Plastering: Skimming a LARGE Wall

[Venomgrass]

Hi!
I'm a beginner DIY plasterer, Ive practiced on 3 walls and finally got the nack of the glass finish

Before tackling a huge wall, how do I break it up so that I can manage portions each day? Its literally impossible to do it in a day using the rolling sectional method. I intend on breaking the wall into portions which can be completed in a day, and each day breaking the portion down into sections so I mix a new batch per section.

So how do I join skim which has dried to a new skim??



Thanks

 

[roy c]

How big is your wall height and length?

 

[Venomgrass]

Hi around 6m long by 6.7m high. Huge Victorian hallway. Hard to access too so needs done in sections. Thanks

 

[Doggit]

If you've only done 3 walls, do you think you're up to splitting the job, as it requires a fair amount of skill to get the new levels right. I'd go for a horizontal split, and do it in 2.2 mtr heights. That gives you 19sm to do in one go, and horizontal joins won't be so noticeable as a vertical one that will show up as a shadow. You'd pva the existing edge so that it didn't dry out the next layer of plaster where they joined. If you put down 2 or 3 layers of duct tape, that should give you a straight edge of about 2mm that can be taken off fairly cleanly when it's gone off, but I'd suggest you practice the technique first. You'll need scaffolding of sorts so that you can work along each section, but as you go higher, you're going to have problems mixing the batches, so you really need a labourer working with you.

And if you do it, and pull it off, then you can be proud of your skills.

 

[Venomgrass]

Hi sorry I dont understand, so duct tape where I want to finish the edge of the join and peel off when dry or still wet?
Then when moving up onto thi line the day after carefully PVA the edge or slap it all over then duct tape the new plaster from the day before to stop me going over it again? Sorry it's confused me haha

 

[Doggit]

You only put plaster on a couple of millimetres thick, so if you are doing it in stages, you need to create a break line as you go. A few layers of duct tape (or anything else that come to about 2mm) will create a straight line that can be peeled off before the plaster has completely set. You then PVA the previous days plaster where you've taken off the duct tape, and then create the next break line, and then plaster between the two of them.

 

[stevethespreader]

A tried and tested way is to cut with scrim tape run scrim tape along where you want to skim up to and skim up and onto the scrim tape then peel scrim tape off leaving you a nice straight level edge