pva before skim???

[paul78]

new to plastering so just wondering on what you guys do......

i always do two coats of pva before skimming, allow 1st coat to dry completely and 2nd coat skim away when tacky. speaking to a spread today whos being doing it longer than me tells me he applies two coats as normal, but skims away when 2nd coat is completely dry! my works fine as is but im always keen to learn more different methods.

opinions much appreciated.

 

[roughcaster]

I'd never chance skimming onto dried out pva. A "small" minority say it comes back to life when it's skimmed onto, but why chance it. The "vast" majority of "spreads" would skim onto PVA while it's wet/tacky,,,, always!

 

[Micilin]

I've been on sites where it's come off. You are plastering onto a shiny surface if the pva is set. I wouldn't chance it. You'll roll ten m2 in under a minute - what are you saving by not doing it as per spec?

 

[Richard C]

Never skim over dry PVA, there is a huge risk plaster wont stick. We’ve just had some poor soul on here that had his whole house re-skimmed & it's all falling off; the spread who did it may not have done things correctly but one of the things that he did do apparently was to skim over dry PVA, in some cases it had been on there for days.

 

[paul78]

cheers boys, i knew i was right and definately not changing my ways unless its constructive. ive actually just seen him again on a job before and hes dot n dabbing a full bathroom in normal p/board without pva on the wall!! wall is also down to bare brick. again im sure you pva the wall 1st before dabbing... and he didnt even scrape the dust of the walls 1st. i thought mr/board would be more ideal and the bizarre thing is hes adament its the correct way and i havnt the heart to get into the debate with him as im a newbee (but an honest one) just on the job gaining more experience. ive seen the tiles hes fixing to the boards and i mean wow are they expensive!! huge porcelean ones approx 600x300. so see what happens when he doesnt tank the walls in shower area!! im taking pics as the job progresses so il upload them once finished