Skimming over existing plaster, what to do on existing angle beads?

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adelast
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Skimming over existing plaster, what to do on existing angle beads?

Post by adelast »

Hi everyone!
Now that I have some time, I'd like to skim some walls in a room we are renovating.
The paint seems to be okay, nothing is loose, but the plaster beneath is really below standards, while it seems solid, there are scratches and bits and a lot of hairline cracks.
I am planning to:

1. PVA the walls
2. Put a first coat of multi finish (do you recommend to add a handful of bonding too?)
3. Apply fibreglass rendering mesh and press it into the 1st coat
4. Apply the second coat of multi finish

I have doubts regarding the existing angle beads around the windows :dunno:, do I have to put one not op of it or just skim over the existing beads? :scratch:

I've only plastered a room so far and that a different scenario and there wasn't an existing plaster. The hairline cracks are too many and too long to use just tape and I'd really like avoid having cracks in few months, from my research the mesh seems to be the way to go.
Thanks in advance for any suggestion!
fin
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Skimming over existing plaster, what to do on existing angle beads?

Post by fin »

ive seen loads of plasterers on jobs. ive never seen any put mesh into skim coat other than the obvious scrim tape on plaster board joins.

ive seen several fliping hopeless plasterers. ive seen a few excellent plasterers too. a badly skimmed wall will be massively obvious when the walls are painted and will do your head in over time.

for skiming over existing plaster ive noticed a lot of plasterers moving over to that blue grit stuff rather than pva which they always used to use.

if the existing corners are sound and not loose or cracked then i would imagine a plasterer would attach new beads on top of the old beads and then skim to them as normal.
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Skimming over existing plaster, what to do on existing angle beads?

Post by fin »

also if there are a lot of hairline cracks is it still actually attached to whatever its supposed to be attached too?
adelast
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Skimming over existing plaster, what to do on existing angle beads?

Post by adelast »

fin wrote: Sun Nov 06, 2022 11:27 am also if there are a lot of hairline cracks is it still actually attached to whatever its supposed to be attached too?
Hi fin, thank for your replies!
While the plaster has a lot of hairline cracks it is solid and well attached for the most part, I've removed all the lose part (few spots really) and underneath that I think there's sand and cement that has hairlines cracks too. Walls are solid those cracks are not structural I think the house is simply old and cracks have appeared in its 65+ years.
Previous owner has put wallpaper all over the walls to hide those, we are removing it as in some places you could see the lines between the rows and because it has a kind of texture in it
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arco_iris
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Skimming over existing plaster, what to do on existing angle beads?

Post by arco_iris »

Regarding Fin's replies, Febond Blue Grit is the stuff to use. It brushes on and the reason it's blue is so you can see where you've been.

As to the beads, if they are sound I'd leave them and feather off to the corners. To put new beads over the top will make the skim too thick; to remove them and start again is too much work.

Beads are a relatively recent innovation, years ago skilled plasterers had never heard of them - it depends on your ability!
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Skimming over existing plaster, what to do on existing angle beads?

Post by Deleted-user-3 »

as mentoned, best thing you can use is bluegrit or thistle bond it. This is because its a better stabiliser than pva.
You could also coat it with stabilising solution and then a thin pva if its bare plaster and you have some suction.
Bluegrit doesnt need suction and neither do you once its on.

never bedded metre rolls of scrim into a reskim job in me life...
the stabiliser will sort out the hairline cracks and if it doesnt then you should have hacked off that bit and rendered it with a 3.1
stick beads over your externals or it will look amateur feathered off.
Dont stick beads over chimney breast corners or any corners for that matter that have existing timber beads either a mopstick style or just a bit of inch x 3/4 batten because it WILL crack.
What you do is remove the timber, back it out again with hardwall or whatever, stick your bead into that, clean and square it up.
if youre sticking beads over existing metal beads, just crack on but as you come to skim it, whack a trowel or 2 up the bead edges before you start, lay it on thick 1st coat and square, let it hazel off before you top it.. nice flat,square modern looking edge is the result
All my advice should be taken with a rather large pinch of salt, all the gear, absolutely no idea whatsoever ;)
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