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I am planning to do a lot of studwork this year with fresh Gyproc sheets. Since I am in a remote location, its been hard to get a Plasterer to commit to a few weeks to skim the rooms. Is there any alternatives I can employ to get some nice paintable walls? Any suggestions, or tricks welcome.

Hi All, What would I generally pay per m2 for square rooms and flat ceilings price per m2 labour only for skimming please? Walls already boarded in most places. Also, price per sqm to dot and dab square rooms Liverpool area Thanks C

Hi all, I'm looking around for ideas regarding the internal treatment/finishing of my kitchen extension. It's a conventional block/insulation/block construction, and I need to know my internal dimensions after finishing so the kitchen design can be finalized. I know traditionally dot n dab is favoured for speed, however I'd like to look at alternatives as there will be kitchen units hung on one side (and a utility/WC on the other end) - Ideally I'd like to maximize internal space, yet ensure the wall is suitable for hanging. Would a layer of OSB under the plasterboard pass muster for increased strength for fixing? Can I fix the OSB direct to the blockwork (assuming it's plumb)? Or would a bond and skim approach be suitable? Would this be likely to be more labour intensive? One side is obviously existing structure, so I imagine I'll be having to hack the old render off to get a decent base, then make it plumb (it kicks out a bit at the bottom). I could do this with battens behind the OSB (if I use that route).. Are there any other approaches I could consider?

Hi, I am just looking for some advice and wanted to see if anyone had any success in soundproofing their house from neighbours in a Semi Detached house. I am not the most savvy at Construction and Building work so I’ll try put as much detail as I can! I have recently moved into a Semi detached property and am experiencing a lot of intrusive noise from our neighbours. Couple with 3 young kids who run around and scream like maniacs. Constantly hear them running up and down their stairs and on the landing. Can also hear everything the family do in their kitchen as it backs onto our lounge. (Cupboards closing, appliances, switches/sockets being used). Can hear all of this clear as day as if it’s a hollow wall separating us. Can also hear them walking up and down the stairs and slamming doors. (Hard to tell whether they are slamming and stomping or if it’s just poor insulation or work between the properties). We have a breeze-block party wall with a layer of plasterboard on our side which I believe is Dot and Dab. Downstairs we have a lounge and kitchen along the party wall with the stairs going up through the middle separating the two. Then upstairs we have our landing and two bedrooms along the party wall. So currently we are going to look at getting the lounge, bedrooms and landing done first and then potentially the kitchen in the future when we get a new kitchen! I am in the process of looking for quotes for this. I want to get the best soundproofing possible on our party walls to block out noise this way. Does anyone know what the best soundproofing method would be to block out the noise coming from them stomping up the stairs and upstairs rooms, as this is the main contributor. Would it be a case of soundproofing under our upstairs floor boards between joists? Want to get professionals in to sort this properly so am happy to pay for the best solution possible. Just wanted to know if anyone has been in a similar situation before and had soundproofing installed and if had much joy? Any information would be appreciated! Thanks, Jack

Hi in the process of taking all the cement render and gypsum plaster off my walls..will be using lime render and lime plaster on all the walls...The ceilings have got me a bit stumped have ripped all the old tiles and ply board (1960's ) off the ceilings to expose wood beams and cross beams. Will now put saviolt wood wool boards between each beam can i just lime plaster over the boards or will i need to render boards first ? I will be doing all the work myself so need some guidence thanks.

I'm renovating an old cottage with ragstone dividing wall to next house. There's no evident damp or humidity problem. The walls are built with lime mortar joints and what's close to mud internally (?) I'm thinking of lining the internal kitchen wall with OSB so that I have better fixing for wall cupboards. Any advice welcome - should I put a vapour barrier behind.

Combine the chaos of building work, attempting to project manage various tradesmen and coordination of items, living and working in a caravan and not knowing where we were going to live in 3 weeks time with a stressful period at work and I finally had a complete meltdown. I've been pulling my hair out (literally) so have 2 inch pieces of hair in places where I've ripped it out through stress, I look like a lovely female version of Freddie Kruger (great ? attempt) due to a stress skin reaction and anyone who asked me how I was in the last couple of weeks either got an emotional bursting into tears response or something Father Jack would utter, minus the drink. There has just been numerous things building up. I'm trying to take a bit of a back seat and the wife has stepped up to deal with a lot of things to take the pressure off me for a little while whilst I give myself a good talking to and get myself in check. Good news though slightly irnoic - the lockdown has resulted in the caravan park letting us stay in the caravan so that is one thing sorted as potentially we were going to be homeless as things are behind schedule due to three different tradesmen having to isolate due to Covid. The plus, our plasterer is amazing and has literally been on site at 6am and has worked into the small hours. He's one step away from moving in with his camping stove - I did offer him a sleeping bag and tent. This is what will be the double doors from the master bedroom into the dressing room/walk in wardrobe - basically another room that's actually bigger than our bedroom! Yes we have a lot of clothes and shoes ...... Still no solar panels in but our first fix has been done and the majority of the roof has been sorted though everything still needs something finishing off! Due to the impromptu arrival of our kitchen we managed to get our front door on so here is an early peek of that. The frame is like a stainless steel/aluminium which I'm not sure about but hopefully once the render is on will look OK.

Inspired by @AnonymousBosch recent topic about Plywood wall covering, I was looking into alternative wall coverings on Buildhub but couldn't find much. Maybe that's because it doesnt make sense or maybe that s just because there is nothing. would still be interesting to hear what people researched themselves. so far there is the obvious ones: - plasterboard and skim (the preferred option up and down the country) -plasterboard and tape joints (the quicker /cheaper alternative that possibly looks cheaper - see other threads to this topic) - plywood covering (seems to be a bit of a problem for BC fire safety-needs separate fire proofing? ) -timber internal cladding (various types available, same fire safety problems than plywood) Please add whatever you found out and used or did not use (at the end, what reason stopped you? )

Plastering is all done. Looks great. And much of it is now painted (wash coat at least). But I got to the final room to wash coat it this weekend I noticed some mould on a couple of walls, where we had leaned some cardboard boxes (containing shower panels) against the walls. My guess is this has just resulted in a restriction in air circulation whilst the plaster wasn't quite fully dried out (though it did look dry and had been a couple of weeks). Does that sound right? My question is: what do we do? Clean it off with a mould remover, let it dry and then paint over it? Or something else? (we have obviously removed the shower panel boxes)

My house is recently plastered and I have noticed that we have some mould appearing largely on areas that are plasterboard behind and some tdoor frames. I have tried to keep the place ventilated as much as possible to allow for drying. What should I do with this or how should I treat before painting.

Is there an easy quick way to fit expanded metal into block work? I have quite a bit to do to cover the airtight Membrane where it is glued to the block work.

I always have questions but that's why this place is so good they can't answered. Here is my latest and as usual my head is melted working compressed hours to get the 5th day off to work at the house. Damned brickies have been lazy with the internal door heads. Set them all at 2100 off finished floor it seems cause it was easy for them. I now have a gap between the frame and head what do I do with that to get it plastered?

Blimey, I did not know this could happen to plastering, and from Mr Charles Luxton himself. What was the cause? How can this be avoided?

Morning Chaps. I had the plasterer come to see me ..Nice chap ..seems to know his onions! And he was discussing the "first Fix" (Board up single side phase) ..and he rightly pointed out areas and edges that need battening and finished so he can lay good board ..so I made notes He told me that I would need 18mm ply here and there for strength ...which was good advice I guess and then was asking me questions about the Plumber, Chippy and Sparks and when they were coming in ...so obviously a planner..if not a little "picky" which i dont mind So Discussion was made of 2 part payments one for first Fix and second for Finish board and Skim... its a new build and I am not sure what really to expect for Finish and skim and whether it has changed a lot from the old days of Browning scratch coat and then that Thistleboard super-smooth one I remember when i left school and TRIED to be a good labourer I have been told it would be better for me to buy the materials as I could claim the VAT back on my build, SO I said fine ...but the Labour seems to be a VERY different between the 3 quotes i have had .... I know its hard to visualise ....but its not a MASSIVE house ...its 3 bedroom detached with the only WEIRD bits worthy of note is that: a) it has a Sunroom (5x3m) which is about 50% glazed area ..the rest will need plastering b) 2 of the bedroom ceilings are "vaulted" I know this "blue-skying" ....but what would you EXPECT to pay for labour only to board and skim ... Does anybody have a good guess for me ?

Wow, I cannot believe its 4 months since the last blog entry. Life has just been busy, busy, busy and for a while, there didnt seem to be much to report, even though we have been busy. The bedrooms have been plastered and painted, skirting fixed and the bedrooms doors have been bought and are awaiting fixing. The best thing was finally gettitng the bathroom fitted. Its been a while since we had a working loo and while the 'portaloo' in the cellar was adequate, the new one is fab! Fist we had to rebuild the walls which was a shame as the middle room has looked great with all that space. Then we addede 9mmply (I think) which covered all the chipboard joins and gave it rigidity. Sealed with pva and screwed down. Although there are joins on the left hand side, these are going to be under the units and bath so we arent worried about them. The main part is all one for the lino to cover. The bath was one of the smallest we could find, 150cm long and we extended the side wall into the middle room to fit it in without having to dig into the exterior wall to fit it in, although fitting it was a PITA. AS always, the OH soon had it all fittd and I could start the tiling. having looked round at showrooms, we went for couple of vertical mosiacs, one opp the loo so you can see your relection!, and the other above the bath, along the shower line. They look smart although I did have some issues as they are a thinner tile than the rest and it took a bit of time to get it right. The loo was a bit of a pain as we didnt really have many options for its location due to the plumbing already in place, but then we had to get the waste through the floor avoiding the floori beams, which of course were directly where he wanted to go. So he had to use a side bendy thing to mive the waste a few inches to the left. Its not perfect but it works and once the sink was in, it was not too noticable. We're quite pleased with the final look - sorry about the photo's - its hard to get a decent picture of such a small room. But its almost finished, just a couple of little touch ups with the sealant and a glass screen. Even the radiator is up and running. still needs a door! but a curtain works for now. Upstairs the walls were plastered and painted and I'm very pleased with the look. The lounge has also been done and the ceiling repaired from the foot through it - you cant see where it happened. Am very happy with the plasterers apart from the mess they make! I spent a couple of hours cleaning the stairs, ready for painting the edge, only for the OH to paint the walls and not bother cleaning off the excess off the wood, so I had to do it all over again! But after filling and rubbing down the wood, I have undercoated the sides of the stairs ready for the final coat and the carpet. Its not briliant but as the wood is probably over a hundred years old, the buyer will have to accept the odd bump and crack that I couldnt cover. Here are before and after shots. So what else? Here's the lounge with the lights fitted and working. the skirting is cut and just needs to be fixed and I ahve the coving to put up - going for a polyeuythene one from Screwfix which had excellent reviews as its very lightweight and easy to cut. I shall let you know how it goes as i have ever done coving before. We had a chap in yesterday to come up with a plan for the kitchen. As it is such as small space, we wanted to get some ideas to add to the layout that we have come up with. We have gone for Howdens as they are very reasonably priced and they have a sale on now so hopefully we can get a really good price. But thats for the next blog post - I'll have finished the garden wall then too so more photo's. Its all coming together now but still seems to be taking ages to get to that finishing line. I guess we'll ge there, when we get there, no good rushing and making a mess.

Anybody used this type of plastering? I can plaster but it takes me a bit longer than a trade plasterer. Have not decided if we are taping/filling or full skim yet but noticed this and wondered if anybody has used this system or had experience of it. I already have an airless sprayer so would be another good use for it. I realise it is dearer than normal board finish but it seems quicker and cleaner. TIA

Looking some guidance for the verges on my roof. I am hoping to use the Kytun dry verge trims which a number here have used already @dogman @Barney12 @JSHarris. I am trying to work out how these should be installed in relation to tile battens. We don't have any fascia and soffit with the hope being that we would render gable ends up to the underside of the kytun trim. Any installation guidance I have seen shows the trims installed on top of the tile battens, which is fine if then fitting a fascia board. In my case this would leave the gable walls with visible battens and then the tile trim. How should this be detailed to allow for rendering gables? Thanks in advance.

Since the last update, the interior of the cottage has come on leaps and bounds. The rather unusual partitions and ceilings were all framed up and then plasterboarded. I was sensible enough to enlist help with some vaulted ceilings, having learnt the hard way that a 9.5mm board balanced on your head is quite liable to snap in half. I had originally planned to simply tape and fill, but at short notice heard that a plasterer was up on the island and available for work (his original contract had been delayed). So it was a mad rush to finish all those fiddly little window reveals etc and then watch the amazing transformation as the whole interior received a full plaster skim. It's made an enormous difference to the feel of the building, turning it from the untidy patchwork of plasterboard to a lovely smooth dusky pink uniformity. You can now truly get a feel for how the space works- and the feeling is good! My electrician was a little less pleased than I was, because we hadn't quite finished all of the wiring yet, but it was nothing that some educated guesswork and some poking around with a bit of bent fencewire couldn't resolve. I did put one hole in the wrong place, and was pleasantly surprised to find that polyfilla does actually work, creating a perfect seamless repair. I'd only ever used it on plasterboard surfaces previously, and you just can't quite hide the edge between filler and paper. Next step was to get on with painting- it seems to make sense to do this before installing flooring, kitchen, doors etc. The new plaster is fairly gobbling up my contract white paint, but I'm sure it'll only take a few more coats before I can switch to the final finish. The worst part so far has been the section of wall which will have the woodburner flue running in front of it. This is boarded with cement fibre board and the plaster has taken on a noticeably darker tone, which the paint has not entirely managed to hide. It feels as though the end is very much in sight, but of course the remaining interior work- paint, tiles, floor, skirting, doors, kitchen, bathroom, plumbing- is a huge amount of work, and then there is the outside jobs that have yet to be completed. One last piece of progress has been my electrical connection. Originally I had been quoted around £2000 for this, and the work had proceeded up to the point where the cable would enter the house, but no final connection was made. A few months later I was told that my quote had expired, and I received a partial refund to reflect the outstanding work. Fast forward a few more months, and when I tried to get the remaining work done, I was once again quoted the full £2000. It turned out that they hadn't updated their records and thought that no work had been carried out yet. There followed several emails and phonecalls to various different people, but this morning I received a revised quote which, in their words, had 'come down quite a bit'. Indeed it had- it was now for under £300, as expected. So, that was time well spent. If in doubt, always query the bill!

Its been a while since the last blog and lots has happened. We'd been busy with other things and planned to crack on with the house but while on the way to our house a couple of weeks ago, the OH was hit by a car which failed to give way at a junction. He was riding his cycle, got thrown up and across the road, landing on his head. Luckily, nothing was coming the other way, and he was wearing a helmet which took a lot of the impact and somehow, apart from lots of scrapes, his main limbs were fine, it was just his head that was badly hurt. He suffered a fractured cheek and eye socket but luckily, his eye appears okay. There were no fractures of the head or neck so after a night at the hospital he was sent home. A week later he had an op to fix the cheek and is now recovering from that. His good looks have returned with only a small scar around the eye. Another week and I'll be sending him back to work - he can do the painting at least! And in case you are wondering; the car driver was reported for careless driving and has admitted liability. Back to the house and a few pictures of the plastered bedrooms. What a transformation from their origonal state. The old windows had plasterboard added right up to the glass so I did take it all off and redid the reveals. It looks so much better now. The new cupboard on the landing and door to the front bedroom. and the back bedroom; This is the wall in the last blog which was my first plasterboarding attempt - it looks much better now. We are looking to start on the bathroom downstairs next. I have been busy sourcing everything and once the OH is back to normal, it should leap forward. The stud wall is in place, the bath is sitting in the bedroom and I am waiting for Nicholls to give me a good price on the rest of the furniture. More to follow...............

Currently having problems with condensation on the inside of the windows but could be caused by recent plastering. Wondering if to turn the MVHR on early (on extension lead) and would it help? Current situation Timber frame air tight and sealed, insulation (cellulose) pumped in to the walls and roof. Triple glazed windows No electric yet - expect early dec No heating yet - Expect dec. Recently plasterboard and freshly skimmed. Currently juggling logistics with plumbing, tiling, painting to get in part of the house for Christmas. House seems to be getting damper and windows constantly have condensation. Could be the recent plaster but wondering if putting the MVHR on would help? Or would doing that just make things worse by dragging in cold air (currently low 4's outside) and blocking up the filter with plaster dust? Alternatively should i just grin and bare it till mid december?