Has plastering now become split into different formats

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henry

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Has plastering now become split into different formats of this trade. Most I meet today are just skimmers , well that's no fault of a anybody in the plastering trade. I think a lot of started when we started sticking boards on the walls. When you think of the skill level in this it must rank as low, gets a little intresting when you have angles to work out.

When we stopped rendering internal walls a skill was lost very much the same when coving was run free hand I suppose. We dont hear much about floor screeding another part of the trade me thinks been lost. When you think
of external rendering that is just another part of the trade which is no longer part of plastering, it has become a trade
on it's own with modern renders we use to today in new builds. I am not saying it's all bad or good it;s just the way
things are. Even re skimming is like a trade within a trade.
At one time in the day you could say am a plasterer and feel good about it because you knew it was a trade now days you say am a plasterer I often hear so and so can do that as if it's more on the level of a DIy then a skill.
does any body give a feck anymore.
 
i agree with pug its just modernisation we humans always try to find easier ways to do things .i can just hear all the lads who used to lath out houses amd put horse hair in their mix scoffing at the unskilled buggers putting that plasterboard stuff on and mixing plaster out of a bag.my grandad had a big plastering business and also a supplies yard with lime pits ,spreds would come in mornings and get big slabs of lime to guage up their finish then we got premixed powder in bags .when i first went on a site in usa i saw a drill and mixing paddle for the first time i cud not believe it i ha d arrived in mixing heaven.joiners barley use a hand tool nowadays
 
Yeah I kinder have to agree.... I get asked to screed, I can screed but its going to take me a lot longer than if you get a firm in that does it day in day out.... and they prob will be cheaper.

Same with rendering, I can S&C but never used Krend or anything similiar so once again I would call in a firm that just does that... could I do it? probably....

I think the trouble is is that a lot of "plasterers" can only skim and if they get asked can you just float that wall .... they s**t themselves this is when they start dropping down the line.

"you do what you do best, while I do what I do best"
 
Plumbing's the same, you got heating engineers, bathroom fitters and what plumbers do lead work now? Push fit has made it a diyers dream!
 
What year was that rock when you first eyeballed a drill for mixing skim. I was trying to think when we started useing the bigger trowels . Plastering is still a hard trade even with all the mod cons.
 
i hear people about just skimmers but you forget just how hard any type of plastering is to master,even just skimming properly takes alot of skill i m o the hardest bit is all of it
 
Lets just hope those plastering machines don't become affordable to the diyer or we are all out of the job!
 
first time for me was in the good old usain 1985 when as a stupid 22 year old me and my mate also a spread fcuk off to miami to have a butchers,we had a 2 week return ticketand neither of us came home .i ended up staying there for 16 years before heading to australia my mate is still there coked up as we speak
 
To be honest I find specifying products the hardest thing to master, especially with so many new products on the market, I know some people don't give a f**k but i like to offer my customers the best solution for their property.
 
lol

I wonder why I got on the plan out of Australia sometimes.....

Machines for the diyer??? Oh boy!!! I will start a machine plastering cleaning company...lol
 
freed the thing is mate its all just mud they try and make out this that and the other but its just mud,on the different products thing i hear you but it all oppinion theres buildings that have lasted 500 years or more i wonder how long this new sh ite will lat
 
Yea I know what your saying, shouldn't worry bout it to much I guess, will go with experience, but when your putting all the materials up front, paying subcontractors your bank account is in the red beofre the chq even clears you wanna make sure that sh*t stays on the wall! lol
 
Free D I know lads who just skim and make half a decent living at it . The best way to learn plastering is become the labour learning the trade from the bottom up.
 
I think the only advantage being a labourer would have been for me would have been contacts in the trade. I learnt how to plaster by subcontracting plasterers.
 
i personally would nt want any of my boys to be a plasterer its a hard trade both skillfully and physically.you need to be in a country where interior solid plastering is a dying art and its not here
 
After 25 years on the trowel, I still believe after finishing plastering a wall or ceiling, no other building trade can offer the same feeling of job satisfaction
 
After 25 years on the trowel, I still believe after finishing plastering a wall or ceiling, no other building trade can offer the same feeling of job satisfaction

I completely agree.... you dont see sparkies taking that much pride in their work :)
 
I still think more spreads who's hearts not really in the game will sack it during this downturn and not ever get back in the game then when things pick up which they will sometime, it will be good news for those that have hung on, hard bits sticking it out thou
 
rates wont ever get back to what they were 3 year ago,
youve just got to have more strings to your bow theses days.survival of the fitest.
 
all true this...
when i was 16 i was an apprentoid at BAe.. we were taught to make aircraft, tollmakers, fitters, machinists all separate but you could make ANY tool, fit / fabricate ANY part, machine ANY material on ANY machine...
americans at the time, mcdonnel douglas for example had tyre fitters, wheel fitters, nut and bold screwer uppers, lathe workers, mill workers, grinders... all split up into unskilled cheaper labour... and lots and lots of em...
all comes back to the division of labour, thats how factories achieve high production with relatively unskilled labour... think 'charlie chaplin' in the factory film...
so now this filters down into the construction industry, when you only got one string to your bow, you cant charge 'craftsman' rates, i.e. 'skimmer', 'one coat machine plasterer', 'coving installer', 'dryliner', 'm/f ceiling installer'...
divide and conquer as far as the big contractors are concerned innit...
plus it makes the job move quicker, everyones geared up to do just one job, and those operatives are ten a penny and easy to get hold of...
gone are the days when 'plasterer' was a generic term for 'wet trade personnel'...
happened in the engineering sector a long time ago, there used to be many more 'fabricator welders'... now theres a whole load of 'production welders' (cheaper) and one 'toolmaker' (makes the jigs)...
 
True in commercial work, but I find in domestic people want 1 person to do the lot, and I guess that will be harder to find as more and more people are 'categorised'.
 
What year was that rock when you first eyeballed a drill for mixing skim. I was trying to think when we started useing the bigger trowels . Plastering is still a hard trade even with all the mod cons.

very true henry, thats why i bought a machine, its just a tool which gives me the edge on hand apply because you get more on the wall quicker and less labour involved. You still need the skills of the trade because all it saves is the labour involved in mixing and laying on. Take the job were doing now, parex thincoat system onto aqueboard, we spray the addy onto the walls and ceilings, flatten mesh in and then we spray the bucket coat. each area, which is link between houses so you have a ceiling as well is around 100m2. we bead and basecoat in day, thats only 2 of us. when we top coat we will get all 3 done in around one and half days (280m2) Its the same as MP75, i was doing stairwells the other day on my own with the little ritmo and doing 18 bag spray in morning and a small 10 bag afternoon, thats about 55m2 a day , What really gets me is all the drylinng firms get all the external work when they know jack about rendering
 
True in commercial work, but I find in domestic people want 1 person to do the lot, and I guess that will be harder to find as more and more people are 'categorised'.

exactly, all the more reason to get involved in as much as you can, no good these young lads standing around idle expecting everything on a plate... they wanna be getting stuck into everything they can see happening...
ive got a right one to do next week, walls out, move 2 water meters, (already had to get the water board in to install a shared stopcock, cos after 2 hours diggin, a bloke from the water board, a signal genny and a metal detector, turns out there there wasnt one)
re-plumb the whole thing for a kitchen / bathroom... reboard / replaster, install kitchen and bathroom...
nice little job...
how many trades involved there?
just me...
 
True in commercial work, but I find in domestic people want 1 person to do the lot, and I guess that will be harder to find as more and more people are 'categorised'.

True in commercial work, but I find in domestic people want 1 person to do the lot, and I guess that will be harder to find as more and more people are 'categorised'.

That's true once you have been in their property & they trust you they prefer you to do other work rather than another stranger.
Once i've done any plastering or rendering work on a domestic job I always ask who's doing the Painting? Tiling? 2nd fix carpentry? Flooring? Kitchen? Bathroom? Etc...
Even if they already have quotes I say I can give you a free quote for the work while I'm here.
I get loads of work this way, & jobs I don't do myself I sub them to other trades I know & trust.
If you don't ask you don't get :RpS_thumbup:
 
If your just a one trick pony you will find it hard at present . This brings me back to my point skimmers dont render or screed floors, pebbledash and render works external so your very limted to what you can do. So skimmers chasing what little works is out there ,bringing the price down all because your a one trick pony. No fault of your own it's the way things have gone over the years.
 
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