SimonD Posted October 30 Share Posted October 30 (edited) TLDR; what should a good skim finish look and feel like? Story below: So, sadly the plasterer recommended to me has turned out to be a liability. Had him in to do some work in the house and while my wife was there, I stupidly allowed the work to go ahead while I was away as my wife was in a hurry to get it done. I returned home to find the wonkiest poorly finished reveals ever, which they came to remove and then re-finish. However, in another room, as I was priming the plaster for painting I found a vertical crack on one of the dot & dab walls. Plasterer suggested drilling and filling behind the crack with foam and he would come a re-scim the wall to make good. I then inspected the work in more detail only to find loads of flex at the bottom of the board. Alarm bells started ringing so I remove the dot & dab from the wall to find that there were no beads along the long of short edges of the boards and the crack was down to movement along the long edge - in some places the dabs were as far as 400mm apart with the join in the middle of this gap. I've also found that another dot & dab wall is out of plumb and wavy along the length of the wall, so no straight edge used there. I've painted one room to find the plaster finish in there to be below par and plaster mess left everywhere so this guy isn't coming back to do anything else. I'm looking at the other areas he's skimmed and wondering what I should be seeing to determine the quality of finish. Rubbing my hands on the wall there are quite a lot of areas where the plaster feels like rough sandpaper. I can unfortunately also feel quite a lot of undulation of the plaster and there are some obvious full height lines of high spots at a few of the joins. So in short, what is considered a good enough skim finish in the trade please? Edited October 30 by SimonD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 30 Share Posted October 30 Did the same person dot and dab the PB AND then skim it, or are 2 people involved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell griffiths Posted October 30 Share Posted October 30 Pictures needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonD Posted October 30 Author Share Posted October 30 15 minutes ago, ProDave said: Did the same person dot and dab the PB AND then skim it, or are 2 people involved? The plasterer did it with one other person helping him, but mainly him. They work together and the other person was also boarding up the stud walls which the plasterer then skimmed. I've now found a number of cracks on the skimmed stud walls too. 5 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said: Pictures needed. This is a picture of one wall. I can run my hand across the surface and feel the texture shown by the photo. Below are photos showing the undulation of the walls. I already spray painted one of the boy's rooms where quite a bit of the uneven surface and roughness showed up when painted and the undulation of the dot and dab walls showed up when fitting the coving. Generally finish is pretty poor in corners and around door frame etc. with loads of snots I'll have to remove to fit the skirting plumb: Dot and dab waves: High spot: Timeline 1.mp4 And now cracks in stud walls: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell griffiths Posted October 30 Share Posted October 30 I’ve had 4 plasterers on my house. 3 of them did a day and I’ve never had them back the fourth lad is the best I’ve ever come across, different gravy. I think you have had a shit one, if you know roughly what you are expecting then you needed to be there. mines from Coventry and travels about an hour if that’s any good to you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonD Posted October 30 Author Share Posted October 30 13 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said: I think you have had a shit one, if you know roughly what you are expecting then you needed to be there. Yeah, you're right. He did a couple of walls when I was there which seemed fine and I've clearly made the mistake of thinking I could then leave him to it. Clearly not, but it's a lesson in staying there to supervise all the time. 19 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said: mines from Coventry and travels about an hour if that’s any good to you. Thanks, but I'm about double that time if not more! I'll go on another search. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted October 30 Share Posted October 30 That is crap work, I can recommend a Bristol based plasterer for any one but he is always busy so may need to wait (anyone that is good has a queue 🤷♂️). 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted October 30 Share Posted October 30 (edited) 1 hour ago, joe90 said: That is crap work, I can recommend a Bristol based plasterer for any one but he is always busy so may need to wait (anyone that is good has a queue 🤷♂️). I know a few aswell that I recommend in Bristol Edited October 30 by Pocster 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twice round the block Posted October 30 Share Posted October 30 The crack on the stud wall is because he didn't use any scrim on the joint. All in all pretty 💩 job 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redbeard Posted October 30 Share Posted October 30 I take it you have paid in full...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonD Posted October 30 Author Share Posted October 30 6 hours ago, twice round the block said: The crack on the stud wall is because he didn't use any scrim on the joint. I'm not sure, it looks like there is skrim as I can just see a bit of it where it's been finished poorly at the bottom. If it is skrimmed, what else would cause the cracking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonD Posted October 30 Author Share Posted October 30 4 hours ago, Redbeard said: I take it you have paid in full...? Yes 🙁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonD Posted October 30 Author Share Posted October 30 7 hours ago, joe90 said: That is crap work, I can recommend a Bristol based plasterer for any one but he is always busy so may need to wait (anyone that is good has a queue 🤷♂️). 6 hours ago, Pocster said: I know a few aswell that I recommend in Bristol Thanks both. I might tap you for those details to see if they'll travel to me. I'm just the other side of Bath so some won't travel to me from Bristol as it can be a right PITA. A customer of mine has suggested I contact a friend of theirs who knows a few of the right people in the area so I'll try that first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russdl Posted October 30 Share Posted October 30 @SimonD which side of Bath? I’m in Salisbury and can recommend one - no idea how far he’d travel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonD Posted November 1 Author Share Posted November 1 On 30/10/2024 at 23:47, Russdl said: @SimonD which side of Bath? I’m in Salisbury and can recommend one - no idea how far he’d travel. I'm the east side, but Salisbury is still about 1.5 hours away. Thanks for the offer though, I'll check out my local suggestions and then ping you a message if needed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonD Posted November 1 Author Share Posted November 1 So yesterday I had a busy day dot and dabbing and thanks to the guy on On the Trowel Youtube channe, I skimmed my first ever walls as I need to get this room finished in the next week or so to give my younger son a bedroom - it was supposed to be in September. The wall was straight, plumb and the plastering was not a halloween horror show - just a few minor imperfections. I'm most pleased about the clean top corner to the primed ceiling: 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now