Does plasterboard have to be plastered once installed?

[Post and beam]

One of our prospective plasterboard contractors said that it does not need plastering as the finish will be great as it is. Presumably after the edges have been feathered in. Hi said a light skim is all thats needed.

Another prospect today has said that a full plaster coat is required.

 

Anyone care to provide  real world info please?

[Marvin]

You can do either and I have done both but skimming with Thistle Multi Finish Plaster will give you a better end result in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

[Kelvin]

Plastering is less common in Scotland where Ames Taping (tape and fill the joins) is fairly standard on new builds. So you can do either. Plastering takes  skill to do well. We chose to plaster and the finish isn’t terrific. You can’t see it in most lights but is obvious when the low sun shines on one of walls in the hallway and guest bedroom. It was bad enough that I changed the lighting scheme in the house away from wall lights as it would have literally shone a light in the slightly poor finish. That said, I now pay attention to plastering in other folks houses and the finish isn’t great anywhere. We visited friends at Christmas who owned the house next door to our previous house built by the same builder. The finish of the plaster and paint was shocking. 

[ProDave]

Taping and filling also needs skill in the PB installers.  Taping is less forgiving of poor boarding, in particular you need sufficient screws into solid studs to ensure joints cannot move.

 

As above quite hard finding a decent plasterer in the Highlands and not many do it, but that is what we chose.

 

 

[JohnMo]

In Scotland as mentioned taping joints is very common. But generally joiners install plasterboard, a taper tapes the joints. Done well it's great, done badly it's rubbish. But the same can be said of plastering.

 

Boards have to be taper edged, butt joints have to be correctly done, there is zero leeway for stud walls to not straight and true. You start doing one or the other you can go plaster over whatever but taking needs to start from scratch based on that system.

 

As mentioned above it's called Ames Taping. I think all commercial buildings are taped. My dad did Ames taping when he was younger, he is now in his 90s. It's been about for many decades.

[LnP]

I lived in Canada for many years, owned houses and had work done. It was all tapered edge plaster board and taped joints. Providing the structure you're fixing the boards to is straight, it's cheaper to do than plastering and once it's painted, you'll never know the difference. I built stud walls and taped the joints myself and you'd never have known it was done by an amateur. That would not have been the case if I'd attempted plastering!

 

Drywall compound in Canada, which you use for the taped joints, is a mud which doesn't chemically set. Is that the same here? After it's dried, if you're not happy with the finish you can sand it, though the pros would never need to sand! You use three widths of "knife" to apply it in three coats. The first coat with the narrowest blade is the one you put the tape in.

 

I'm wondering why traditional plastering is still the norm here ....