What is Plastering?

Plastering is a process used to produce plastering an acceptable final wall or ceiling finish to a building before decoration. A substrate is a surface to which the plastering system is applied. Backing coats which cover the substrates are between 9mm and 40mm thick under normal circumstances, and the overall thickness can be built up in coats as necessary.

Is it difficult to plaster a wall?

Plastering is a job which many people usually leave to the experts. But by preparing well and carefully following a practiced method, you can plaster a wall. The finished result will be a nice smooth wall ready to accept paint or wallpaper.What do I need to plaster a wall?Plastering a wall can take time, so it’s important to choose good quality tools which feel comfortable in your hand. A full list of tools required can be found at the top of this page, but the five basic tools are:

Plastering trowel – choose a stainless steel trowel with a comfortable, evenly weighted handle.

A plasterer’s hawk board – this is the tool that holds your plaster. A plastic hawk board is lighter than a wooden one, although both types are fine. A wooden hawk board will last much longer, though.

Bucket trowel – this tool is specially Dry Lining designed to make it easy to scoop plaster from the bucket to your hawk board.

A power mixer – although it’s fine to mix the plaster by hand, it is much easier and quicker to use a power mixer. It’s especially suitable if you’re creating large batches of plaster which need to be applied quickly.

A good quality paint brush is essential for keeping your edges clean and applying water to your plaster.

Ceilings and Partitions

These areas are covered in a layer of timber laths plastered over an older building. When strength is required, a thin steel sheet mesh called expanded metal lath is fixed in place and then plastered over. Modern fast-track work plasterboards are fixed, the joints taped with a fiber mesh tape (scrim) to prevent cracking and then skimmed over with a finishing coat of gypsum plaster.

Plasterboards

Basic plasterboard is a flat sheet of gypsum between 9mm and 12.5mm thick, sandwiched between sheets of durable paper. Boards are also available with various backings of differing thicknesses to improve insulation, restrict the passage of water vapour and protect against fire. It has become common practice bonding or fix plasterboards to substrates to serve as the backing plaster coat. This method is known as dot and dab or drywall.

Finishing Coats

Finishing coats are usually between 3mm and 5mm, and bring the backing coats to a smooth skim finish. Finishing plasters used to produce these setting coats are available as premixed gypsum plasters. Finishing coats can also be lime putty and fine sand or a mixture of lime, sand and gypsum, known as gauged setting stuff.

Solid Plastering

Solid plastering denotes backing coats of a paste or mortar-type consistency comprised of an aggregate and a binding matrix. Binders tape and jointing include lime, gypsum and cement. Aggregates include sand, vermiculite and perlite.