Plastering the ancient craft

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plasteringbooks

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Maybe I am bias but the plastering trade is the most skillful of all the ancient l crafts. This is the only craft that you can’t just go to the tool shop buy some plastering tools and start plastering, unlike the other crafts, you have to develop a certain amount of skill before you can start to produce your first piece of work that you are proud off.

If a joiner has to fix a column for a customer , the first thing that he does is to source where he can purchase it, and with a few fixing he has completed the job
The plasterer to produce a column will involve using the skills he has had to develop over years of training, and involve working with metal, wood, and different kinds of plaster

Often referred to as the dirty trade, most plasterers are the most tidy crafts people on the building site and cleaning up as the job progresses, many times I have had to work on building sites surrounded by heaps of wood shaving, and thinking to myself if I left mounds of plaster everywhere I would have been sacked.

So I am very proud to be a plasterer, even though all of my work is produced in a college plastering workshop these days , I take a lot of satisfaction out of passing on my knowledge and skills to the younger trainees who are keen to learn and develop their own skills :RpS_biggrin:
 
I hope you don't pass on that attitude you have towards other crafts/craftsmen. A lack of respect between the various trades is a huge part of the reason there is so much grief on site. Yes there is skill in plastering, but there also is carpentry, bricklaying and all the other trades we work alongside, even electricians.
 
Plastering a gift of the gods, not really , so many levels of skills, even the dumbest can get by grunting and pushing at it, I know people thirty years at it and rough as a bears backside still.but its nice to see someone believes we are special.but meanwhile back at the ranch lots of us work like fools to get a wage.
 
I had over thirty years on the tools, my views are that plasterers are the most skillful of all the ancient crafts, are purely my bias opinion ,but I stand by what I say, Plastering is not just a case of pushing plaster up a wall, and how many yard you can do in a day, it is also an art form, when you can walk into a building remove a section of ceiling a section of wall and a section of cornice, and restore them without being able to see the repair is why plastering is a craft.
 
plasteringbooks said:
I had over thirty years on the tools, my views are that plasterers are the most skillful of all the ancient crafts, are purely my bias opinion ,but I stand by what I say, Plastering is not just a case of pushing plaster up a wall, and how many yard you can do in a day, it is also an art form, when you can walk into a building remove a section of ceiling a section of wall and a section of cornice, and restore them without being able to see the repair is why plastering is a craft.
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That's you, but I see people buying tools at the market and going off plastering, I see in the builders merchants foreign guys with little English been led around by builders to select materials , most of the builders were former emigrants into this country, I know builders awaiting the Romanians and Bulgarian trades as the others are now as dear as everyone else.
i think 80'per cent of people plastering at this present time in the uk are handy men at best.
 
plasteringbooks said:
I had over thirty years on the tools, my views are that plasterers are the most skillful of all the ancient crafts, are purely my bias opinion ,but I stand by what I say, Plastering is not just a case of pushing plaster up a wall, and how many yard you can do in a day, it is also an art form, when you can walk into a building remove a section of ceiling a section of wall and a section of cornice, and restore them without being able to see the repair is why plastering is a craft.
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The ancient cabinet makers and stone masons were more skilled in my opinion :)
 
I know what you are saying, things have changed so much in the last ten years,the trade is hardly recognisable, The first tool out of the van used to be a darby, now the only place you see a darby is a museum lol
 
I think sometimes people think plastering is just skimming but i agree it is a craft and a noble one even a black art but what you guys are describing are skimmers not what i would consider a plasterer. Any one can do that even a foreigner surprisingly enough, the fact they have hands and have access to a builders yard might help also even the fact they are prepared to work.
 
johniosaif said:
I could train a monkey to plaster to a decent level
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I agree to an extent John it's just that some of the monkeys i have seen plastering leave a wall looking like they have used there own feces to plasterer it much like a real monkey :-(
 
The plastering trade has been devalued over the past, with anybody getting a van , skinning a wall and calling them self a plasterer. Today I have just seen the new proposed trade tests for level 3 plastering, they will be very hard to achieve in the time allocated for the task. What the awarding body are trying to achieve is to bring the skills back into the trade, and any way of improving skill levels of the students, has to be seen as good for the trade.
 
plasteringbooks said:
The plastering trade has been devalued over the past, with anybody getting a van , skinning a wall and calling them self a plasterer. Today I have just seen the new proposed trade tests for level 3 plastering, they will be very hard to achieve in the time allocated for the task. What the awarding body are trying to achieve is to bring the skills back into the trade, and any way of improving skill levels of the students, has to be seen as good for the trade.
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Nice one ive been saying for a long time the introduction of the OSAT to achieve a level 2 has devalued the qualification, hopefully people and contractors will wake upto this and measure the trade with a level 3 as the standard required.
 
plasteringbooks said:
The plastering trade has been devalued over the past, with anybody getting a van , skinning a wall and calling them self a plasterer. Today I have just seen the new proposed trade tests for level 3 plastering, they will be very hard to achieve in the time allocated for the task. What the awarding body are trying to achieve is to bring the skills back into the trade, and any way of improving skill levels of the students, has to be seen as good for the trade.
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That's nice to hear but what would be even better to hear would be (and i realise you do not work for one of these companies) would be an end to training organisations being able to offer 5 day training courses to individuals which includes lessons on how to start your own business.
 
Problem is people search for cheap and cheaper, I agree with a lot of what you say but skimmers will continue on working, patchers too, even boarding is a trade now for god sake, I have heard of plasterers who can only do,walls, not able to skim ceilings so different grades in skimmers too, a plasterer who can skim, render and do corniche is as rare as a mammoths tooth. Two day courses for ewi is the modern way now like it or not,
 
I agree my level 3 apprentices have two sign up for two years, in order to teach the skills required, I have seen advertisements from training companies saying you can gain a level 3 NVQ in eight weeks no previous experience required, all you need is £2499 NVQ Level 3 Plastering Courses | NVQ L3 Plastering Course, Try telling some young apprentice that he has to come to college for two years, then he shows you this :RpS_unsure:
 
Sadly i think that most trades are going this way with the possible exception of plumbing and electric (though there are chancers in those trades too) because of the legal aspects ie gas safe register and part P etc. A friend of mine a few years back who at the time was a foreman for a sizeable bricklaying outfit had to run a mornings course on site for 50% of their trowels cos they did not know how to set out a man hole :RpS_confused:
 
johniosaif said:
Problem is people search for cheap and cheaper, I agree with a lot of what you say but skimmers will continue on working, patchers too, even boarding is a trade now for god sake, I have heard of plasterers who can only do,walls, not able to skim ceilings so different grades in skimmers too, a plasterer who can skim, render and do corniche is as rare as a mammoths tooth. Two day courses for ewi is the modern way now like it or not,
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Im doing it in 3 :)
There is nothing wrong with a 3 or 5 day course and if people honestly believe these guys go off and set up and are gaining work for the long term its not true they soon realise it aint gonna happen then go off making fairy cakes or jetwashing patios.
 
plasteringbooks said:
I agree my level 3 apprentices have two sign up for two years, in order to teach the skills required, I have seen advertisements from training companies saying you can gain a level 3 NVQ in eight weeks no previous experience required, all you need is £2499 NVQ Level 3 Plastering Courses | NVQ L3 Plastering Course, Try telling some young apprentice that he has to come to college for two years, then he shows you this :RpS_unsure:
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In a nut shell ,4 yrs is needed , but they want the knowledge you have in a weekend, I still learn everyday and I learn on here also, I wish what you posted on the top was the reality,..
 
flynnyman said:
Im doing it in 3 :)
There is nothing wrong with a 3 or 5 day course and if people honestly believe these guys go off and set up and are gaining work for the long term its not true they soon realise it aint gonna happen then go off making fairy cakes or jetwashing patios.
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A spread doing a course is not the same as someone without any experience , these are they ones I am on about.
 
@plasteringbooks so how are the terms set out for college years ie when i served my time 1st year i did a 6 month block release, 2nd year 2x5 weeks and 1x4 week, 3rd year 3x5 week blocks
 
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johniosaif said:
A spread doing a course is not the same as someone without any experience , these are they ones I am on about.
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Yeh i know and im on about the same ones, you know you aint gonna learn plastering from scratch in 5 days, these firms exist for a matter of days, weeks or months but i recon months is a record.
 
flynnyman said:
Yeh i know and im on about the same ones, you know you aint gonna learn plastering from scratch in 5 days, these firms exist for a matter of days, weeks or months but i recon months is a record.
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I can't train a labourer in five days, £ 3000 pound for a 7 day course, its like mugging people
 
flynnyman said:
Im doing it in 3 :)
There is nothing wrong with a 3 or 5 day course and if people honestly believe these guys go off and set up and are gaining work for the long term its not true they soon realise it aint gonna happen then go off making fairy cakes or jetwashing patios.
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I honestly know of 3 peep's who have done 5 day courses and somehow are still making a living from plastering and one who attended 3 sessions of a night class meant for diy'ers and was supposed to be a 18 wk course and somehow managed and still is to best of my knowledge making a living from plastering
 
Apprentices just attend one day a week, over a longer period of time instead of block, we found the block release did not really work, employers were very reluctant to release their apprentices, so they sign up for two years for level 1 and level 2. then two years for level 3, most of the skills for level 1&level 2 they develop in the workplace, were the level 3 skill are mainly developed in the workshop
 
raggles said:
I honestly know of 3 peep's who have done 5 day courses and somehow are still making a living from plastering and one who attended 3 sessions of a night class meant for diy'ers and was supposed to be a 18 wk course and somehow managed and still is to best of my knowledge making a living from plastering
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One of my monkeys that was ...
 
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