Help Plastering!!

Hi Matt
Plastering a whole wall is not for the faint hearted .. and you cannot have a tea break half way through .. if you are going to have a go at plastering you should start off with a small wall, as it is very physical work .. and even fit guys struggle to cope.
depending on what the wall is like to start with .. you may have to do a rough coat first .. or render .. ( this is cement mortar mixed at 4 to 1)
this need to be scored to allow adhesion of the the pink coat .
Once dry you then decide whether to do a 2 or 3 coat finnish .
3 coat is best finnish
use Thistle multi finnish
mix your pplaster till it is like cheesecake mix .. and starting from the bottom coat the whole wall .. attempting to keep it reasonbly flat . wait a while for the plaster to start going off .. not wet to touch .. but not hard either.( this is where practice comes into its own )
you then float the surface with a steel float to remove the trowel marks and make it even flatter and smoother.
second coat .
Again thistle multifinish .
mix to a consistency of warm butter.. this coat goes on no thicker thana 16 th of an inch .. repeat the process as the first coat .
final coat is a lesser amount of nearly runny consistency .. this is used along with a wet brush to apply water to fill in all the little pockmarks left .
The finnishing float is one that takes the practice. you need to wait untill the plaster is going off .. usually starting to turn brown .. and thenfloat this with plenty of water to bring the fat of the pinking out and create a babies bum finnish .

I hope this has not put you off trying .. but do try a small piece first .. yo u may decide a qualified plasterer is well worth the money .
Phill