We used Durafinish for the first time today and had some problems when trying to polish it. Second coat was on and had been trowelled twice ready for a polish. Flicked some water on and it kinda started to tear. We checked the tech spec before we used it and it says its the same as multi for everything. Just wondering if any of you have used it before and how you found it?
Thistle Durafinish
- Thread starter Peg
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nicksey1401
Guest
never mate who makes it?
iain_flanagan
New Member
used it a couple of times when there was the plaster shortage, got it from a mate who was working on site at the time ,pretty sure it was from ireland
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MrSpoon85
Guest
BG Thistle, correct me if im wrong its a high impact resistant finish plaster, few bags of it at college but nobodys has tried it yet
Well we've now done about 50m with the Durafinish and its not very nice. It is a high impact plaster made by Thistle for areas of high traffic. It says in the tech spec its used and finished exactly the same as multi, but after using it its nowhere near as good a finish. Its like laying on chewing gum and holds off for ages! It trowels up ok but when trying to polish it just starts tearing! We had to let it go for ages to try and get a good finish! Pain in the arse. Not one i would recommend
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MrSpoon85
Guest
what background was you skimming onto? im going to be using it soon on a wall floated up with bonding
pftmonojetman
Private Member
Im pretty sure this stuff was out about 17 years ago or so and they had a backing called Duracoat, im not 100% but i think you can only use it on plasterboards (gyproc & Glasroc) and cement based backings not gypsum backing, id phone BG tech dept to make sure
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MrSpoon85
Guest
ah interesting..... luckily its just a wall at college so theres no major problems if it all goes pete tong
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MrSpoon85
Guest
Overview
Thistle Durafinish is a gypsum finish plaster specially
formulated for increased resistance to accidental damage.
It enables significantly longer maintenance intervals and
lower long-term cost in heavy traffic areas of many types of
building.
It may be used on a wide range of backgrounds including
most undercoat plasters, and to enhance the surface
damage resistance of any British Gypsum partition or wall
lining system. It is particularly suited to the applications for
GypWall EXTREME and GypWall ROBUST.
Applications
Thistle Durafinish is designed for the finishing of a wide
range of backgrounds, from low-suction (e.g. plasterboards,
Glasroc MultiBoard, FireCase S and Rigidur, Thistle Dri-Coat,
sufficiently flat concrete) through to the medium-to-high
suction of gypsum or cement-based undercoat plasters.
Most backgrounds which normally require a bonding agent
to provide adhesion can be directly plastered with Thistle
Durafinish (e.g. MR plasterboards, cast in-situ concrete,
previously plastered surfaces) provided they are clean,
sound and reasonably dry.
according to this it should be fine on gypsum backingg coats
Thistle Durafinish is a gypsum finish plaster specially
formulated for increased resistance to accidental damage.
It enables significantly longer maintenance intervals and
lower long-term cost in heavy traffic areas of many types of
building.
It may be used on a wide range of backgrounds including
most undercoat plasters, and to enhance the surface
damage resistance of any British Gypsum partition or wall
lining system. It is particularly suited to the applications for
GypWall EXTREME and GypWall ROBUST.
Applications
Thistle Durafinish is designed for the finishing of a wide
range of backgrounds, from low-suction (e.g. plasterboards,
Glasroc MultiBoard, FireCase S and Rigidur, Thistle Dri-Coat,
sufficiently flat concrete) through to the medium-to-high
suction of gypsum or cement-based undercoat plasters.
Most backgrounds which normally require a bonding agent
to provide adhesion can be directly plastered with Thistle
Durafinish (e.g. MR plasterboards, cast in-situ concrete,
previously plastered surfaces) provided they are clean,
sound and reasonably dry.
according to this it should be fine on gypsum backingg coats
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MrSpoon85
Guest
i had the pleasure of using it today and i wasnt to fond of using it, nothing like multi atall, ripped a few times but easily trowels back in place, just took forever to go off, i laid in about 10am, finished troweling up about 2:30pm  
i just popped back to it every half hour or so and got cracking with other jobs.
oh yeah my lecturer seemed pretty sure this is exact same stuff he used to use way back, was either Limelite? i think he said.. or renovation plaster he called it so i assume he means Thistle Renovating Finish Plaster? said there was a backing plaster that goes with it (Thistle Renovating Undercoat Plaster) which was apparantly really good stuff, but the finishing stuff was a nightmare, so maybe this really is just the old stuff rebagged and rebranded  :-/
i just popped back to it every half hour or so and got cracking with other jobs.oh yeah my lecturer seemed pretty sure this is exact same stuff he used to use way back, was either Limelite? i think he said.. or renovation plaster he called it so i assume he means Thistle Renovating Finish Plaster? said there was a backing plaster that goes with it (Thistle Renovating Undercoat Plaster) which was apparantly really good stuff, but the finishing stuff was a nightmare, so maybe this really is just the old stuff rebagged and rebranded  :-/
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nicksey1401
Guest
hardwalls better mate it sounds like durafinish is a specialist finish plaster................................and everyones blaming there tools ;D ;D ;D ;D
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MrSpoon85
Guest
heard of tough coat but never used it, prehaps its the old stuff rebranded again? strange, either way i cant immagine id ever have to use the stuff for a customer unless i was working on site and even then i dont think it'd want to be using it unless it was worth my while
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MrSpoon85
Guest
its the strangest thing to use, go get yourself a bag and convince the missus that the spare room needs plastering and see for yourself, i ended up calling my lecturer over cos i was so frustrated to see what he thought i should do.... "hmm looks too wet to me, appears to be the same stuff! (that he was on about) you might have to wait untill its nearly gone then hit it" .... ok i said heres my trowel have a go... "..oh.." haha seems it firms up quite quickly yet... and big lines etc are hard to get out shortly after applying as they just kind of rubberise? yet you cant trowel up properly for another leap year ;D
It is weird its like laying on chewing gum, did'nt have too much of a problem trowelling up just when polishing and it does take ages to go off. We were doing walls in a huge cafe and the walls were about 5 - 6 metres high. we used the Durafinish on the boards at ground level then multi on all boards above and feathered in. First wall we laid on the multi using scaffolds then once it was on moved scaffolds out of the way and laid on Durafinish. After the 2 coats of each we had polished the multi and the durafinish was still not ready for a polish. Not good if its going home time!
jamesthefirst
Private Member
It can stick to smooth surfaces with no pre treatment as well (same as unifinish) but I was paying £12 a bag when I used it around 3or4 years ago I think. I used it to over skim an Artex ceiling and found it as said below a bit gooey but that made me feel it was going to adhere well to the ceiling. It's still there no comebacks.
jamesthefirst
Private Member
As in a bonding agent? Moisture boards? If so there is no need with this stuff according to the spec.
Aye some sort of cement board. The contractor greened them. That's the way he wanted it, suppose it would save time and money if he didn't have to. Maybe it's to kill the the suction.
jamesthefirst
Private Member
Yes he did the right thing as Durafinish does not like suction. I did not realise until I saw the BG vid and spec (which they changed about a year after first release of the product!) that it needs to be mixed wetter than multi then left In the bucket for 5 mins then whisk it again.
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