Once the wall is covered, go back to the start and crack on with smoothing it out with the trowel. You can take a little longer with this coat but I found that anything over 30 minutes and I was struggling with the plaster going off.īe quick at first, but not too rushed, they'll be plenty of time to even out the lumps and bumps after you've covered the entire wall. That's a good sign, it means you've got a nice clean trowel!Īs before, spread it over the first coat. Go for a smaller amount this time, because it's more wet than the first coat so has a tendency to slide off the trowel easier. Using the exact same method as the first coat, get a blob on your trowel. If it ends up 2 or 3 mm thick, don't worry about it, the worst this'll do is cost you slightly more in plaster. Once tacky, you're good to slap on that second coat, again 1 millimeter thick. Remember, there will be another 1 millimeter thick coat of plaster going on this, so don't spend too much time getting the first cost perfect.īy the way, the second skim coat wants to be applied before the first coat dries, so don't call it a night at this point, there's still some more DIYing to do! You can have a cup of tea though, that's OK. Then go back and sort the smaller bits that are sticking out. Once the entire wall is coated, this should take no more than 20 minutes for a first timer, check for any big bits sticking out and, using your trowel, squash them into the plaster using the same sweeping motion as before. Don't worry about getting it perfectly flat, you'll be able to sort that out after the entire wall is coated. Once done, repeat for the whole wall, really get a move on though. Then use your trowel to even it out a bit. This should spread the plaster along the plasterboard, albeit fairly unevenly at his point. Then, whist applying a bit of pressure, sweep the trowel in the direction you want to plaster. Keeping the trowel held upwards (flat face facing up), meet the trowel edge with the plasterboard and start to turn the trowel into the plasterboard, so that it begins to squeeze the plaster between the trowel and the plasterboard. Ok great, we now have a dollop on the flat face of your trowel, which you should be holding upwards. Go over to your wall and tip the Hawk slightly, whilst meeting it with the flat face of your trowel, hook the trowel under the dollop whilst symultaneously tipping your hawk, so it kind of tips onto your trowel. And possibly the best part, is the time set mud does not pock nearly as bad, and if you time it right, the sooner it sets, the smaller the pocking bubbles will be.Ĭrews that use all premixed bucket mud from start to finish always seem to produce a product that does not last as long, it doesn't adhere as well, and it cracks sooner.Īlways scrape really well when dry between coats.Start off by scraping a dollop of plaster onto your Hawk, not too much for your first attempt, you want to get the feel of it for now and the amount you put on will increase as your confidence grows. It shrinks less, allows a recoat in the same day, and above all it bond's much much better to most surfaces than a pre mixed mud will. Time set mud I'm my opinion is key to reduce the number of coats. Over the years I've gotten good enough that in most cases I can just do a base coat of time set mud, then a final coat of topping and it looks flawless with minor sanding. Also done it with great success to a scraped stucco ceiling. I do this with brick, block, or just really messed up walls. We can do very large areas in a day and be ready to sand the next with just 2 skilled guys. I add water and thin the premix mud so I can roll it on easier. And I'll pull the final coat more or less up and down. Third coat I like either liteblue by proform or ultra lightweight topping by usg. The first 2 coats I use a time set mud like easysand, mix it thin and have one guy roll it on, while I use an 18" wide semi flexible cement trowel to skim it off and I use one of those steel platters or whatever you call them with the handle on the bottle to clean my trowel off, when the platter is full I dump it back into the bucket.ġst coat pull all one direction, i like diagonally from bottom right to top left, second coat pull the opposite direction.
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