Aussie Plasterer wants advice from poms

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ivanoo

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I have a couple of jobs coming up with thermalite/celcon blocks that are to be float rendered and set. Trouble is, it's very unusual to come across these blocks in Australia.
we normally work on a fastwall maxi brick(clay pot type block). English brickies like to use them here(they are used to laying them and prefer them). I know in the UK you have materials that can cover them, however we don't have your wonderful thistle/bg etc stuff. we just have basic lime/cement/sand for render(float) and lime putty/hardwall for skim(white set). I have done a little external sand finish render on thermalites a couple of years back but it cracked to buggery. any advice is appreciated.

ivanoo of WA
 
Dampen down ya block work and go on with a 6-1 or weaker mix sand and cement . You could use a sealer or simmilar to kill some suction, but its not really needed.
 
hmmm, over here iv done hardwall or sand cement, it will most likely crack ming over there to shrinkage.... youd have to leave it for weeks to help it not.

as KK says, wet blocks in or even pva to aid with fast curinging...goes without saying.
 
Damp walls as above or apply a sbr slurry, ie a splatter coat with a water proof primer, the next day apply a six and one one coat, sand cement lime ratio with fibres and possibly embedded mesh, keep damp for a week before skimming
 
Using it soon hopefully mate only problem is it weighs alot and we've only got 15m of hose I think so were going to be moving the f**k*r about a bit!
 
Apply a pva as a primer and let dry. Apply pva again as a bonding coat and whilst tacky apply a 6:1 sand and cement scratch coat and let set. Use a sharp plastering sand not bricklaying sand. Heat is your problem over there so make sure your blocks are cool otherwise the heat loss from them will waste your time.

The above is ok for internal work and same for external if it is sheltered from the rain or the work is going to be coated to make it waterproof otherwise your pva will dissolve under moisture. For external you could use sbr if you have it. prime with 1:1 let dry and then use neat as a tack coat or better still put some cement in it to give it some body.
 
Using it soon hopefully mate only problem is it weighs alot and we've only got 15m of hose I think so were going to be moving the f**k*r about a bit!

Errrrrr get another hose, use a 35mm first then a 25 takes a bit of strain off your pump motori and rot/state
 
We keep trying to tell him were going to need more hose, at the mo it looks like we've got 15-18m of 35mm in 3 sections I was going to suggest an extra 20m of 25mm do you think this would be enough ?
 
What is this sbr you speak of?

bearing in mind we don't have all the stuff you can get in UK. we get
many English lads who have just emigrated who can't beleive
at how behind we are with materials. For example we do not use exterior
corner beads and only use internal corner beads if requested by customer.everything is bullnosed!! a lot of the newly arrived UK spreads have trouble getting there heads around it.
 
No matter what you do to thermalite the floating coat of sand and cement will delaminate in time , use a lightweight plaster floating coat that can cope with a high suction background, best method of covering these horrid blocks is to dot & dab using plasterboard
 
No matter what you do to thermalite the floating coat of sand and cement will delaminate in time , use a lightweight plaster floating coat that can cope with a high suction background, best method of covering these horrid blocks is to dot & dab using plasterboard

Not sure thats the case.

Welcome along by the way.
 
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