LarryTheDecorator
Well-Known Member
One of the great mysteries of my life - suction control
When I learn't at 'college' we didn't really go into suction control, the environment I was learning in was always freezing, so workable time before the multi even thought about firming up was about 45mins.
Now at home, I pva (roll on 3 times in a 3:1 mix) and whack the plaster mix on a 5sqm wall in about 18mins and leave it for 10mins or so (tea/sandwich break & wipe the sweat off), at this point the wall looks messy, as if aunt bessies chocolate cake has been thrown against it (this was how we were taught to leave it), the skim is about 3mm thick doing the scientific finger stabbing test.
I start my speedskim pulling in at the edges, and am finding to my horror, the plaster is just too hard to pull, so I'm getting drag marks, holes and it just looks plain awful - I'm too embarrassed to even post a picture of it on here. At this point I do my best to patch and then sand down. The wall looks like my dog has done it.
I've looked at retarders to slow the process, tried cream of tartar, mixed the mud at a low speed and used absolute clean freezing water, all unsuccessfully. I've also looked at extratime, but also need to consider the extra cost.
Could the pros here tell me what I'm doing wrong, and how I can sort out the working time? On one wall I literally pulled the new plaster off as it was so awful
When I learn't at 'college' we didn't really go into suction control, the environment I was learning in was always freezing, so workable time before the multi even thought about firming up was about 45mins.
Now at home, I pva (roll on 3 times in a 3:1 mix) and whack the plaster mix on a 5sqm wall in about 18mins and leave it for 10mins or so (tea/sandwich break & wipe the sweat off), at this point the wall looks messy, as if aunt bessies chocolate cake has been thrown against it (this was how we were taught to leave it), the skim is about 3mm thick doing the scientific finger stabbing test.
I start my speedskim pulling in at the edges, and am finding to my horror, the plaster is just too hard to pull, so I'm getting drag marks, holes and it just looks plain awful - I'm too embarrassed to even post a picture of it on here. At this point I do my best to patch and then sand down. The wall looks like my dog has done it.
I've looked at retarders to slow the process, tried cream of tartar, mixed the mud at a low speed and used absolute clean freezing water, all unsuccessfully. I've also looked at extratime, but also need to consider the extra cost.
Could the pros here tell me what I'm doing wrong, and how I can sort out the working time? On one wall I literally pulled the new plaster off as it was so awful