Is this acceptable?

Well why didn't you get it linking papered in some thicker grade . Then paint it problem solved
Because we didn't like the lining paper joints. Also we thought by reskimming, we'd have smoother walls that we would only need to repaint.

In our previous property, we had the walls reskimmed, and they looked bloody great and there were hardly any cracks after 6 years living there. So we thought we could do the same with the new property.
 
Because we didn't like the lining paper joints. Also we thought by reskimming, we'd have smoother walls that we would only need to repaint.

In our previous property, we had the walls reskimmed, and they looked bloody great and there were hardly any cracks after 6 years living there. So we thought we could do the same with the new property.
And I bet it wasn't as difficult as skimming g in between that lot . All not lost bit of easyfil and a sand be fine . You see there's only so much plasterers can when working on thi gs like that and Joe public will never crasp that I'm afraid
 
And I bet it wasn't as difficult as skimming g in between that lot . All not lost bit of easyfil and a sand be fine . You see there's only so much plasterers can when working on thi gs like that and Joe public will never crasp that I'm afraid
Granted the picture rails weren't there but I still think they were better skilled plasterers.

Edit - so you reckon the new plasterers have done a decent job from the pictures I've posted? (given the obstacles they had to work with). Couple of other guys in here seem to think it was an average job.

I agree that at least some of that can be made better by filling and sanding down. We expected a better job (not a perfect job), especially near the door and window frames and corners.
 
Re-skim is lipstick on a pig. Thread closed
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Hi gents, I need to ask you about another section of the wall. There was some old loose lime plaster next to the front door and we took it off. (probably 30cm x 150cm area). The plasterers put bonding there to fill the hill and then reskimmed. It's been almost a week but this patch is still looks very dark so looks like the skimming plaster hasn't dried out. I've read that Bonding shouldn't be used on external walls as it absorbs a lot of moisture so sand and cement or Hardwall should be used. Do you think the reason it's not drying out is because they've used the wrong material? There's another issue of them using too much skimming plaser so in that corner it's bulging out but the plasterer said he'll sand it down. He's supposed to come tomorrow but I am not sure if he can sand down if it's not dry. If it's not dry next week, shall we ask him to remove skimming and bonding from that section and redo with sand and cement or hardwall then reskim?
Thanks.
 

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Jeeezus.

I was too polite yesterday.

Both you and the plasterer are going about this the wrong way :endesacuerdo:


I mentioned yesterday that 100 yr old plaster has a common tendency to delaminate/blow/shell from the wall, and re-skimming it is not the right way to sort it.

I understand that money can be a factor, and it would be unfair of me to give you a hard time about being unable to afford a complete hack-off. However, speaking purely from a technical standpoint, the fact remains that skimming over the top of 100yr old plaster is a bad idea, primarily because you are almost always going over unstable substrate.

You kept quiet about the fact that you already KNOW you have some blown areas in the old plaster!

Generally, when old lime plaster begins to get crumbly and blow from a wall, it tends to do so over most of the wall, even if it doesn't look that way to the naked eye. If you rap your knuckles around different areas of the wall, your're likely to find plenty of hollow spots where it's blown.

Trying to bodge it with bonding (especially near or on external walls) and then skimming over the whole wall(s) like a bandaid is asking for trouble.
I don't like speaking badly of other people's workmanship, but that is rough. Was that skirting board already buried about an inch into the wall before the new plastering began?

inch.jpg
 
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MakeItSmooth, we are where we are. You already made your point about reskimming over old walls is a bad idea. I must say we had the old walls in prevoius property reskimmed and did not have a problem. I guess those plasterers did a better job.

Anhyway back to the current situaiton. This section was the only part where there was blown plater from what we could tell. And we did tap on other parts of this wall and they didn't sound hollow. I think the plater got blown when an electrician chased the walls previously.

And no previously the wall wasn't sticking out like that however the plaster was blown so they removed that section and added bonding. I thikn they put too much bonding AND also too much multi finish. You can see to the left of the socket, the multifinsh layer is very thick (more than 10mm whereas on the right hand side is about 5mm).

Should I ask them to take it out and re-do that section with sand and cement or Hardwall? Or should leave it as is and see if it dries out by next week and get him to sand down and remove the excess skimming plaster?
 
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Yes he shouldn't of used bonding if nearly a week later and still that colour doubt it will fully dry
 
I can see there are dry spots starting to appear so maybe it will be fully dry next week but the worry I have is we are going to have wet patches there. The old lime plaster there even though loose was dry and there was no damp on the brick wall behind it when the old plaster came off so maybe we won't have damp issues there.

I think the issue is some of his guys did an OK job and some guys did a below average job.
 
Guys what should we do to move forward? The main plasterer is supposed to come tomorrow. What should we tell him?
 
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MakeItSmooth, we are where we are. You already made your point about reskimming over old walls is a bad idea.

Yes, and you stayed silent and took a day to admit that you already knew that some of it was blown.

And no previously the wall wasn't sticking out like that however the plaster was blown so they removed that section and added bonding. I thikn they put too much bonding AND also too much multi finish. You can see to the left of the socket, the multifinsh layer is very thick (more than 10mm whereas on the right hand side is about 5mm).

inch-jpg.67591


Then why are you wondering what happened in the other corners of the room?

Quite clearly, there is a pattern emerging, is there not?

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we were expecting smooth walls with no noticeable waves/bumps however we found that some walls had some waves especially near corners and next to doors and windows.

We noticed that quite a few corners were sticking out a bit and as a result had lost the detail in the picture rails and skirting boards. We think they put too much plaster in these corners. We asked the main plasterer and he's blaming the old walls but we are not convinced.

We also noticed that in the gaps between walls and architraves of doors and windows, the plastering is quite rough and wavy. Not too worried about the rough part as that can be sanded down but I'm not sure if you can get rid of the waves/bumps by sanding. We asked the plasterer about the waves and he said because of the small gaps, they couldn't get their trowels in to make them smooth like other walls. I measured these gaps and they are anywhere from 8cm to about 11cm. They might not be able to get the standard plastering trowel in there but I thought they could use something smaller to make it smoother. Or more skilled plasterers would have somehow done a better job. Are we being unreasonable?

No lack of space to use a trowel properly, around the bottom of the wall by that skirting board, so the lame excuse about the other corners having dodgy plaster due to not enough room to use the trowel does not stack up. Maybe the old plaster was just as bad, and only you as the houseowner know what it looked like before. Had it been badly reskimmed a few times, over the years?

In any case, the surface finish of the plastering around that skirting board is clearly not to a professional standard.


Please don't think I'm trying to make you feel bad - I'm just giving you my honest opinion. Even a highly-skilled plasterer would tend to avoid patching and reskimming over 100yr old plaster, because it is not the right way of doing it and is fraught with potential problems.

When you add an already dodgy scenario to a plasterer with questionable skills, I'm actually amazed you got away with it as lightly as you have. I don't like to disrespectfully accuse anyone of having questionable skills, but I can arrive at no other conclusion, looking at the state of that 'workmanship'.


However, you need to accept a big chunk of the responsibility for this situation. In trying to patch ancient plaster, you were setting the plasterer up for a fall, and someone was willing to take a punt at earning from it.
 
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Let me be clear. That was the only area where there was clearly blown old lime plaster. Our guess was it got damaged when electrician chased the wall. As I said before, we tapped on the same wall and we couldn't hear the hollow sound anywhere else on that wall.

On ther walls there were some holes created when the lining paper and dado rails were removed so where there were big holes, guys used bonding. From memory, just above the door, some of the old plaster had come off so they filled that as well and I don't think they did a good enough job with the filling to make it level with the rest of the wall or they just f up when reskimmed.

Other corners there were no holes and we honestly don't remember walls curving like that so we are guessing it's the way they reskimmed.

Most of the old walls were actually in good condition from what we could tell and were smooth enough when the linining paper was removed with very few cracks. And no they hadn't been plastered multiple times.

We had 2 other plasters look at the job and they all sounded positive that they could achieve a good finish. They didn't think we were doing the wrong thing or it was a difficult job. We went with this guy as he was recommended by the Decorator and he said he could get the job done quickly as he had a team of guys. In hindsight this was a mistake.

As I said before, we had a good experience with removing lining paper and reskimming in our old place and I would say the condition of the walls were similar.

What do we do about the section next to the door? Do we ask them to redo it with different material? Or do we wait until next week perpahs it will be dry by then and get him to sand down the excess skimming plaster?
 
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I can see there are dry spots starting to appear so maybe it will be fully dry next week but the worry I have is we are going to have wet patches there. The old lime plaster there even though loose was dry and there was no damp on the brick wall behind it when the old plaster came off so maybe we won't have damp issues there.

I think the issue is some of his guys did an OK job and some guys did a below average job.
You shouldn't really use bonding on external walls really there's a reason why your original walls were done in Lime
 
You shouldn't really use bonding on external walls really there's a reason why your original walls were done in Lime
What do you recommend we do? Doesnt' lime plaster also absorb moisture? The fact that it was bone dry before, doesn't it mean, that section is unlikely to be damp?
 
What do you recommend we do? Doesnt' lime plaster also absorb moisture? The fact that it was bone dry before, doesn't it mean, that section is unlikely to be damp?
Hard to say you said dry spots are appearing so see what happens next week, if your house is solid brick with no cavity that bonding and skim will never dry and will be damp
 
Yeah they are solid brick walls with no cavity (like all Edwardian and Vicotorian houses?).

Yeah little dry spots are appearing but we are worried we are going to have damp issues in the future even if it fully dries up in a few days. Shall we ask him to hack it off and redo with something else? And what should he use? Sand and cement?
 
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Guys what should we do to move forward? The main plasterer is supposed to come tomorrow. What should we tell him?
You shouldn't have to tell him anything, if he's anygood at all he'll apologise for his mens work, know how to put it right and do it.
Plasterers dont leave bad work, theres no point as it takes the same time and effort to do good or bad.
Chancers leave bad work because they dont know any difference and wont leave a good job no matter how many times they come back.
 
You shouldn't have to tell him anything, if he's anygood at all he'll apologise for his mens work, know how to put it right and do it.
Plasterers dont leave bad work, theres no point as it takes the same time and effort to do good or bad.
Chancers leave bad work because they dont know any difference and wont leave a good job no matter how many times they come back.
I don't have confidence in him and his guys anymore after what we've seen. I don't think they know the right material to use for various surfaces. I reckon they just use Bonding all the time.

However he does seem like he wants to make things better, at least at the moment. We withheld £750 of the money. I reckon if we ask him to hack off and re-do it he'll do it. I've already texted and said he'll probably have to re-do it as Bonding is the wrong stuff to use near external walls.

What should he re-do it with? Sand and cement or Hardwall?

Edit - he replied to me and said it's not a problem to hack off and re-do. He said "Do you want me to re-do with Hardwall?". I replied saying that I had read that sand and cement is better when it's near the external wall but I'll confirm what to use. What should I tell him?
 
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He said the rest of the wall is lime plaster. Shall I ask him to use lime plaster in that section? I've also read about Limelite..

Need help from you guys please. Sand/cement, Hardwall, Limelite or something else? :)
 
He said the rest of the wall is lime plaster. Shall I ask him to use lime plaster in that section? I've also read about Limelite..

Need help from you guys please. Sand/cement, Hardwall, Limelite or something else? :)
if he knew wtf he was doing, he'd know exactly what to use........face it you've been @Casper ed
 
Alright mate, yes I think it's pretty clear he's not a great plasterer and some of his guys are even worse but at least he's willing to come back and sort it out. In his defence I think it was one of his guys that put bonding there and re-skimmed but he should check the work of his guys.

He was suggesting to re-do with Hardwall...

What's the best option?
Sand and/cement, Hardwall, Limelite or something else?
 
He said the rest of the wall is lime plaster. Shall I ask him to use lime plaster in that section? I've also read about Limelite..

Need help from you guys please. Sand/cement, Hardwall, Limelite or something else? :)
Theres many on here would be more experienced than me in that type of work but I dont think hardwall would be any better than bonding from a damp point of view
 
I've read that Hardwall absorbs less moisture than Bonding. But Sand and cement seems to be what's recommended in most places after a google search.
However I've also seen Limelite suggested as a replacement for Lime plaster.

Not sure what's better!
 
Come on fellas, what material should be used to replace old loose lime plaster (30cm x 150cm area) on the wall next to the front door?
 
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