Polycell 20218 1 L Ready Mixed Tub Finishing Skim Polyfilla - Grey

Product Information

In terms of what face you should plaster over, it is generally regarded that you should plaster over the grey or coloured side as this should be the side that faces into the room. With plasterboard that has tapered edges, these should also be on the grey or coloured side as they also need to face into the room when the plasterboard is just being decorated and not skimmed as they can be filled to produce a seamless joint. When finishing drywall or plasterboard, the degree of smoothness you need to deliver is defined by the nature of the final decoration. The European Q classification helps you to assess which quality level of drywall finishing is required, and what each of these four Q levels involves. This is why practicing is a great idea. First, we suggest you mix up an eggcup full of skim. Place this on a plasterboard off cut of some kind that you have prepared with some PVA. Spread it out and mark the time it takes to go firm but not hard. This is the point at which skim can be made smooth and the trowel marks will disappear. You may be doing the same, or you may just be skimming over little bits, leaving most of your existing plaster exposed. Either way, I have covered how to skim coat in another post. Here's a link to it which will open in a new tab for you. Q4 finishing meets the highest visual surface requirements. It allows decoration with glossy wallpapers, paints, or varnish coats, as well as stucco marble and similar finishes.

Trowelling off is done in “passes”, and this simply means running your trowel over the entire surface of the wall, flattening off any high spots and trowel marks as you go. With each pass the surface will get smoother and smoother. Generally around 3 or so passes are required to get a wall totally flat and smooth. This technique can also be used for external corners, however you should run the paint brush down each side external side of the corner.By the time you've read all this post, you should have a clear idea which option to go with, I'm not expecting you to decide right away so don't worry, just read on for now. This will dampen it slightly which is just enough to soften it and allow you to trowel it out and move it to a lower depression. For me, when I was sorting out both bedrooms, I skim the lot, over the old plaster too. This is because I wanted to make sure I had a flat surface throughout and I'd already had a bit of practice at skim coating. When mixing, the dry plaster powder must be added to water and mixed, the water should never be added to the powder.

With mine, I troweled off my bonding coat so that it was flush with the surrounding (good) plaster. This was because I was completely skimming over that wall, so the finished level will be a couple of millimeters above the existing good plaster. When you think the consistency is right, take some out and drop it on the spot board. It should remain in a heap and be self supporting. Wait for the bonding coat to set overnight. When you return the next day, use the wide scraper to gently chip off any protruding bits that'll get in the way when skimming.Once the first coat has been laid on and the area you’re working on is covered the second coat then goes on immediately afterwards, no smoothing off, no drying time, get the second coat straight on! Give the masonry a good clean out with a brush and a vacuum cleaner, Remember to get the edges of the old plaster too, that'll be quite dusty and dust is not our friend. If you're not confident with plastering large areas, plasterboard will achieve a flat surface with which to skim over. In the Q1 to Q4 classification for drywall finishing, the lowest level is the most basic finishing level. Go for the highest quality level when you need the smoothest possible surfaces with high visual requirements. If there are only a few bits of detached plaster, great, this means you're in the right place, read on. If there are lots of loose bits of plaster and you're unsure whether it's worth patching it up, I would opt for removing the lot from that wall and re-plastering it all, better safe than sorry. To learn how to completely re-plaster a wall, start here.

Painters brush - just for the PVA, so 1.5 inches or more will do and it doesn't matter if it's a rubbish brush - we're going for coverage, not quality here. This is essentially how long you’ve got to work with it and get it on the wall before it’s gone too hard and it’s too late. Once skim is hard the only way of smoothing it is by sanding. As for recommending it I'd say a definite NO, it's basically a large tub of Polyfilla and unless you have arms like Lou Ferrigno it'll take some considerable time to apply and smooth over. Perhaps for small areas it'll work but large areas don't give yourself the stress of seeing it fail unless like me you've got a lot of patience.. Additionally, stop roughly 2 inch (50mm) from the floor. Don’t be tempted to plaster all the wall down the surface, the gap will be hidden when the skirting is put on.To resolve this issue, before applying any plaster, dip a paint brush in some fresh clean water and run the brush over any such edges to wet them down. Why is it that the plaster in the corners of windows always fails? Well, I'll tell you about that in a jiffy. For now, let's get it sorted. Their flat top gives you an edge to plaster up to and finishes flush with the surface of the plaster so once finished and painted you’ll never know they are there.