Plaster dries too fast to work

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thedoghouse

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Hello all!
I am new to the forum, and new to plastering...we have a 32 yr old house in St George, UT. Been here 5 yrs, updating the entire house, and noticed a damp plaster wall in the basement after a rain 2 yrs ago. The basement is poured in place concrete, 6 inches thick to a 6-8 inch thick slab. House built into the base of a hill in a very dry, desert like area with great drainage. Found the water problem, leaky sprinkler head underground right next to the basement wall leading to over watering 2 plants. Anyway...we have 2 2 foot by 1 foot areas of wet plaster that have peeled off the concrete. There is nothing between the plaster and the concrete walls. I cleaned the areas, let them sit exposed for 30 days and they are still dry, and I tried to patch the bad areas.
I used DAP Plaster of Paris, or tried to. I followed the instructions on the bag of plaster faithfully. Mixed up 4 cups of plaster and 2 cups cold water, and before I got to the wall, 20 steps away, the plaster was drying and getting hard:-(. Had to throw away half that plaster. Mixed up another 4 cups with an extra 1/4 cup of cold water, and it lasted a bit longer, but still no time to smooth it out, and I still wasted half the plaster because within 5 minutes, the plaster in the bucket had turned to ROCK!
What am I doing wrong? My wife has mudded the sheetrock over half the house, and does a beautiful job, but we can't even get started on the plaster due to the rapid drying. And can we use dry wall mud over the plaster after it has set? (That would be in two minutes setting time right now!)
Thanks for any help! We are both, wife and I, 70 yrs old, and we love all this work we are doing, but really want to do it right!
Bob
 
Plaster of paris does set quick , im guessing dry wall mud is like skimming , if that gives u more time use that ? And it shouldnt be a problem ? Pva the patches first to stop suction also ..... Hope this helps alittle bit :RpS_thumbsup:
 
Bag could be out of date or damaged..


This a UK forum and DAP it would seem is a US product, so most will struggle to give you some well informed advice..

Although there is plenty who have worked over there so with a bit of luck they will be along shortly
 
Ha you cannot skim with it. Give up. It drys far to quick. Who suggested using plaster of Paris / casting to patch the wall?
 
CTPlastering said:
Well they said dry wall mud , turned that into sum kind of skim filler stuff and that would be better at least than plaster of paris . Dont have a clue about there products mate lol
Click to expand...

Dry wall mud is what we call jointing compound :RpS_thumbup:
 
Hello @thedoghouse or should i say Bob and welcome to the forum there are a few US based plasterers on here @Loren being one, as said above plaster of paris will not give you enough working time for what you want to do as it is a very specialised product.

I would try a visit to your local Home Depot or hardware store etc and seek some advise there as to which plaster product would best suit the job in hand

good luck
 
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