Making a start

C

Chris J

New Member
Hi. I’ve been doing some renovation work over the last couple of years and just starting to put some focus on practicing plastering myself. I was doing all the prep for my guy (dry lining, pva, bonding coat, edge strips etc) but unfortunately he only plastered as a sideline so wasn’t always available when i needed him. Luckily my dad was on site all his life and started out as a plasterer in London so I’ve had plenty of advice from both of them. I recently agreed to an outhouse conversion which I’m doing all myself as I wanted to practice skimming to get to a standard where I could do that without any help. I made a deal that I’d plaster the ceilings for free and I’d do the rest if they were happy with results. So far they’ve paid me up for the lot. I’ve bought a decent Marshalltown finishing trowel and a few other bits (ox stainless pipe trowel and small trowel) with the money I’ve earned so far as I figured decent kit would most likely get better results. I gave up work to be a full time dad 5 years ago and want to be able to pull in a few quid in 2 years time when both my kids are in education. Hopefully if I can pick up a few jobs per year I can increase my speed and ability to tackle larger jobs. I figured hands on experience is the only way to learn properly and if I offer to let the client pay only once the work has dried back on they are happy with the level of finish I cannot say fairer than that. I’ve looked into courses at the Gold trowel to maybe help build confidence but are they worth the investment? No doubt I’ll be on the site regularly looking for tips so any advice is appreciated.
 

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@Chris J . Your 45 . Really late in day .
My advice would be rather then post on here get your dad to watch over you..
You cant give advice from pic
 
keep at it pal. plastering is 100% practice you do not have to be clever, it helps if your as thick as pigshit.
The more you do the better you get ,simple as that.
 
tapit said:
keep at it pal. plastering is 100% practice you do not have to be clever, it helps if your as thick as pigshit.
The more you do the better you get to know what you can get away with ,simple as that.
Click to expand...
 
tapit said:
Did you watch war of the worlds, have you a tv in your field?
i am hoping to get 25k views on this, my new thread.
Click to expand...
I don't watch films or read books lol , I sarcastically watch news , documentaries etc
 
I appreciate some of the feedback (although I feel we may have wandered a little “off topic” towards the end )
Having read through a few other newbie posts I feel that I got of likely! Thanks
I can see that training courses aren’t that well thought of (my old man doesn’t think I should waste money doing one either). I’ll get this job squared up and then I’ve my own kitchen to skim. After that I’ll and set up some boards in the garage and practice on them to work on drying times and perfecting a decent finish.
 
Chris J said:
I appreciate some of the feedback (although I feel we may have wandered a little “off topic” towards the end )
Having read through a few other newbie posts I feel that I got of likely! Thanks
I can see that training courses aren’t that well thought of (my old man doesn’t think I should waste money doing one either). I’ll get this job squared up and then I’ve my own kitchen to skim. After that I’ll and set up some boards in the garage and practice on them to work on drying times and perfecting a decent finish.
Click to expand...
Get stuck in mate , force yourself to try different techniques , you only learn through the mistakes ,
 
Chris J said:
I appreciate some of the feedback (although I feel we may have wandered a little “off topic” towards the end )
Having read through a few other newbie posts I feel that I got of likely! Thanks
I can see that training courses aren’t that well thought of (my old man doesn’t think I should waste money doing one either). I’ll get this job squared up and then I’ve my own kitchen to skim. After that I’ll and set up some boards in the garage and practice on them to work on drying times and perfecting a decent finish.
Click to expand...
Welcome along!
 
Photos taking before taping up. I did all the usual spots: joins, internal corners etc
However I used angle beading on the window edges and didn’t tape underneath them - Doh!
So yes I’m already learning a few things from reading other posts (along with peoples sexual preferences) and no doubt I’ve plenty more to learn about factors I never even considered.
It’s only the 5th time I’ve skimmed and the Marshalltown trowel I bought to start this job was defo worth the £50 as in all honesty it’s given me my best results so far.
Hopefully if I bang in enough practice time over the next year or two I’ll be of a decent standard by time I need to earn a quid from it.
Wish I’d taken my plaster up when he offered to teach me when we’d renovated a house and had it all skimmed out, but opportunity missed - although I did have a fair bit of other s**t going on at the time, massive learning curve on that project!
 
Chris J said:
Photos taking before taping up. I did all the usual spots: joins, internal corners etc
However I used angle beading on the window edges and didn’t tape underneath them - Doh!
So yes I’m already learning a few things from reading other posts (along with peoples sexual preferences) and no doubt I’ve plenty more to learn about factors I never even considered.
It’s only the 5th time I’ve skimmed and the Marshalltown trowel I bought to start this job was defo worth the £50 as in all honesty it’s given me my best results so far.
Hopefully if I bang in enough practice time over the next year or two I’ll be of a decent standard by time I need to earn a quid from it.
Wish I’d taken my plaster up when he offered to teach me when we’d renovated a house and had it all skimmed out, but opportunity missed - although I did have a fair bit of other s**t going on at the time, massive learning curve on that project!
Click to expand...
no mate dont tape underneath your beads it will not hold them on.
 
Chris J said:
Hi. I’ve been doing some renovation work over the last couple of years and just starting to put some focus on practicing plastering myself. I was doing all the prep for my guy (dry lining, pva, bonding coat, edge strips etc) but unfortunately he only plastered as a sideline so wasn’t always available when i needed him. Luckily my dad was on site all his life and started out as a plasterer in London so I’ve had plenty of advice from both of them. I recently agreed to an outhouse conversion which I’m doing all myself as I wanted to practice skimming to get to a standard where I could do that without any help. I made a deal that I’d plaster the ceilings for free and I’d do the rest if they were happy with results. So far they’ve paid me up for the lot. I’ve bought a decent Marshalltown finishing trowel and a few other bits (ox stainless pipe trowel and small trowel) with the money I’ve earned so far as I figured decent kit would most likely get better results. I gave up work to be a full time dad 5 years ago and want to be able to pull in a few quid in 2 years time when both my kids are in education. Hopefully if I can pick up a few jobs per year I can increase my speed and ability to tackle larger jobs. I figured hands on experience is the only way to learn properly and if I offer to let the client pay only once the work has dried back on they are happy with the level of finish I cannot say fairer than that. I’ve looked into courses at the Gold trowel to maybe help build confidence but are they worth the investment? No doubt I’ll be on the site regularly looking for tips so any advice is appreciated.
Click to expand...

The Proof is in the painting... get a coat of paint on it and see how it looks :D
 
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