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How Much To Plaster A Room?

Generally, the standard of plastering in older houses leaves a lot to be desired. Having settled for so many years, there is a lot of tendency that anything brittle will break or crumble with the movement. And this is exactly where plasters fall.

Plaster provides a wide range of functions in your home and as a result, has grown to become very popular amongst several homeowners. So if you want to plaster a room, you might just wish to estimate the cost so you can set a budget and start to plan. However, there’s no short and simple answer to this as the cost of plastering is based on a number of factors. These factors include the dimensions of the room, the accessibility of the surface, the condition of the existing plaster as well as the size of the company.

So if you want to paster your room, you can either remove the old plaster or skim a 3mm plaster coat over the existing one. In respect to the two options, the prices will also vary. However, several plastering experts will charge either on the average room size or a daily rate. This is due to the fact that they know approximately the number of area they can cover in a day’s work. You can, however, request a quotation which specifies the costs per square metre in order to allow you compare with other contractors. In reality, several plastering professionals use either small, medium or large sized room as the yard stick for providing a quote.

Generally, for a small sized room, you’ll have to pay about £600 to £700, a medium sized will cost within the range of £650 to £1000, while a large sized room will cost between the range of £1000 to £1500.

Cutting a plasterboard is a relatively simple process requiring only some basic tools. Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge serves as big deterrent for many people who wishes to put it to good use. Plasterboard can actually be sawn using an ordinary timber saw that’s fine-toothed to get a cleaner edge. However, the basic tools you may also need includes a sharp knife (Stanley Knife), pencil, a fine sandpaper, a straight edge and measurement tape as well as a wall board saw. Let’s have a look at the cutting process!

✓ Firstly, you need to put the plasterboard sheet flat on a firm surface.

✓ Use the tape measurement to measure the cut you wish to make.

✓ With the help of a pencil, simply mark out the part you wish to cut on the plasterboard’s front side.

✓ Once marked, place a spirited level over the marked spot on the plasterboard sheet you want to cut.

✓ Cut a shallow mark into the plasterboard sheet using the Stanley Knife to cut along the edge.

✓ The cut should be slow and gradual to ensure you do not wander off the edge of the marked area.

✓ Once the shallow cut has been made, turn the plasterboard sheet on its edge and deliver a quick and sharp push towards the plasterboard’s back and on one side of the cut.

✓ Place the plasterboard sheet backing against a flat surface ensuring the line of the cut is over an edge. Once done, give a quick and sharp push towards the back of the plasterboard sheet and on the part of the board is reaches beyond the edge.

✓ Using a fine sandpaper, remove all forms of paper burrs.

The process of cutting plasterboard requires a lot of practice. If you lack the training and experience, the cutting process is best left to a proficient professional who can guarantee the best results the first time and save you some additional costs due to potential damages.

How To Plaster A Wall

In order to plaster your wall successfully, you’ll firstly need to get the appropriate tools and materials for the job in place. The tools you’ll need to have includes a trowel and bucket trowel, plasterer’s float, corner trowel, hawk board, two buckets, mixing stick or a paddle, adequate plaster, PVA , dust sheets, clean water, sandpaper, stilts or step ladder as well as a dust mask.

✓ Prepare the wall. You’d have to make sure that you lay down a dust sheet so as to protect your floor and also gather any possible spillage or debris of plaster, before you start working on the walls. Get rid of all the dirt, dust and debris as this is very important for the success of your project if you’re going to be plastering on a worn out and old wall. Also, cover the holes and cracks in the walls with a screen tape

✓ Apply PVA to the wall. This will help ensure the layer you’re using will not dry out at the same time.

✓ Mix the paster. Mix the plaster according to the instructions given in the manufacturer’s manual.

✓ Apply the plaster onto the wall. Upon cleaning of the walls and successful mixture of the plaster, the next step is to apply the mixture to the wall using the hawk board, trowels and a floating tool.

✓ Skim and smooth. After the the first coat has dried after waiting for about 30 minutes, the next step will be to wipe out the bumps and lumps using a trowel to smooth over the surface. Once this is done you can then scrape the wall with a devilling float.

✓ Apply the second coat of plaster

✓ Apply the finishing touches. This includes polishing your work by adding some water to the surface with a spray gun and using the trowel to further smoothen out the surface.

✓ Painting and wallpapering.

Plastering will fix small cracks in walls. Very small cracks may be fixed by simply reskimming plaster. More serious cracks will usually mean that you need to use new plasterboard or backing plaster. Larger jobs or deep cracks may need an experienced plasterer to come in.

Although they’re pretty much outdated now, artex happens to be a very popular surface coating option just a few decades ago. Several homeowners with artex in recent times would either want to have them removed or cover them up with stuffs such as a wallpaper. So if you’re wondering whether or not it’s possible to wallpaper over artex, then there you have it. It’s possible to wallpaper over artex, however it’s not advisable as wallpaper may eventually crack over time. On the other hand, the artex can also create ridges beneath the wallpaper which allows unpleasant protrusions in the wallpaper. Instead of applying wallpaper over artex, a more permanent solution would be to cover it with drywall or wet plaster or perhaps just have it removed completely.

There are two types of wallpaper, there’s the thin wallpaper application which comes with adhesive on one side as well as a pattern or colour on the other side. With this, all you need do is simply to peel and stick. Then the other type is the sturdier wallpaper that’s more thick and requires a special wallpaper paste. However, it’s important to note that if you choose to wallpaper over your artex, you won’t be able to make use of the thin type of wallpaper, rather you’ll have to incorporate the sturdier  option which makes use of wallpaper paste.

The wallpaper paste is the product you mix with water to produce a paste which you’ll have to apply to your walls before applying the applying the regular wallpaper - one without adhesive on one side. Appling wallpaper to an artex decoration may just give you the updated appearance you so much desire.

There are several different kinds of plastering. ‘Dot and dab’ refers to a base layer of plasterboard which is attached to a wall using ‘dabs’ of adhesive. ‘Floating’ is a technique where a backing or undercoat plaster is applied to walls. ‘Skimming’ or ‘reskimming’ refers to the very thin final decorative layer of plaster.

Artex was originally made using white asbestos to make it stronger. However, this stopped in the mid-1980s, and the use of asbestos was banned in the UK in 1999, due to its extreme health risks. So, any artex you buy today won’t contain asbestos.

If you have an artex ceiling or wall that was created before 1999, it may have asbestos in it. This won’t be a health hazard if you leave it undisturbed, so it’s not necessary to remove it. However, if you want to get rid of or alter your artex ceiling or wall, you must get it tested to check if it has asbestos in or not first. If it does, you’ll need to hire a qualified professional to work on it.

Can You Plaster Over Tiles?

Yes, it’s absolutely possible to plaster over tiles but just because is possible doesn’t mean you should. Plastering over tiles is an option but it’s not recommended by experts due to several reasons. A good example is the fact that a tiled environment is in no way a suitable environment that can serve as a good bonding surface for a plaster. For the success of a plastering project, there’s the need for the surface to be able to bond to the PVA base coat. Due to fact that most tiles are slippery in nature and also lack of the ability to be able to absorb moisture, the PVA base coat layer will not be able to bond to the tiled surface, which will ultimately make for a weak surface upon the application of the plaster. Consequently, the plaster will easily flake and fall from the wall.

The inability to drill into the tiled wall surface after plastering is one of the major disadvantages that also arises when you decide to plaster over tiled surfaces. Most tiled surfaces are found in kitchens and bathrooms which are going to need appliances such as sinks, lavatories, kitchen counters and lots more. These appliances are designed to be installed on solid surfaces which would not be an easy task to carry out on tiles knowing there would definitely be great cracks or damages.

The best tip you’ll get if you’re considering to plaster on a tiled surface, is that detaching tiles from a surface can easily be done with a hammer and chisel, and that would save you a host of problems later in the future. However, if you still wish to plaster on your tiled walls, then you best bet would be to get a Blue Grit bonding agent. It works better than PVA and only needs one coat.