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Mr Sworld

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Ok, let's get this over with. Mine SUCK! (Almost as much as a cheap Thai hooker....) I don't really do it a lot, it's all surface mount conduit and trunking for me

However I'm doing the house and there must be a better way than what I am doing. I stuff the backbox with paper and try to fill the big gaps as level as possible to the wall. (A lot of plaster came off when sinking the boxes!) Then come back when it's dry and sand down to just below finished plaster level and then use a final fine coat to make it look prettier.

I use bog standard interior filler.

Is there a better and easier way?

 
Get garden spray and wet the dry plaster before applying filler of choice. Mostly I use one-coat plaster or bonding to make good - with care can be done in one go. Bonding is useful with big holes and loose back boxes where you can't get a decent screw fixing.

Most fillers I find shrink when drying, ergo are crap

Other than that fine finish normal plaster works better than most things but takes longer to dry. Unfortunately, over filling and sanding down is only way to get a really good finish, or hire a decorator.

 
various combinations...

have some one-coat stuff for some of the big holes..

use some of that ready mix stuff you can buy in a nice handy plastic tub for small patching bits..

also keep some Building PVA...

very good to coat & seal the back wall a bit that you are fixing onto..

sometimes I pour a bit of PVA in with me one-coat mix..

makes it a bit more sticky and hardens off a bit faster.

Also use some plaster coving adhesive... (sets rock hard in less than an hour!) ;)

say if doin a one day job.. add one new socket...

need it all dry & finished so you can ****** off home...

do your patching with cove adhesive while its drying get on with your dead tests & fixing floors back down etc...

then ready for a bit of smoothing & fix socket face plate.

I sometimes put a pick-n-pick cake of one-coat & cove adhesive...

all depends on size of area to work..

or how many sockets to fill... e.g. is re-wire may be doing a batch of 5 or 6 in one room together..

fink thats about it..

Never pour this in though Guiness Drink

 
Told you my trowel skills are dismal!

So is it a small plasterers trowel for building up the plaster and a filling knife to finish?

 
as taught to me by my bestest mate,

a plasterer,

dampen the brickwork/block or whatever with some water or well watered down pva, helps to stop the plaster drying out too fast and crazing.

if its more than about 3/4" deep then you really need to fill it with browning/bonding first, to just below the surface, throw in a handful or cement if you want it to go off faster.

if you've only got 10mm os so to build up then do it straight with hardwall/finish or whatever, just before it goes off get a wet paintbrush and lightly splatter the plaster then scrape off the roughness with the trailing edge of your trowel.

ALWAYS use fresh plaster/bonding or whatever, it has a use by date, and once opened it speeds up the process.

old plaster goes off really fast and is hard to work with, from wet to hard in seconds literally.

for reference

a float

http://www.toolmix.com/browse/product.asp?gid=328&pid=38273

a plasterers trowel

http://www.toolmix.com/browse/product.asp?pid=46235&s52cnc=FROOGLE-UK&s52r=FROOGLEUK

:)

 
Hmmm.... I've just been building up with filler. Thought it was a bit of an expensive exercise!

Oh well, best go out and get some bonding and finishing on the weekend.

Cheers Binky, SL and Steps. :)

 
Mr Sworld are you troweling up as part of the job or is it something you charge extra for ?

 
I don't mind doing the plastering. Usually fit boxes in with bonding and finish off with multi finish. It can add quite a bit of time on a rewire especially if you are doing chases. I find the more you do it the better you will get. I use a 3'' filling knife unless more needs doing then i get the plasterers trowel out. Only trouble is its usually rusty as it dosn't get much use. Welshie's the one for plastering.

Batty

 
No, this is work on my own house. I've not done this amount of work before so it's a learning curve for me..

 
No, this is work on my own house. I've not done this amount of work before so it's a learning curve for me..
OK i thought you were talking about a job

 
I don't mind doing the plastering. Usually fit boxes in with bonding and finish off with multi finish. It can add quite a bit of time on a rewire especially if you are doing chases. I find the more you do it the better you will get. I use a 3'' filling knife unless more needs doing then i get the plasterers trowel out. Only trouble is its usually rusty as it dosn't get much use. Welshie's the one for plastering.Batty
I've done chases for lights etc, however when I sunk the backbox's a lot of the plaster below them cracked and fell away so it's not the usual filling the chase for the cable into the box but quite a large amount of 'making good'. :_|

 
I don't mind doing the plastering. Usually fit boxes in with bonding and finish off with multi finish. It can add quite a bit of time on a rewire especially if you are doing chases. I find the more you do it the better you will get. I use a 3'' filling knife unless more needs doing then i get the plasterers trowel out. Only trouble is its usually rusty as it dosn't get much use. Welshie's the one for plastering.Batty
:x

 
Plaster of paris, it takes 5 mins to go off, you can set boxes in and it can be rubbed doen straight away otherwise as stated bonding the multi finish.

regards Iain

 
I usually put first coat to about 5mm below surface level and when it has gone off a bit put final coat of multi finish. You have to work it with plenty of damping down, I use a water sprayer. As I said the more you do it the better you will get. If it is a large patch you may have to use a plasters trowel.

Batty

 
No, this is work on my own house. I've not done this amount of work before so it's a learning curve for me..
as its your own house Mr Sworld, get yourself some scrimtape too.

once you have bonded the deep tracks and just as its gone off tape the joints between the bonding and 'good' wall either side with the scrim,

then when you skim it up with finish it wont crack at the joint. :)

 
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