Plastering and Building Contractor - Bath and Bristol

Plastering

Walls & Ceilings

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Internal solid plastering to bare masonary walls is normally carried out in 3 coats - a rendering coat, a floating coat and a setting coat.

Sand and Cement Render Coats in Solid Internal Plastering

The role of the rendering coat is to take out the large irregularities in the wall and provide uniform suction across the wall. Traditionally, the rendering coat has been a sand and cement mix. Sand and cement render coats are extremely durable. The main disadvantage with sand and cement render coats is the large volume of water used to make the mix workable. This water needs to be dried out before any other applications can take place. As the water dries out so the sand and cement render naturally shrinks. Applying the floating and setting coats of plaster before the sand and cement render has dried out can cause shrinkage cracks in the finished plaster and loss of adhesion between the plaster and the render. Sand and cement renders normally take between 4-7 days to dry out sufficiently depending on site conditions.

Undercoat Plasters in Solid Internal Plastering

An alternative to sand and cement rendering coats is an gypsum based Undercoat Plaster such as Thistle Hardwall. Hardwall Plaster has a comparable impact resistance to sand and cement renders but does not require the same drying out time before applying the floating and setting coats. Once the Hardwall has set (normally within 2 hours) the finishing coats of plaster can be applied.

An alternative Undercoat plaster is Thistle Bonding Coat. Bonding Coat is especially useful for low suction backgrounds such as cast concrete, plasterboard and painted surfaces (which have been treated with a bonding adhesive). As with Hardwall, finishing plasters can be applied to the Bonding Coat once it has set normally within 2 hours).

Other Undercoat Plasters such as Browning and Tough Coat are also available. There are also specialised Undercoat plasters which give protection from X-Rays for use in medical environments.

Drylining in Internal Plastering

An alternative to both sand and cement renders and undercoat plasters is drylining. In drylining, sheets of plasterboard are bonded directly to the wall using adhesive. See Drylining for more information.

Finishing Plasters in Solid Internal Plastering

Finishing plasters such as Thistle Multi Finish are used for the floating and setting coats of plaster.

The role of the floating coat is take out the final irregularities in the wall. The role of the setting coat (also known as the finishing coat) is provide a clean, smooth surface.

Plastering of new Masonry Ceilings & Stair Soffits

In some situations such as apartments and warehouse conversions the ceiling maybe masonry (e.g. concrete). Whilst it is possible to apply a 3-coat plaster system to these ceilings, a far more practical solution is constructing a Metal Frame (MF) Ceiling and plastering the plasterboards.

The underside of concrete stairways (soffits) can be normally be successfully finished treated with a bonding agent and given a coat of undercoat plaster (e.g. bonding coat) and a coat of finishing plaster.

Plastering of new Plasterboard Walls & Ceilings

New Plasterboard walls and ceilings can be successfully finished with just 2 coats of plaster - a floating coat and a setting coat. In this application, an alternative to the use of Thistle Multi Finish is Thistle Board Finish.

The plaster on old walls and ceilings may be cracked, blown, falling off or have a covering which is no longer wanted (e.g. Artex, wallpaper, tiling).

If the damage to the plasterwork is not too severe it maybe possible just to repair small areas of the wall or ceiling (see Patching). This is especially the case after plumbing /roofing leaks or after electrical/plumbing work has been carried out.

If the surface damage is extensive or severe but the plaster to the wall or ceiling is structurally sound then re-plastering may be the answer.

Where wallpaper has been removed by steam stripping the wall finish is often damaged beyond repair by polyfilla. As long as the existing plasterwork is structurally sound the wall can normally be finished by applying a bonding agent and 2 coats of finishing plaster. Regency Construction does not recommend re-plastering over wallpaper because the bond of plaster to the wall is only as good as the bond of the wallpaper to the wall. Regency Construction recommend that the wallpaper is removed before re-plastering.

Where ceramic tiles have been removed by from a wall, if the tiles has come off cleanly without to much damage to the wall surface, as long as the existing plasterwork is structurally sound then the wall can normally be re-finished by applying a bonding agent and 2 coats of finishing plaster. Regency Construction does not recommend re-plastering over tiles. Regency Construction recommend that the tiles are removed before re-plastering.

Walls and ceilings that have been artexed can also be re-plastered. For artexed ceilings, Regency Construction's prefered method of re-plastering is to first re-board the ceiling and then re-plaster. This is because the bond of any plaster applied to the ceiling is only as good as the bond of the Artex to the ceiling. In some cases the Artex can be loose and cause the 'plaster' to fall off when in real terms it is the Artex that has fallen off. By screwing new plasterboard to the existing ceiling joists, the new plaster system is securely fixed in place. Alteratively, if specifically requuested by the Customer, Regency Construction will apply a bonding agent to the Artex and re-plaster the ceiling directly on to the treated Artex.

Walls on which the plaster is no longer structurally sound (e.g. blown and sounds hollow) will need stripping and re-plastering.

Straightening and Plumbing of existing Walls and Ceilings

If an existing wall is not plumb (vertical) or straight, it may be difficult to professionally fit such items as a new kitchen or bathroom suite, especially if the wall is to be tiled. As long as the the wall is structurally sound, it can be normally plumbed and straightened by re-plastering.

Likewise, if a ceiling is no longer level it can look unattractive. This can be due to the ceiling joists sagging. Sagging ceilings can normally be corrected by counter-battening the ceiling with timber, re-boarding the ceiling with plasterboard and plastering the plasterboard.

Areas covered by Regency Construction

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