That's another fine mess you've got me into....

[Useroftheforce]

I suspected this description would cause miss-communication. What I mean is to use the timber only as something to provide a guide as to where the brickwork ends. Litterally holding it against the inside face of the fireplace - plastering up to it and then removing it.

Leaving a finish that in cross section will look like - top coat - sand/lime/cement and brick - when viewed from inside the fireplace looking directly at the front of the side walls.

Instead of what I have at the moment - which is a freehand guestimate as to where the edge of the work should be, relative to the brick.

 

[Richard C]

I suspected this description would cause miss-communication. What I mean is to use the timber only as something to provide a guide as to where the brickwork ends.

Wasn’t sure which you meant but, yes, fixing a temporary batten is the standard way of doing it & is how I did mine.

 

[stevethespreader]

The guys previous experience is building sites.

dont tar all site plasterers with the same brush because of this cowboy, what u have here is appalling work most dreadfull and its going to take time and money to put right i doubt this man has done any site work as the standard of his workmanship is really low no site agent or foreman would accept that kind of work i can do better than that with my eyes closed, if you lived a bit closer to me i would try to help out but readings a bit far for me i cant beleive you handed over the money to him its clear fom the pictures the man canot use a trowel

 

[Alastairreid]

The guys previous experience is building sites.

dont tar all site plasterers with the same brush because of this cowboy, what u have here is appalling work most dreadfull and its going to take time and money to put right i doubt this man has done any site work as the standard of his workmanship is really low no site agent or foreman would accept that kind of work i can do better than that with my eyes closed, if you lived a bit closer to me i would try to help out but readings a bit far for me i cant beleive you handed over the money to him its clear fom the pictures the man canot use a trowel

completely agree with you steve! i dont believe that guy works on sites as a spread he wouldnt last a day before being found out.
that guy is not a plasterer !!!!!
he's probably a plasterers labourer. robbing cowboy gives us all a bad name

 

[joe-90]

Dunno what the others think but it looks to me like it only had one coat.

Either way he's no plasterer. I guess he's a redundant labourer or something.

Personally I think it would be quicker to do the whole lot again.

 

[Useroftheforce]

Here's how it happened. I know bugger all about plastering for starters.

My mate down the road is doing up his place too.
He gets a chap in a chucks him off site after the first day.
Then he gets my bloke in - and is really pleased with the results.
After painting, with no filler, the walls and ceilings look 99% ok.
So I use him to do my three ceilings. (Last october) I am still making up my mind what I want to do with the place and how.
Then I decide and get him back to do all three rooms and repair all the blown plaster.
I decide to strip out all the blown stuff which of course is an utterly awful job. Carefully I tap and lever until all the blown sand and cement old plaster is on the floor.
Many trips to the dump later....
He polls up and starts hardwalling the square (note the use of the word square) room upstairs. Then multifinishes the walls. To be honest the ceilings and the upstairs room are pretty acceptable looking. Of course I'd need to see one of your jobs to know what it "should" look like - then none of this would have happened.
So then he starts downstairs, in which there are many doorways, windows, bay window, chimney breasts, fireplaces etc. Again he two coat hardwalls the place out, which all seems fine. Apart from not closing the door and missing a bit.

Then I go to work (I took all the other days off) and leave him to complete the top coat downstairs. I arrive home to the shambles we've been discussing.

My view is that what he can do is plaster a flat surface, ceiling, large wall etc pretty ok. But anything more complicated, he's not capable of doing it properly. I have given up inspecting the job now, it's just affecting my state of mind at the moment and life's too short.

Roll no tomorrow when a bloke with 82 9.9's from checkatrade is coming to have a look Lots of photo's of his work. apparently he's also a decorator, mildly hopeful. Another leap of faith, I flippin hope not...!
Think what I'll do is let him do all the talking and consultancy.

 

[Richard C]

Only 9.9’s, should all be 10’s ; please post back on his opinion. To be serious, if your guy has done other good work, it sounds like he may have under priced or just run out of time; or at least the amount of time he wanted to spend on it. Thats no excuse in my book, every job you do should be 10’s

 

[joe-90]

If he was as good as you seem to think he'll be he wouldn't need to pay Check-a-trade for advertising - he'd be busy from recommends. You'll get bit twice the way you are going.

 

[Alastairreid]

theres no excuse for leaving a mess like that View media item 20855hes a disgrace to the trade.

 

[tommyl18]

ive had loads of plasterers come and work for me and many of them can skim a flat wall or skim onto boards but ask them to do anything with detail or get them to do any boarding or rendering they cant do it

theres 2 types of plasterer a plasterer and a skimmer a plasterer can skim a skimmer cant plaster!!!

I was working for a firm who just did external rendering the lads were known as "Coaters" none of them knew how to board or skim and none of them had ever heard of a featheredge either just used to trowel it on the wall and float it. I couldnt get my breath looked absolute ****e.

 

[Richard C]

You'll get bit twice the way you are going.

That's really worth thinking about

 

[Richard C]

theres 2 types of plasterer, a plasterer and a skimmer; a plasterer can skim a skimmer cant plaster!!!

Thems very true words as well

 

[Useroftheforce]

How should I go about finding someone with the correct skillset?

 

[roughcaster]

That's the million dollar question nowadays. They are out there,many of them, but finding the expert ones, is not easy.

 

[Micilin]

theres 2 types of plasterer, a plasterer and a skimmer; a plasterer can skim a skimmer cant plaster!!!

Thems very true words as well

Disagree totally - that's like having a mechanic who can only change the oil, or a dentist who can only do fillings, those people are not plasterers. How do they square up reveals, straighten ceiling lines or angles, get over irregularites etc if they do not know the basics. They often don't even have the eye for it, they just go with whatever they are covering up

Skimming boards is probably the easiest thing you can do with a trowel within the trade of plastering, definitely the easiest finished work (if we discount the likes of a first scratch coat on a very heavy wall)

A 'skimmer' is just someone who has not had the patience/time/application/discipline to learn their trade properly. And no matter how good they become at skimming, they are still people with less than a quarter of a trade under their belt.