This wall will NEVER BE FLAT...So now What??

If you want to learn the basics to plastering and learn how to plaster your own walls then join The Plastering For Beginners welcome Course. It's a free plastering course ideal for anyone who wants to learn how to plaster: plasterersblueprint.clickfunn...
Not every wall is perfect. But it’s rare you’ll see a wall this bad!!
We’ll show you what to do if you need to plaster a wall that isn’t flat and show you the best way to deal with it!
Subscribe to our channel from the link below: / plasteringforbeginners
If you like this video then please like, subscribe and leave a comment because we'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for watching. I'll see you one the next one.
Cheers.
Blaine Gray,
Plastering For Beginners

[@maxm17]

Something really satisfying about watching an expert plasterer at work.

[@MarcusT86]

Masterful work again mate. I love vids like this where you make battered old walls into works of art!

[@colwilson-2432]

Found this one really useful as a beginner. Top man you Blaine, cheers 👍

[@tonyh1460]

A master at work, no idea how you make it look so effortless. Well done !

[@davosseymour]

Been following this channel for a while now and love it. Finally plucked up the courage to give it a try and did my first wall and can honestly say your advice, help and tips were invaluable. From a complete novice I managed to do it! And more importantly the wall is flat. Thank you for taking the time to educate people like me

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

That’s great to hear mate! Well done and thank you for watching pal - I really appreciate it. All the best 👍

[@amanurrahman9362]

Like it well explained and 10/10 post. I highly recommend. No 1 TEACHER 😮💯👍🏽

[@bretheart2227]

Lovly job .every wall i do is like that .😱👍👍

[@markashby9120]

Amazing what a bit of effort and a good plastering job can do ,looks a million times better Blaine 👏

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Cheers mate!! Thanks for watching pal 👍

[@bobemerson4266]

Great job mate

[@ravey1981]

I call it "cottage finish". Old houses and old walls aren't always meant to be perfectly straight, so you make the best of it and call it character. See also "pub finish" which is rough as aresholes.

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

👍👍

[@rickjohnson1632]

Beautiful job . Thanks for the tips 👌

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Thank you mate!!

[@BillyBullshitter]

Nice job. I once plastered a whole room with a butter knife. It was perfectly flat and smooth, but I couldn't have my jam on toast that day.

[@nobbystyles4807]

another great lesson. ive got a chinmey breast to do tomorrow where the damp course guy has plastered a section without tapering it off so its got a very proud vertical lip going upwards about 1.5 meters. ive since had to remove the fire place so ill need to square it all up but ive tried sanding the lip off to get it flat but no joy. im stumped as to what to do i guess ill have to knock some of his work out to make way for a clean finish coat. seems a bit drastic though. enjoying the dope beats again on this channel!

[@mikiex]

Perfect timing, I'm about to have a go at my 'problem wall' that is all over the place

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Haha good luck!

[@davidblundell5429]

You dont half take on some rough old jobs. Fair play to you for keeping it real.

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Haha I don’t know why I attract them 😂

[@johnwildwest1]

Lovely job bud IL be doing it tomorrow 😂

[@elamental6775]

You're the only plasterer I've seen who's on par with my old man... Coming from a plasterer lol

[@pitbullbalmer]

Was on a kitchen a few weeks ago, similar situation walls were no where near what they needed to be, loads of bonding was required haha good job mate 👍

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Haha it’s a bloody nightmare when it happens isn’t it mate. There’s only so much you can do 😂 Thanks for watching…all the best pal 👍

[@DotAndDab]

Nice video

[@douglasmorris8364]

Lovely job considering what you had to work with :)

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Thank you mate! I tried my best 😂😂

[@c.bcircusbaby5517]

Nice work...

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Thanks pal!!

[@nom843]

Good to see a plasterer devil key there bonding.....Ive been using make good bonding the last few years i find it way better than british gypsum. Top job.

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Cheers pal. I’ll have to try this because I’ll be honest, I hate BG Bonding. I love Hardwall but Bonding is hard work and bubbles a lot…I’ll have to give this a go. Thanks for the suggestion mate and thanks for watching 👍

[@runthomas]

i learned to plaster from this guys videos....and did most walls on a 2 bed flat ..oh and a ceiling.... by the time i was done...i noticed a remarkable improvement in my plastering with both application, and finish... i gained confidence and a little skill in both areas...some of my finish was like marble.... and it got better as i imroved and got faster..slapped it on rather than being meticulous ..which i was when i started and ended up throwing buckets of drying out plaster or bonding out....oh and i improved some walls with hardcore on bare brickwork...after watching his vids....i was initially going to bonding coat them...but he taught me to use hardcore...i think thats the name...something like that and its good stuff.

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Thanks pal and well done for your hard work. Sounds like you’re killing it…all the best my friend!

[@shaunjones6049]

High Blain, when you are bonding out the bottom of the wall is the pva still tacky as the bonding goes on. Same with the skim. I was always taught to seal the walls with a 5/1 pva then just before applying your first coat put a 3/1 pva coat on let it go tacky then apply the plaster. Would appreciate your advice 👍

[@callyk5678]

Speed skim and a flexi trowel are a godsend on walls like these. Nightmare to trowel up with a stiff towel

[@joetampsett2001]

Hello blain, I have a question referring to your video 4 years ago about breaking in a flexi trowel, I have lightly sanded my new Marshalltown flexi trowel like the video showed, but I am laying on plaster with a 18” carbon marshalltown trowel and some occasion my plaster looks good but in certain light I seem to get a tiger stripe effect on my plaster, any ideas what this could be ? I only do diy bits and some times smaller jobs for my friends but have done a fair bit now was just curious, hoping to improve 😃

[@danielmarchant3168]

Great work. I would of took skirting board off, pulled it out and put it back on.

[@keepingwoodiealiveeveryday8789]

Hi blaine, any tips/avoid for doing a 240 Yr old house built in 1880. Cheers mate 👍

[@lukedruggan6839]

Hi Blaine I like watching your videos as a spread myself I'm always looking for new tricks or tools to help me out, the reason I'm commenting is I cannot fathom why you don't use a roller for applying pva? It's much quicker and easier than a brush!

[@terry4144]

my thoughts exactly

[@Carsick8]

What video shows your most recent kit list? I'm interested in swappi g the MT for the carbon nela I think you are currently using

[@daveblack9532]

When you “come back over yourself “ are you angling the trowel on the way down? Looks like you’re skip troweling almost. I guess it’s the quick hands. Thx! I watch all your stuff!

[@tallpete9956]

I've got a plastered and painted (eggshell) wall, which because of an extension, there's now a new level of 10 mm with a bead to sort. They dont want boards over the wall, so can it still be floated with bonding over the top?

[@eiremonster]

Blaine do you ever come across bonding blisters and how do you deal with them ?

[@SueMyChin]

Quick question, those rubber buckets you're using there, whats the best way to clean them? Marketing says let the plaster dry and break it off but it doesn't work out like that...

[@johnclowes3894]

As always great job.👍 One question only because it’s what I would have done. Wouldn’t it be easier to remove skirtings so you could straighten walls?

[@itsmorphed6416]

Yes. But if the client won't pay for that then you have to just disguise the unevenness with bonding.

[@christopherneedham5872]

Been watching loads of your videos recently.Think your ace and an amazing plasterer! I've been plastering for two years now and am getting really good at it.Only thing is though I've been taught by one guy who is also an amazing plasterer too but as we know there are many ways to skin a cat!That's why I've been digging through your videos.I have a couple of questions.... 1)do you always scratch up your bonding coat?2)Do you wet it up before plastering over it(if so with just water or with PVA in it?).3. Do you aim to skim the wall the same day as you bonded it?Think I heard you mention you aim to do so in another video?.Hope to get a response from yoal.Chris.

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Cheers mate…I really appreciate that! I do now. I used to leave Bonding unscratched but for the sake of 5mins I just scratch it. If I’m the save day you can leave it but I sometimes just PVA it to be sure. So if you’re unsure just do that pal. Hope this helps pal and thanks again for watching! Cheers 👍

[@izwhatitiz105]

Scratch and pva gives you the best key and suction control. As for skimming the same day, that differs from the thickness, time to set ect. But to give yourself the best chance of skimming over bonding the same day is to get all your floating out done as early as possible to give it time to set enough to skim. I couldnt deal with all that furniture in that room haha. I skim on site now during the week (easy money). Only do domestic work on weekends when the job and money is worth it.

[@Kartvillian]

So are you not watering the evo stick pva down?

[@clintmannion5598]

Why do u use a brush for pva is it not faster with a roller

[@Wriki]

Recently I’ve had to look at the corner of a room which we had to use insulating paper on (old cold house, solid brick wall) but have found some of the plaster has come away and in some parts the holes have gone back to the brick. Would it be better to just get rid of all the dusty parts to the brick entirely (a brush and it just dusts off) or is it better to seal with few layers of pva?

[@ToraKwai]

From my experience it depends on how crumbly it is. If you're able to get pva into it to bind it together again then do that, if you think the brush will cause it to fall out while putting on the pva then knock back to something solid

[@tommyedwards8451]

Your level is out because the strip running across the centre of the wall is proud. A lot of old houses have this as it is because of the removal of an old feature. If you would of just hacked that section out you would have used much less bonding and not had to create an illusion of a flat wall it would of genuinely been flat and left more space to get neat around the skirts as if you leave the skim short of your skirts on your first coat as you did with the bonding it makes for a much cleaner neater job .

[@theetheeyog9878]

Have you seen the green grits primer have you used it before?

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

I haven’t pal…but I’ll look out for it 👍

[@ununha]

My new house has the same problem in every wall, should i just rip all the old plaster off or dot&dab a new plasterboard on top of them?

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Hi mate. Depends on the condition of the plaster. If it’s sound then you can Dot and Dab but if it’s weak then just hack off and start again pal. That’s always your best option to be honest 👍

[@andrewschannel3635]

Why did you key the areas that had bonding when the other areas were smooth anyway? Also were the other areas pva’d but you just skimmed other the bonded areas without pva because it was still wet?

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Its always best to provide a key to your backing plaster and yes…the Bonding was still damp which meant I could plaster directly onto it 👍

[@lukaofthshire]

If I were the owners I'd just remove the skirting. Its painted, it can easily be replaced afterwards at not much cost and the wall would be flatter

[@johnokeeffe2958]

Did u ever use thistle bond instead of PVA it's great for walls like that

[@lukedruggan6839]

At £70 a tub I'd use pva too

[@bretheart2227]

Just concentrate on eye level.😜

[@frankiez7414]

One coat is the plaster to do that job. But most plasterers can’t get to grips with it.

[@liquidsnake6879]

working on one like this, a nightmare, i've managed to straighten it quite a bit but there's always small bits that don't get quite flat enough

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

It’s a bugger when it’s like that but you get used to it mate. I’ve worked in plenty of wonky houses now and you learn to adapt ha! Wish you luck anyway my friend 👍

[@HGarry4012]

@@PlasteringForBeginners hi there with this high strength PVA would u just give one coat PVA and what ratio to water would u recommend and how long to leave it before skimming Would u ever PVA walls and skim next day

[@doubletapthat2183]

How much would u charge for a job like this. ?

[@borisbolshoi7317]

Crazy question... Never tried it on plaster but could you use an angle grinder to flatten some of it out, would the plaster just fall off the wall? Would it be too much dust?

[@mikiex]

A grinder might be a bit harsh, you can take out a bump with an orbital or a dry wall sander (better results just because it's bigger)

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

I think it would be too aggressive and the dust would be unbearable. Miliex had the right idea 👍

[@paulcollinson855]

Hi Blaine, could you get it flat if customer pulled off skirting and coving?

[@danjason2167]

Probably just the skirting

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

To be honest, it would have been better to rip out the patched in section in the centre. That was the real problem…the skirts were fine 👍

[@jauld360]

That looks old enough for there may be no DPC or a compromised slate DPC. The plasterboard at ground level may be part of a damp treatment. Gypsum does not handle damp, so you may have dogged a bullet by not removing the whole lot.

[@mattknox6443]

Surely removing skirting and refitting after would half the work in trying to match in

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

There was a massive gap between the centre on the wall and the bottom. To be honest, the skirting board was fine…it was the patched in plasterboard in the centre that was the issue. That needed ripping out and starting again but as I said, the customer didn’t want to spend a lot 👍

[@barrybruton4577]

I'd take of the skirt off hardwall the bottom section then multi the lot

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

👍👍👍

[@robertdanko9991]

Would or have u ever used sbr ?

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

I have but I mainly use it externally - that’s what is designed for…tanking and waterproofing 👍

[@tonyc1167]

Blaine you tried this Glam rend yet?

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

I haven’t yet but I’ll look into it. Thank for the suggestion!

[@alphabuilders]

Will you ever get that wall straight?

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

Haha I don’t think so pal 😂

[@krisMcA82]

Dot dab some boards ontop of that and be done with it . Client probably thinks he knows best/more . Why they never listen is beyond me

[@CheckFred]

Wouldn't they let you remove the skirting the re-affix after ?? .... Only a five minute job - but would have made life a lot easier ........

[@PlasteringForBeginners]

We did talk about it but they tried to do the same with the rooms upstairs (they’re doing the whole house) and they destroyed the skirting boards trying to get it off. They wanted to keep the original so they wanted to avoid any damage. But yes - it would have been nice but I didn’t want to risk breaking it up so I avoided it. I’ve done it before with old, original skirting boards and it was so well fixed that I just ended ruining the timber.

[@krisMcA82]

Mate maybe no put “plastering for BEGINNERS “ on the merch ? Try slogans like “Plaster master “ and ur page and link at bottom ??? No one wants to walk onto a site with “beginner “ on jumper mate . Excellent channel