Is an uneven wall when plastered on brick acceptable?

[rochester plasterer]

Yea I understand what your saying if that works then happy days ay

 

[roy c]

Plastering is only one of my skills, over the years I have done roofing, (taught by an old boy who came out of retirement to do a few roofs for the guy I was working for). Also tiling bathrooms and kitchens, drainage work,also I was taught by a stonemason how to do stone work, paving, dry-rot treatment (when everyone had dry-rot in the early 80's) . But as the years went by I got in with a guy who owns lots of properties and office blocks (and I had a team of guys who refurbed a block of his flats and I floated and sponged the outside up and tyroleaned the whole lot. and after that we gutted an old Georgian house he owned which we turned it into offices and all the walls in there were were plumbed up with the dabs method and I rendered all the front of the building and put bands on the ground floor and flat render above them to the roof. (Last pics in my album) And I am still working for him at the moment but I have just turned 65 so slowing down a bit now but as the work is there i will still carry on till my body tells me to stop. And I haven't got a clue about all these modern renders that have come out over the last few years, as most of our work has always been sand and cement work. The only coarse I went on was an Artexing coarse for a week where I learned how to artex but it became unfashionable and no one wanted it doing.I have still got all the combs and tools somewhere collecting dust!!! I wish that I was younger and was learning how to use all these modern tools and modern materials that are now coming out, but I am also glad that I did it the "old" way......

 

[rochester plasterer]

Yea fair play to you Roy ... I have hardly ever used sand and cement internally on walls it's always been hardwall. I have only been spreading 12years to be fair. But it does seem easier to buy a big blue garden water butt and cut it In half then you can mix around 5bags of hardwall in there and go for it. It's a lot lighter than s&c aswell so easy to carry on the hawk and easier to lay on. Still can't teach a old dog new tricks

 

[roy c]

Yea fair play to you Roy ... I have hardly ever used sand and cement internally on walls it's always been hardwall. I have only been spreading 12years to be fair. But it does seem easier to buy a big blue garden water butt and cut it In half then you can mix around 5bags of hardwall in there and go for it. It's a lot lighter than s&c aswell so easy to carry on the hawk and easier to lay on. Still can't teach a old dog new tricks

Thats why old spreads have arms like tree trunks mucka

 

[rochester plasterer]

Yea fair play to you Roy ... I have hardly ever used sand and cement internally on walls it's always been hardwall. I have only been spreading 12years to be fair. But it does seem easier to buy a big blue garden water butt and cut it In half then you can mix around 5bags of hardwall in there and go for it. It's a lot lighter than s&c aswell so easy to carry on the hawk and easier to lay on. Still can't teach a old dog new tricks

Thats why old spreads have arms like tree trunks mucka

Haha yea that's true

 

[roughcaster]

Thats why old spreads have arms like tree trunks mucka

Exactly Roy. When I was a younger plasterer, most of our plastering was float and set, either sand cement and lime, or a browning and sand mix float coat,,, finished off the next day with Siraphite, probably one of the best plaster finishes ever. We learned how to do cement rendering, roughcasting, tyrolean finishing, we learned floor screeding, how to do cement or grano skirtings, tiling, (walls and floors), plastering onto wire lath, ceilngs and walls. No corner beads then either, you had to form your own "wet corners", bullnosed corners, reveals, soffits etc etc. Things you never forget, and can still do them today. Plastering is a great trade, and thankfully, many out there still possess "all" of them skills and more. They will always be needed.

 

[roy c]

I remember the siraphite R.C. and why they phased that out I will never know, I agree it was the best plaster ever and you could bring it back up with a drop of water and you got a loverly finish with it..I am with you on the dabs, they were fool proof once you had set your screeds you knew that everything was gonna be plumb and straight. I know plastering is a lot easier now with all the modern renders and finishes but I may not go as far back as yourself but I still prefer the old ways but not the tennis elbows we used to get and had to and work them off. Half the lads now wouldn't be able to hold the hawks with the amount of muck we put on them. I even made my own hawk 2 inches bigger all round than a normal size hawk so I could get more muck on it, I still use it now and again when I get any plastering or render work, but not as much muck on it like years ago... I might have a big job coming up soon where we have got to knock the dash off the back of these flats that we are working on. We did the same on another block of flats for the bloke I am working for and it took me and the labourer about a month on the kangos to get the dash off as it was on red bricks and it took most of the faces off the brick work!!!! There will only be me and my mucka on it so should see us up to and past Christmas if it my boss wants us to go ahead. Happy days and tired arms...

 

[stevethespreader]

10 mm is unacceptable, standard used to be within 3mm not sure if it is still, one of the worst walls i have ever floated was a new build office for travis perkins built by one brickie from birmingham the walls were way out of wack "take a 6ft level" put it against the wall and tilt the top end away from the wall till the bubble was in the middle and you had a gap of something like an inch and a half, the brickie was not very good and they left him in charge of us and he wanted the render on quick to hide his bad brickwork, we run a screeed up one wall and run off that then when we came to the window walls we floated off the beads, but it was really hard to bead up as you had to tilt the beads and try and get them level with the cross bead you could see the windows leaning back even the window fitters had to take there windows back "so the brickie said" he was blaming them for wrong size windows but all you had to do is take a look at the windows to see whos at fault, anyway methods? if you want it spot on then its got to be running screed / box screed epec on bad walls , on good walls not so much you can just freehand

 

[roughcaster]

Spot on Stevie!! Working/plastering from an accurate running screed will always give you a near perfect level, plumb wall, especially when things have to be fitted to fitted to it/ against it.