www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

PS im about to skim over some plasterboards for the 1st time.
1 How long would you leave 1st skim layer to set before trowling out the lines??

2 Once you have troweled out the lines on the 1st coat do you leave plaster to fully set before applying 2nd skim??

3 also im doing a ceiling which measure 8x10 feet. Is is possible to split this into 2 runs or would i have to apply 1st coat of skim to whole ceiling before appying second??
I have been watching the goldtrowel dvd tutorial but is does miss off some points such as those mentioned above for a beginner like me


Cheers

Paul

Hi Paul,

1. This is a tricky one and depends on several factors, such as the temp of the room and amount of ventilation. In this kind of weather with the central heating off in the room that you are plastering I would expect it to be at least 1 hour possibly even two hours before trowelling.

2. You apply the second coat before the first coat has set. Often there is no need to trowel out the first coat, just skim over the first coat before it is completely dry then give it a hour or so to go off and then polish it using a plasterers float.

If the first coat sets completely you would have to give it a coat of PVA bonding as you cannot skim over a coat of finishing plaster once it has gone off or else it will dry to fast and crack.

3. I have not seen the glodtrowel DVD, but I would guess that this is part of the 5 day course that you mentioned in a previous post. You are very confident attempting a ceiling so soon as it can be very difficult. I have always done ceilings in one pass, I can't see a problem with doing it in two runs although you may struggle joining the two runs.

The good thing is that you are prepared to give it a go, so best of luck to you and remember that if you make a mess you can always go over it again. The biggest mistake most people make is troweling it too much, just slap it on, leave it a while and then trowel it!

Good luck

Thanks

For taking the time to answer in so much depth. Yeah im more niave than brave i think tring a ceiling 1st!!!

Thje dvd i have makes no reference to polishing with a float- just troweling out the lines. I assume its easier to get that glass effect with the float to finish off???

When you say float do you mean a trowel or a seperate tool for finishing. If so what is the float??