equipment will typically need to be replaced if plaster is not cleaned off with water before it dries, which can be expensive and wasteful. Any flecks of dried plaster in your buckets or on your equipment from previous sessions will later break off to contaminate future batches of plaster. Plaster can be removed much more easily when it is wet. This can spell disaster because these little gremlins will cause streaks or “pulls” in your finish, causing you endless frustration and poor results. * contamination in new batches of plaster can result in the drying time of plaster being adversely affected, as you will learn, and this will cause chaos to applying the “golden formula” as used by most plasterers. * contaminated plaster can’t be used and will need to be disposed of, costing both time and money. * An organized craftsman is a competent tradesman, while disorganized methods result in disorganized output and dissatisfied consumers. In order to maintain a sanitary work environment, you will need a sufficient supply of clean, fresh water. On certain construction sites, there is no running water, which might make this a difficult situation. Also, since plaster and plasterers may make a mess, you should try to avoid using the kitchen sink in either your own home or the home of a client as much as possible. Be sure to prepare enough of buckets of water in preparation for mixing and washing, and keep in mind that plaster may clog drains; as a result, you should steer clear of pouring excessive amounts of plaster slurry down drains. Do not pour water that has been contaminated with plaster down a sink drain; instead, pour it down a major outside drain (we have not yet mastered mastering plumbing!). In particular, make sure that your buckets and trowel are spotless at all times, and that you only use water that is absolutely spotless while you are mixing plaster. As a general guideline, you shouldn’t use anything to make plaster that you wouldn’t drink yourself. When making plaster, only ever use water that is extremely clean and very recent. If you don’t do it, your plaster will “go off,” which means it will cure too rapidly, and then you’ll have to throw it away. Therefore, as a rule… * never use plaster that has begun to deteriorate; because plaster is inexpensive, just discard it and begin the process again. * never use plaster that has been tainted by anything. 3. Give yourself enough time to complete the task at hand; while the process of plastering moves along much more quickly than most people believe, it is still a time-consuming endeavor. Plastering is not the type of activity that you can work on for a few minutes here and there since a significant portion of your time will be spent setting up and cleaning up afterward. To make up for the amount of time it takes to mix the plaster, cover and complete your wall or walls, and then clean and clear away, you actually need to spend at least a half day working on it, which is between three to four hours. It is recommended that you set aside at least two to three hours to plaster a conventional wall (this is the amount of time necessary for a novice), in addition to an additional hour for either setting up or cleaning up. To give you an idea, you can arrive home from work late at night and make some headway on your walls straight after supper, but you should anticipate having to clean your gear around midnight. But, hey, it’s better than sitting around and watching television, so don’t let me stop you from doing it. Even better, give yourself the opportunity to finish a whole room over the course of an entire weekend if you are just starting out. 4. Ensure that you have planned the plaster work; my recommendation is to begin by not taking on more than you are capable of chewing if this is your first time. Plastering is always a race against the time, as I explain in my class while discussing the several steps of the golden formula and how it operates. As a result, attempting to plaster a whole room at once as a novice (that is, working on all four walls at the same time) will not be feasible and will rapidly convert what should be a pleasurable activity into a negative experience in which nothing is completed to an adequate level. If you are just starting off, I would recommend beginning with only one surface at a time and leaving the bigger walls till last. Feel free to leave the smaller walls until last. Plasterers always know in advance precisely what it is that they want to accomplish on a given day and arrange their work appropriately. Always try to avoid taking in more than you are capable of chewing, as this may lead you to choke very rapidly. Make sure that you have gone through the equipment checklist and that you have enough plaster for the job before you begin plastering. Once you begin plastering and are working through the golden formula, you will not have enough time to leave the job long enough to nip out and get more materials once you have started. Lastly, one more word of caution: if you are plastering anywhere near an electrical outlet, switch, light fitting, or appliance, you should make sure that the mains electricity is turned off. Plaster that has been mixed contains a significant amount of water. As you are probably aware, the combination of water and electricity may be quite dangerous. Before beginning any plastering work, you should always consult a trained electrician and building surveyor, especially if you are unsure of what you are doing.