Plasterwork Quality and How to Tell One Coat or Two

[Rathilion]

Hi all

I have recently had a room plastered and am not happy with the results. I was quoted a two coat plaster finish and am interested to know how you can tell if one coat or two coats were used? I think the plaster has been put on very thin as scrim joints are visible in places and some of the plasterboard edges can be seen where the plaster is a slightly different shade. Where the plaster has been applied up to the edge of the door frame it looks to be about 1mm thick.

The reasons I am not happy is that you can see the scrim joints and or pattern in places and there are lots of trowel marks and indents. I will need to do a lot of sanding and filling. Also there are places where the bead edging doesn't line up around windows etc... and the plasterer has plastered infront of the bead to line the edge up. All the walls were plasterboard first so there should be no reason for the walls and edging not to line up.

I would be really grateful for any advice that you could give me as to how to tell if a job has been plastered with one or two coats and should I expect a better finish?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Micilin]

Where are you based?

'two coat work' generally applies to float and set rahter than skimming boards so I'm a bit sceptical of your quote anyway- as boards should not give an option of how many coats.

 

[Rathilion]

Thanks for replying. The plasterer dot and dabbed the pasterboard then applied what was quoted as two coat finishing plaster to the walls. The joins and scrim tape can be seen in places and cracks have already appeared at some of the join points in the walls.

Could you explain a bit more about float and set and where you mentioned that boards should not give an option of how many coats.

Thanks

 

[peaps2]

Always 2 coat a skim and you should have between 2/3mm on. Get him back to over skim it, you shouldn't see tape or edges.

 

[Rathilion]

Thanks for the reply, are these all signs that it has been applied as one coat?
Where the plasterboards meet the boards have been butted up together with no gap. The skrim tape is put over and when the plaster is skimmed over it cant go into the gap between. Where this has been done we are now getting hairline cracks.

 

[stevethespreader]

if the beads dont meet up it looks the boards wasent put on evenly a bit of prep work woud have sorted this, you can 1 coat board and get a good finish but it has to be put on thick, some people down this way call it bumping "cheating" most of the one coat work is done out onsite where the wages are low and you cant afford to lay on 2 coats so a lot of 1 coat work gets done, but you would never be able to tell the difference when done good, if hes made the difference up between the beads with plaster it shouldent cause you to much problems as once painted you wont be able to see it unless you look hard , but thats no excuse, if you cant get a good finish on plasterboard you may as well give the game up,

 

[peaps2]

Cowboys just apply one coat.

 

[Micilin]

One coat or six coats is not the issue. It has to look right regardless. Of course 2 coats is the best way to get it right, so this should not even be mentioned in a skimming quote if a tradesman as it should be a given. I mentioned 'float and set' as this is termed two coat work in the trade eg a basecoat of hardwall about 10 mm thick with a 2 mm coat of finish on top. Where are you based?

 

[Micilin]

One coat or six coats is not the issue. It has to look right regardless. Of course 2 coats is the best way to get it right, so this should not even be mentioned in a skimming quote if a tradesman as it should be a given. I mentioned 'float and set' as this is termed two coat work in the trade eg a basecoat of hardwall about 10 mm thick with a 2 mm coat of finish on top. Where are you based?