Novice Taking on Small Plastering Job?

[coofercat]

Hi Plasterers,

I'm contemplating some internal insulation in my little study at home. This mainly involves putting up some insulation and covering with plasterboard, which will need plastering. I've got a wall which is just a little over 2x2m (4sq metres), and then a wall with a window and door in it - probably another 1-2 square metres, mostly just the surround of the window plus a bit underneath. I can stand less-than-perfect, but I must achieve a "pretty good" standard (ie. someone casually looking at it wouldn't notice it was done by me, rather than a pro).

Given it's not much, and as I don't have all the tools, I'm wondering if I can just use my eagle and trowel with some ready-mix skim, rather than buying 25kg of powder, making a mess, not mixing it right, etc. I know I should put some jointing tape over the joints, and some metal corners on the corners around the window. I'm pretty sure I can get small areas to look okay, but I'm a bit worried about the expanse of the wall...

My questions are:

1) How feasible is self-plastering to a decent standard? I'm quite handy and practical, but never done more plastering than to fill up some gaps or whatever. Will I end up with wibbly-wobbly walls, or if I take my time, am I likely to do okay at it? (obviously you can't tell what I'm capable of, but is this one of those jobs amateurs shouldn't bother to attempt?)
2) I realise it's more expensive, but would some skim suffice for a job like this, or should I just 'bite the bullet' and do it with real plaster?

In short, I'm never going to be any sort of threat to a pro, but can I sort this small job myself do you think? Any tips on how to approach this that might help me out?

[coofercat]

Well, now it's done, I can say that yes, a novice can do some plastering - but...

Things I've learned by doing this:

* It's physically quite demanding - I was working for the best part of a day to do a coat on a 2.4 x 2.1m wall. I took lots of breaks, but oh boy, I slept well that night. You've also got to concentrate on what you're doing too!
* It's both easy and hard - working out what you really need to do on your first coat takes a bit of time, but makes that first coat a bit easier. Getting the second coat "just so" is something of an art, which I can't claim to have mastered. As such, the basic process is pretty easy, but getting things really neat and clean is really hard.
* Ready mix skim is fab - it doesn't dry very quickly, and you can slap it up, scrape most of it off, slap it up again (etc) a good few times before it gets a bit too thick to work with. Even then, you can mix it in with some fresh and then it's fine - so very little waste. It's expensive (comparably) though, but far cleaner and quicker for the novice
* Being a bit rubbish means a good amount of sanding down later - that's a dusty mess which gets everywhere and takes a good few cleans to get rid of.
* It takes ages - the pros would probably have knocked off my job in a couple of hours per coat - it took me hours and hours to do anything

Would I do it again? No, probably not - certainly not for any quantity. I'd steer well clear of doing anything "important" (ie. stuff that people will really see) and you wouldn't catch me near a ceiling. However, the bit around the window and door... I might be persuaded if I had some spare time for it - but I'd quadruple my time estimates of how long it looks like it might take!

[dewaltdisney]

Well done, plastering is a horrible messy job that can easily go wrong. I have done small bits that went quite well, more through luck than any skill, but I have probably paid out more times over the years to have it done by a pro. Plasterers make it look so easy but it bloody isn't so pat yourself on the back.

DWD