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Plastering and the white room of paint


vivienz

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It's 3 weeks since my last blog entry and, as usual, things have been moving at a pace.  The difference with the most recent round of work, though, it that the building is starting to look like a liveable house rather than a construction site.  This is largely due to the glory coats of plaster and paint, but far more than that has been keeping everyone busy.

 

The boarding started in earnest before Christmas and so the plasterers were in bright and early in the new year.  We've got through an astonishing amount of board of various types - I thought I'd calculated reasonably well and had a mahooosive delivery of the stuff a while back, but it all seemed to disappear and the building was hungry for more.  I bought all the board from Sydenhams as I found their price to be competitive.  I've used standard 12.5mm plasterboard on all external walls, 15mm acoustic on all ceilings and internal walls, moisture board for bath/wet rooms, and pink fire board for the garage walls and ceiling.  The garage is attached and so building regs require a fire door (FD30, sourced from Enfield Doors, though I've since found cheaper suppliers when looking at other stuff) and fire board throughout the garage, but only a single layer as there is no habitable space above it.

 

I've had a board lifter on hire as it really helps the team position the boards up onto the ceilings without dropping anything on themselves or damaging either themselves or the boards. 

 

Here is the board going up on the lounge/dining area towards the kitchen area.  The orange frame is the plaster board lifter.  The black thing outside the window is my sewage treatment plant tank, which will be installed in a couple of weeks(ish).

 

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Looking in the opposite direction towards the lounge area:

 

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There have been plenty of plasterboard offcuts and so we have followed @JSHarris's tip of stuffing as much of this into the stud walls before boarding over.  Double bubble - increasing the heat retaining ability of the house and no paying expensive disposal fees on waste plasterboard.

 

As well as the boarding and plastering, first fix is underway, getting all the wiring, sockets and switch positions in and running vast amounts of cable through the building for all sorts of stuff.  It's not just a case of chucking the cable in, he's done a great job of working out the flow of the building and the people in it, and how the building's circuitry should function best to suit them.  It's a pity that it isn't more visual, but suffice it to say that at the last count, something like 2.9km of cable has gone into the building.  It's in there somewhere!

 

The room that forms the greater part of the ground floor is the kitchen/dining/lounge area and it's a very large space.  From the outset, I've wanted to achieve some form of visual separation of the living area but without putting physical barriers in the way.  It seems a waste to have gone to such great effort to create a lovely large space like that to then chop it up and close it in.  I had inspiration for the solution from a couple of sources, the first of which is a tiny, crappy image on Pinterest when I was browsing cinema rooms.  The second came about from chatting to another BH member, @Dreadnaught and a suggestion someone made to him to vary the heights of the ceiling throughout his proposed build.  From this, I decided that I wanted a dropped section, like a frame, on the ceiling above the lounge area, with lighting recessed into the inner lip of the dropped section.  Everyone pulled together really well to meet the challenge, and worked out what was needed from the carpentry, boarding, plastering and electrics contingents.  The full ceiling was boarded out first, then the studwork frame put over it.  The electrics were run through, then the frame was boarded and eventually plastered.

 

Here's the completed framework and the first of the plasterboard going up.

 

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They're a cheerful bunch in their work!

 

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One thing I haven't skimped on is hire equipment to make the job of the plasterers and others easier.  I figure it's a false economy to not get equipment like platforms and board lifters in as it will just cost me extra labour as the guys won't be able to work efficiently and possibly, not as well either.  We had scaffold towers upstairs in the bedrooms for plastering and downstairs, we had a really big platform.  I wouldn't do it any other way as the quality of the boarding and plastering is second to none.

 

Once the studwork was boarded out, the inner ceiling section was plastered.  The inner lip of the frame had an upstand added to it to make it appear more substantial and to hide the rows of LED lights behind them.  We're going for a range of lighting intensity here, achieved by increasing amounts of lights, rather than dimmers.  There will be 3 rows of LED lights hidden up there and we've used a car headlight analogy for want of better descriptions - the selection is dipped lights, main beam and rally lights.  These are the only ceiling lights in this area as we plan to have floor lamps for specific task or reading lighting.

 

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Once the inner ceiling was plastered, the framework itself was done the following day.  This photo is some way on from that, as you can see.  By this stage, the whole of the downstairs main room has been done and recesses formed for the spotlights at the other end of the room.

 

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Not too long after this, the kitchen arrived from DIY Kitchens.  Lovely quality units and everything is going together well.  It did mean, though, that I had to get on with the painting up the kitchen end so that a start could be made on installation.

 

A paragraph or two on painting is appropriate here.  I put a brief post into the main decorating section here on BH regarding spray painting, but it deserves repetition.  I've planned from the outset to do the painting myself.  I'm competent and it's nice to get some hands on involvement in the build.  But, and it really is a big one, there is a vast surface area to cover in this house, and the vaulted ceilings upstairs are really quite intimidating for a vertically challenged person such as myself.  Mind you, I think a vault of 4.7m would make most people ponder their method of attack.  I decided that by far the most effective approach for me was to spray the mist coats to seal the plaster and continue with white for the ceilings.  I wasn't sure at that stage whether I would also apply the colour coats by spraying, so adopted a 'wait and see' approach. First off, masking takes ages, even with a relatively empty house, as that spray will get everywhere and anywhere.  Once the masking is done and you've familiarised yourself with the sprayer itself, though, the speed of coverage is astonishing.  I was able to comfortably do one large room per day - both mist coats and a couple of extra ones on the ceiling to get it opaque and full white.  It was messy.  Really messy!  Especially as when I first got going I had the spray pressure a little too high, the mad angles of the vaulted ceilings meant that my nozzle was never going to be held at a constant 90 degrees to the surface, and it's just a messy process regardless.  In addition, there is a vast amount of moisture in the air, particularly as we had plaster drying at the same time.  I hired a commercial dehumidifier for a couple of weeks to help with this and it was very effective.

 

I bought all my paint from Brewer's Decorator Centre, who are mainly based along the south coast of England.  I opened a trade account with them and got 20% off the entirety of my first order, so I put everything I could think of onto that, including my antinox floor protection mats.  Very useful they were, too.  I used their contract matt white for the mist coat and ceilings.  It's white, but not brilliant white and it's lovely.  Very chalky, easy to sand and gives a nice highly matt finish. Also cheap as chips. 

 

Here's one of the bedrooms, masked up and sprayed.

 

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Here's another bedroom with that ceiling.  My scaffold tower came into its own for reaching up to those heights.

 

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Then, finally, the kitchen area with its mist coat.  The sprayer is the little beastie sitting on the plasterboard.

 

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I popped over on a weekend to also put the first colour coat on over at the kitchen area, whilst I could still get in easily before the kitchen started going in.  I'm having splashbacks between the wall and base units, hence the odd looking finish level with the paint.

 

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These were all the kitchen units as they arrived, prior to painting.

 

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Everything was really well packaged and came with the doors on and drawers in.  The delivery crew were pleasant and efficient, so all in all, a good experience.

 

Moving away from painting and plastering, the ceiling plan for the lights was marked up on the floor, along with speakers and smoke detectors before the boards went on so that there was no guesswork involved in what was running where.  Here's the marking plan:

 

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This is what the kitchen units look like at the moment.  I made a cock up in ordering, purely out of ignorance, and I'm waiting for a few end deco panels to arrive.  These didn't even occur to me as they will go between units and appliances to give a better appearance from face on.  It made perfect sense when it was pointed out to me, so things have halted temporarily until those and my worktops arrive shortly.  In the meantime, it's looking good:

 

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We also now have spotlights in place:

 

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Finally, for the curious, this is what karndean flooring looks like.  It has been laid upstairs and the downstairs will be finished in a couple of weeks.  Upstairs, it was all laid on ply that was feathered in at the edges and downstairs will have a latex feathering coat to level the floor and provide an even base.

 

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Next up is more of the same.  The final session of boarding and plastering, lots more painting, the end of first fix and moving onto second fix.  Outside, we need to get cracking on the rainwater goods, perimeter drain and exterior cladding.  The cladding is due to arrive next week, so it will be interesting to see that and figure out the system.

 

I hope to be able to report back on over height doors soon, as well, and my endeavours to find these at a reasonable price, but that's all for now.  There's painting to be done.

dropped section and colour.jpg

starting lounge drop frame.jpeg

crazy ceiling plastered.jpg

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As always a really interesting read. How did the plasterers do the overhang for the led lights? I can see what looks like ply going up, then plasterboard and then a corner bead. Are there two corner beads to cover the depth of the combined ply and p/board or something different as I cannot make out from the photographs?

Thanks

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The front edge of the frame has a narrow upstand made from ply, which is what gives it the appearance of depth.  This was then beaded along the bottom edge and the whole thing was plastered.

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35 minutes ago, Pete said:

Are there two corner beads to cover the depth of the combined ply and p/board or something different as I cannot make out from the photographs?

Yup. Two beads abutting to give a decent 'chunky' appearance and create uber-sharp and arrow straight lines / edges. Plasterer was a demon for detail, and that's obvious in the quality of the final product. In all the vaulted junctions / intersections stop beads were used and skimmed in to for some of the straightest lines I've seen in a very long time. Top crew.

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Sadly your tip about “burying” the plasterboard in the walls was not soon enough. Just paid £100 for a 1 tonne bag to be taken off site. However, the rest of the offcuts will be dumped in the walls. Too tip. Thanks. And your place looks great.

 

on the Karndean, what is the floor build up in mm on the ground floor slab?

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Oh dear, sorry for the top tip delat, Weebles.

 

The karndean will have a latex feathering screed put down first. Thus and the flooring itself will only come to about 6 or 7mm. Not much depth at all.

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2 hours ago, vivienz said:

Oh dear, sorry for the top tip delat, Weebles

 

Not a problem. Just in time to pack the last few walls! Saves £100 at least.

 

2 hours ago, vivienz said:

 

The karndean will have a latex feathering screed put down first. Thus and the flooring itself will only come to about 6 or 7mm. Not much depth at all.

 

Thank you. Looks fantastic. ?

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Looking good. 

 

I'd like to ask you a bit more about dehumidifiers later, to get an idea of costs of hiring vs buying. The last time I had a commercial dehumidifier, it came on a wheeled trolley and cost the insurance company £50 per week.

 

THis may be teaching you to suck eggs, but are you using an extendible-pole roller (Wickes do a good value system) and sander? I find them a massive help in avoiding bending; so much that I have a couple of spares to keep compulsory volunteers happy (or at least not rebelling).

 

Did you hire or buy the scaffold tower and PB Lifter? I have my beady eye on one each of those for this year.

 

Is that a Lidl Hoover I see?

 

G

 

 

Edited by Ferdinand
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I got the dehumidifier because I wanted to follow on with the mist coat as soon as possible after the plastering. The team was completing one room at a time, so i was able to get in quickly but there was plaster and mist coat spraying going on simultaneously, which meant really high humidity levels. It worked a treat.

 

I have a wide variety of extendable poles, none of which seem to fit any of the roller frames! Bending down isn't an issue but reaching ceilings is - I did the final coat on the inner ceiling square by hand with a roller as I wanted it to be as close to perfect as possible and couldn't achieve that level of finish with the sprayer, especially in the recess. I felt like i had whiplash when i finished it! The result was worth the effort, though.

As for sanding, I have only had to do the tiniest amount because the plastering is so good; I got off very lightly there.

 

The scaffold tower is mine - about £250 as I recall and incredibly useful. I shall be keeping hold of that. I can assemble and dismantle it by myself and the variable platform height is useful. The PB lifter is on hire from Sydenhams but I would have bought one if I had known how useful it is but it's a bit late now.

 

The vacuum is from Aldi. Rubbish bag with it but replacements easily available from ebay. A reasonable machine for £49.

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My hat goes off to you painting those vaulted ceilings. I did loads of the painting here but I couldn’t have done that sort of height. Didn’t do the stairs here either for the same reason. 

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A plasterboard lifter is about £100.  I borrowed one from a joiner friend, but buying one and selling it when done is probably better than hiring?

 

Not only did we do all the painting of our vaulted ceilings, we did all the boarding etc as well ourselves, and the PB lifter was no help for that. 

 

I still can't believe how little PB waste we made, but there is not much left now. The bottom of a wheelie bin is quite useful.  Or the local tip will take it for free.

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@vivienz would you be able to show a close up of the issue of needing end panels between the unties and appliances please? I have ordered Our kitchen from diy kitchens and didn’t think I would need panels inbetween units. 

 

 

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15 hours ago, vivienz said:

I got the dehumidifier because I wanted to follow on with the mist coat as soon as possible after the plastering. The team was completing one room at a time, so i was able to get in quickly but there was plaster and mist coat spraying going on simultaneously, which meant really high humidity levels. It worked a treat.

 

I have a wide variety of extendable poles, none of which seem to fit any of the roller frames! Bending down isn't an issue but reaching ceilings is - I did the final coat on the inner ceiling square by hand with a roller as I wanted it to be as close to perfect as possible and couldn't achieve that level of finish with the sprayer, especially in the recess. I felt like i had whiplash when i finished it! The result was worth the effort, though.

As for sanding, I have only had to do the tiniest amount because the plastering is so good; I got off very lightly there.

 

The scaffold tower is mine - about £250 as I recall and incredibly useful. I shall be keeping hold of that. I can assemble and dismantle it by myself and the variable platform height is useful. The PB lifter is on hire from Sydenhams but I would have bought one if I had known how useful it is but it's a bit late now.

 

The vacuum is from Aldi. Rubbish bag with it but replacements easily available from ebay. A reasonable machine for £49.

 

Cheers.

 

We have been spraying a storeroom this week, which has a ceiling up to 4m+, which I had undercoated and only just reached with a 1.8m extender for the roller. 

 

I have been out to the garage and my hoover is in fact Aldi not Lidl ... it is like a mini dustbin on wheels, and was advertised as an Ash vacuum.

 

On dehumidifier, I started out with a big domestic one (10l at 25C approx), which does work OK and has a humidistat + thermometer. I then had the experience of this hired one to dry our a water leak.

 

Then I kept my eyes open for several to use for drying out plaster/ tenant floods should one happen, and swooped when a drying company was closing, so now I have a 40l one and a 60l one, weighing approx 30kg and 60kg respectively (absolute buggers to move anywhere) with a couple  of supporting fan heaters. I guess these have been used significantly 5 or 6 times in a couple of years. looking at the new prices, they would be nearly eye watering. I wish I had and more of the smaller ones. technically these are specced (i.e. The chap said he would use them for) for rooms of approx 400sqft and 800sqft.

 

I think I will get a PB lifter this year, and start keeping my eyes open for a tower.

 

Ferdinand

Edited by Ferdinand
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