Ultimate plastic trowels

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church

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After receiving the following set of plastic trowels courtesy of "plazzy "

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]A 35cm plain trowel for laying on and closing in.
A 50cm cushioned trowel for flattening.
A 40 cm cushioned trowel for trowelling up or for laying on and trowelling up curved surfaces such as swooped ceilings.
A slot-in handle.
A couple of small tools.
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Had my first chance to give the trowels a whirl , i had a small job on the go bedroom re- skim heavy artex ceiling had to be carlite bonded out sealed with stabilizer the same day and pvaed the next day before skimming ,the walls had some making good but a basic 2 coat pva was the order of the day .

I looked at the trowels and slid the medium sized cushioned plastic sleeve (around 16 inch)onto the miget trowel , it needs a bit of a push to clip it in but a bit of wd40 would help me in the furture :RpS_wink: . The trowel feels comfortable in your hand and the plastic handle feels ok but there is a little ridge that you can feel under your index finger but its no big deal , i felt the blades of the plastic sleeve and decided to sand them down a bit and sand off the toe corners to round them off a bit as well.

So to the plastering stage ceiling first , for now i went for laying it on with a steel trowel as normal , and waited for it to pick up after ten minutes or so , picked up the plastic trowel and started to flatten ...... well the first thing you notice is there is no resistance from the plaster and you have to look twice to see if the trowel is working:RpS_unsure: ....but it is and it works great and even saves a bit of time i feel , decided after another ten minutes to flatten it again and now the ceiling is super flat and im quite impressed at this stage. Knocked up for second coat and layed it on with the steel trowel washed up and waited .
After two flaterning in trowels and two cross trowels one wet and one dry with the plastic trowel the ceiling was finished and looked great :RpS_cool: better than i normally do with a steel trowel ....... yeah hands up it was and im well impressed , done a couple off walls with the same result and now waiting till after christmas to see how it drys out .

Overall i think the trowels are great don't think they will replace steel but i will be using one from now on .

On the upside , The trowels are , easy to use , make lighter work of troweling up skimming due to less pressure you have to put on the trowel , leave a good flat even finish to walls and ceilings .

On the down side , you need to have some fine sand paper to hand as the plastic nicks easy , not sure how long they last you .

Overall i think the trowels are well worth a go , everyone is different but they suit me ,and should i be telling you all this no , should keep it to myself :RpS_sneaky: .

Well done plazzy and thanks.
 
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good enough for me that mate...
how much for a set then? I've got a week or so of one shot boardwork with board finish on the cheap followed by another week with the one coat machine plaster in france that'll test em :RpS_biggrin:
anything to take the effort out of it works for me these days, i am so sick of running round like an idiot waving my hands at walls for a living...

just one q though? what shape are the handles? closer to a m/town banana or the tyzak comfort grip?

reason i ask is I had a tyzak preworn comfort on the go for the last year or two and left it in france for this coming year, got home, bought another tyzak but went for the steel with the wooden handle...
the blades alright but the bleedin handles takin some gettin used to again, my wrist is sufferin a bit...

I will never, ever, callously leave my baby ever again... :-(
 
Not sure how much they are Chris , i know refina sell them but not even sure they are the same make as plazzys etc , as for the handles deffo more like mt than tyzack soft grip plastic well worth a go mate ive got to say .
 
ive got to say church ive used one a few times now and to start with i was impressed, but then i found they arent that great in the corners so ive gone back to my s/s. although i did find it easier on the wrist, it may be a bit quicker i didnt think it saved that much time. i'm still not completely convinced although i will keep having a go with it now and then. i agree about keeping some scratch at hand, first thing i did with mine was give the edges a sand because they left heavy scratch marks in the wall to start with. i think its just going to take a bit of getting used to. the one thing they are great for is giving it a flatten inbetween 1st and 2nd coat. it takes out any lines you might have and you can do it immediately after 1st coat, no need to wait around for it to pick up.
 
Cool Great review chaps :)

I looking forward to trying mine out in the new year... if it makes lighter work of the job I am keen :)

Cheers Plazzy for keeping your word :)

Danny
 
I have had mine for about 3 months now and love it. I use wet and dry for getting the scratches out
 
i think its got the potential to be brilliant, just different to what im used to and i dont very often have the time to **** about trying something new
 
Never understood why people flattened inbetween coats always seems a waste of time ive not used the plastic yet so cant give a review.
 
i think its got the potential to be brilliant, just different to what im used to and i dont very often have the time to **** about trying something new

Not being funny mate but you like me seem rather new to the game. All due respect to you man but shouldn't someone with more experience be better suited to giving advice about trowels ?
 
Never understood why people flattened inbetween coats always seems a waste of time ive not used the plastic yet so cant give a review.

Makes it easier and quicker to apply the second coat, but you have to trade that off against the time taken flattening.

Personal choice I suppose.
 
yes essexboy i'm new, ill play your games if no one else will, nearly 10 years in the trade and i havent learnt a thing. flynny i never flatten between coats, i dont leave any lines so never have to but thought i'd try it with the plastic just to test it out, it gets out even the faintest line but i won't use it all the time as like i said i never flatten between coats.
 
I flatten between coats... but like beddy I dont leave lines so I dont have to if I dont want to.

Yeah essexboy, beddy did 3 days as opposed to your one day :)

lol

Danny
 
yes essexboy i'm new, ill play your games if no one else will, nearly 10 years in the trade and i havent learnt a thing. flynny i never flatten between coats, i dont leave any lines so never have to but thought i'd try it with the plastic just to test it out, it gets out even the faintest line but i won't use it all the time as like i said i never flatten between coats.



Beddy I'm not claiming to be as good as you oasis flynny etc. But you do seem to punch above your weight in the giving advice department .
 
Give teh trowels to spark1234 to test. Mind you he probably sells them in teh pound shop
 
second coat straight away here the first coat is still hanging so no tram lines, also imo you get a better laying/closing in coat finish making the troweling up process easier - your already ten minuites up on waiting to flatten coat one. if on price that is the only way.

each to their own tho, i know plenty of people who flatten first.

I often wonder if coat 1 goes in too much and has been flattened is there an element of sepertion between the coats? surely a slightly shiny stiffened first coat is not the correct base for a skim finish.

experiment - board finish done this way and then left to stiffen up followed by a closing in coat will leave the second coat peeling off when a harder trowel is needed toward the end of the set so how far between the two is safe and how far is too far gone for the first coat when every set dries a different rates due to atmosphere or suction etc. - not sure if anyone has actually seen this but I have.
 
I have the 15" cushion and 20" cushion trowel. Only used the 15 so far. Can you get enough pressure on the longer 20 inch jobbies?

What do you all think of the finish when the wall is wet as your using less water? My finish is much better no water marks etc
 
works too... but only on even suction and flattish surfaces... no good trying to one coat a lot of surfaces with multi, well i struggle anyway.. on boards no worries :)
 
I bought a couple and truth is they're rubbish, they nick too easy i was forever rubbing it with wet and dry paper and after a week it snapped. The palstic is too soft and doesnt flatten skimming i wont be buying another EVER!!!
 
If you can't flatten finish with one you must be going over the finish after it's gone in too much
 
yes it was, I was talking to the BG tech guy at a demo and he told me it was for onecoat app. machines never came into it. but if you dont believe me i really dont give a ****.
 
yes it was, I was talking to the BG tech guy at a demo and he told me it was for onecoat app. machines never came into it. but if you dont believe me i really dont give a ****.
No it wasnt and rep/BG tech guy at a demo, pretty much the same thing but i believe you think it was so i will leave it at that xxxxxxx and welcome back moody bum
 
I bought a couple and truth is they're rubbish, they nick too easy i was forever rubbing it with wet and dry paper and after a week it snapped. The palstic is too soft and doesnt flatten skimming i wont be buying another EVER!!!

I spoke to plazzy today and he said

I noticed someone saying that they weren't so good in corners because of their flexibility, maybe they were using the cushioned type instead of the plain version which is much stiffer and therefore better in that situation. The midget steel trowel is also meant to be used independently when necessary. Generally the plain trowels are best for first and second coating and the cushioned type for flattening and also contouring surfaces such as swooped ceilings. It's all a matter of using the best version for the job and not be constrained by only having a single steel trowel as in the past. As spreads get used to our trowels, we find that they start to use their steel trowels less and less.

Maybe that was some help to you :)

Danny
 
Danny, can you ask your mate Plazzy how they would hold up when used with mp75, I wouldnt mind giving them a testing with that because your using a different type method of sorts with MP75.
 
thats exactly what i was thinking using one coat machine plaster as a skim... the fats so easy to push around, i reckon theyd work a treat...
 
im not speaking about using mp75 as a skim, i talking about using the trowels instead of steel. I wouldnt recommend using mp75 on board
 
give it a try mate, ive been using lutece 2000 as a skim on board and it comes up an absolute treat using exactly the same methods you use 18mm thick...
you rule it off yes?
i give it a quick flatten once its on then after that the process is the same, wet it, sponge, trowel, leave it, sponge, trowel, done..

the point i was trying to make is the fat you trowel up is easier to move around than finish is once its started to pull in... you let the stuff pull in, then turn the top surface back to wet skim...
 
in fact ill have some photos in a few weeks of work im about to do, beddy's lending me his plastic trowel for the job so ill let you know how i get on with it..
 
the reason i want to see how it goes is you do tend to use more of the edge of the trowel on the final pass and im want to see it the plastic ones could handle the pressure on them. would like to see the pics chris. I love mp75, its such a breeze once you get to to the troweling stage, the problem a lot of lads seem to have i they cant rule and unless you can rule to a good standard then your work will be s**t.
 
One coat skim does exist and I have actually had a spec for it once - to be slightly cheaper.
also many one coat over a float set too

I use two as its my preference
 
who the fek is plazzy? i thought these things were from refina

you can still make em cheaper from fire exit signs
 
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