As with most forums, apart from the die hards people just pop in and out when they need advice and there are lurkers in the background like me, who read and don't post a lot!
As I mentioned on another thread I have done bits and bobs of patching and the odd wall of rendering, sparring, tanking and skimming for many years, usually when it's too small a job for a spread to bother with and the more they let you down the more you do and learn as you go.
Most of the plasterers I have had contact with have been pretty poor, usually found by customers in the course of my other work and I try and work with/around them.
I also do full house refurbs and rent or sell them and the last plasterers I used convinced me to do this one myself.
In Wales if 2k cash, labour only for an agreed 2 coat is not enough for a paintable finish, then I may as well do it myself and this house is much harder in that it's mostly skim over heavy artex, walls and ceilings.
So as I said thanks for the many pages of advice and thanks to youtube too as seeing someones technique is worth a thousand words, I will put some pics up for you to critisise if you wish, but I am learning on the fly and it is a real eye opener with the nuances of different backgrounds and using a hawk for the first time Lol, wow what a difference in effort, when you get the preparation, mix and timings right it's so much easier and all hail the magic mix for first coating artex
Fair play to you guys who do this day in day out, it's a very physical trade and tough on the joints, I am not the ideal size for this game though at 6'6" as the low bits are too low and not the right age either, I have always seen this trade as more an artform than just a trade and now dabbling with more of it, I haven't changed that opinion
As I mentioned on another thread I have done bits and bobs of patching and the odd wall of rendering, sparring, tanking and skimming for many years, usually when it's too small a job for a spread to bother with and the more they let you down the more you do and learn as you go.
Most of the plasterers I have had contact with have been pretty poor, usually found by customers in the course of my other work and I try and work with/around them.
I also do full house refurbs and rent or sell them and the last plasterers I used convinced me to do this one myself.
In Wales if 2k cash, labour only for an agreed 2 coat is not enough for a paintable finish, then I may as well do it myself and this house is much harder in that it's mostly skim over heavy artex, walls and ceilings.
So as I said thanks for the many pages of advice and thanks to youtube too as seeing someones technique is worth a thousand words, I will put some pics up for you to critisise if you wish, but I am learning on the fly and it is a real eye opener with the nuances of different backgrounds and using a hawk for the first time Lol, wow what a difference in effort, when you get the preparation, mix and timings right it's so much easier and all hail the magic mix for first coating artex
Fair play to you guys who do this day in day out, it's a very physical trade and tough on the joints, I am not the ideal size for this game though at 6'6" as the low bits are too low and not the right age either, I have always seen this trade as more an artform than just a trade and now dabbling with more of it, I haven't changed that opinion
