I’ve been ‘learning’ how to plaster in my flat for the past year, I’ve not been doing full walls, just finishing around any joinery projects I’ve done (a couple of built in wardrobe type things. To do this I’ve been using a range of knives 4″, 6″ & 12″ and working from a 14″ plastic mud pan. I’ve just been working with Gyproc Easi-Fill. I mix it in the pan by hand, I add some water then keep adding plaster until I get the right consistency. My problem is that I can’t seem to get all the lumps out of my mix, I’ve been mixing for up to 20 mins and I don’t want to encroach too much into my plastering time. What I’ve been doing is is starting plastering and and basically working the lumps out on the bit I’m trying to plaster (e.g. smear on wall, skim off excess which helps break the lumps. Towards the end of the process I end up with a lovely creamy (but not runny) mixture and I keep thinking why can’t it be like this from the offset :(. I’ve had a look on the DIY forums and they all seem to be full of people getting berated for not being professional plasters (or not getting one in) so naturally I turned to STW.

Thanks in advance!

(oh one more thing, I’ve tried mixing up with a drill in a plastering bucket – I bought a variable speed thing for £30 of ebay for doing it – but it doesn’t seem to fare much better plus I can’t help seeming to get annoying chips of plastic in the mix from the bucket!)

Serves you right, get a plasterer in

Stop using easy fill and stick to Multi finish, cheaper and smoother.Depending on the walls you might be able to use board finish. I am a plasterer to trade and wouldn’t touch that easi fill crap with a poo covered stick. I can’t get it lump free and as an apprentice was taught to mix by using a grading system of steel toe-cap boots applied to my hiney dependent of quality.You could also try a hand podger from ebay to see if that works for you.

isin’t Easi Fill for jointing? Get normal multi finish for it

Check out New Home DIY with Dave Wellman. Probably on youtube, repeated all the time on Quest Freeview 38. He’s done quite a few teaching people to plaster. For a TV DIY show it is actually quite good.

Thanks guys,

Houns – I’m young, naive, cash short and time rich (or at least think it’s a good idea to spend my holiday allowance doing DIY). Plus it’s fun learning new stuff.

duckman – thanks it’s nice to know it’s not just me being crap, what’s a hand podger then? I’m imagining a potato masher…

Blind Melon – Well I kinda started off jointing, I’ve basically built a CLS frame, boarded it and taped and beaded it, I realised it wasn’t that hard to just skim the lot.

Still got a wee bag of Easi-Fill to finish but I’ll look into Multi-finish next time!

…And start with clean water in a big clean bucket, add a bit of plaster, mix it up, add a bit more, mix it up, add a bit more, mix it up… Continue until it’s the right consistency. No lumps.

And yes, buy multi-finish!

I didn’t add the 😛 smiley 😉

mat

same issue here

i use premixed buckets for the convienance – and it goes miles if your just skimming – bit more costly but you stick the lid back on the plaster keeps till the next time 😉

also the lumps of plaster from the bucket – thats down to you not keeping your tools clean ! whippersnapper – clean your tools when your finished for the night – with easifill there is no excuse – its water soluable FFS 😉

I’ve been pretty religous I keeping everything well washed and clean,
Tex D – you misread, I said plastic not plaster! I seem to be chipping bits of the bucket off into the mixture, I end up with little shavings in it!

haha your right i did – damn.

try a better bucket ?

ive got a couple empty buckets kicking about at mine from the premix if you want one to use ?

my experiences taught me fairly quickly that the proper stuff is much easier than the ‘easy’ stuff.

bonding plaster and multi finish FTW 🙂

Big ‘gorilla’ tub (those flexy plastic things with a moulded handle both sides) and a paddle mixer in a cordless drill works everytime for me. Water in first them add plaster gradually. Gets it nice and smooth.

Easi-fill is great stuff – but not for skimming. It’s primarily for filling the gap between boards and is easy to sand back between applications until a nice finish is achieved. Plastering/skimming with multi finish ought not to need the sanding/re-application, though it’s not easy as a novice to get it looking right first time, and isn’t as easy to sand back if the finish is a bit wavy! It’s worth watching a few youtube vids and having a practice on a spare bit of board – too many people try to get a finish on it as soon as it’s on the wall and end up just pushing it around till it looks awful!

Skim is probably the wrong word for what im doing. Ive reboarded a roof and walls and was using it for joints and screw holes. It also works well on gouges from wall paper stripping.

The multifinish got broken out for patching in the holes in the spare bedroom roof. – 10mm layer of gyproc promix was going to crack badly i guessed 😉

t-r; scrim any joints.

as in scrim tape – thats been done – as well as paper tape in the roof/wall joints.

Always add plaster to water not the other way around.

OP, I’ve got some info I could email you if you drop me an email.

Thanks guys, not posted back as I’ve been busy putting up architrave, picture rails etc… but there’s been some helpful advice. T-r I’m not sure how much it’s the buckets fault, I think the paddle on the mixer is going to gouge anything!

Mat