meterage for a improver

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crmy78

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alright boys. Been skimming now for a year cant render or float as of yet so i know im not a plasterer, but my skimming is good my boss wouldnt have me if it werent. Im just wondering what i should be getting on a day i feel like im not quick enough i can do 20m2 ceilings thats my limit and 25m2 on walls. obviously i have to do all the clearing up as well so thats time consuming. but in 2 hits id be happy if i done 40m2 a day does that sound any good. My boss pays me well so dont want people to think im only asking to find out if i could go off on my own. Thanks in advance for any replies boys
 
You'll naturally progress at your own pace. What do you think is holding you back at the moment? From the different phases, which do you find the most time consuming:

1) Laying on
2) Laying down
3) Wet troweling
 
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Speed should make no different as you are still learning. The only thing that matters is that all your work is spot on. Speed will come over time.
 
By what you have said i can take it that you are still an apprentice .As long as your boss is happy with what you are doing then relax and concentrate on getting your finish spot on and as said speed will come with time and experience.When i was learning all those years ago my boss would only skim from the top to the middle of the walls and i would have to mix and follow him up doing the bottom meter or so. so i never had to worry about how much i was putting on as i just had to follow him.
 
Thanks for the input lads and in reply to your question Minh i find laying down the most time consuming the reason for this is i try and get all the misses and hollows filled in so i keep going back over the same bit a few times obviously only when there is a miss or hollow. When i say this i dont want to sound like im playing with it to much cos i know not to do that haha.
 
crmy78 said:
Thanks for the input lads and in reply to your question Minh i find laying down the most time consuming the reason for this is i try and get all the misses and hollows filled in so i keep going back over the same bit a few times obviously only when there is a miss or hollow. When i say this i dont want to sound like im playing with it to much cos i know not to do that haha.
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Laying down ie second coating you shouldn't need to be filling hollows etc, you should just be coating the whole wall again.. Don't let yourself get consumed with filling certain hollows.

Laying down should only take a couple of minutes as long as your first coat is reasonably flat.
 
crmy78 said:
Thanks for the input lads and in reply to your question Minh i find laying down the most time consuming the reason for this is i try and get all the misses and hollows filled in so i keep going back over the same bit a few times obviously only when there is a miss or hollow. When i say this i dont want to sound like im playing with it to much cos i know not to do that haha.
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To begin with, there shouldn't be many hollows after laying on. Does the process I describe below sound familiar.

Laying on: Cut in along the top and edge. Spread a band along the top (it should be the width of your trowel). Now, from your waist height (don't bend your knees, use an up stroke and join with the band at the top turning into a fan shape and then reverse stroke back down and use the final up stroke to blend back in. This is known as the "3" stroke. This method ensures that you get an even coverage with even thickness. Everytime you use this method, make sure your trowel is loaded with the same amount of plaster.

Laying down: From the top, blend in using fan shaped strokes all the way across the top. Now hold your trowel at one end of the wall and walk across to the other side and finish with a blending in stroke. Repeat this and overlap 50% each time. Now blend in from the edges. Finally, from the bottom (cross troweling) raise your trowel up vertically and blend off with a fan shape. Leave the trowel slightly open to remove any high points but without too much pressure.
 
Minh said:
To begin with, there shouldn't be many hollows after laying on. Does the process I describe below sound familiar.

Laying on: Cut in along the top and edge. Spread a band along the top (it should be the width of your trowel). Now, from your waist height (don't bend your knees, use an up stroke and join with the band at the top turning into a fan shape and then reverse stroke back down and use the final up stroke to blend back in. This is known as the "3" stroke. This method ensures that you get an even coverage with even thickness. Everytime you use this method, make sure your trowel is loaded with the same amount of plaster.

Laying down: From the top, blend in using fan shaped strokes all the way across the top. Now hold your trowel at one end of the wall and walk across to the other side and finish with a blending in stroke. Repeat this and overlap 50% each time. Now blend in from the edges. Finally, from the bottom (cross troweling) raise your trowel up vertically and blend off with a fan shape. Leave the trowel slightly open to remove any high points but without too much pressure.
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:RpS_laugh: 3 stroke... I prefer the Harlem shuffle ;)
 
You should be aiming to get 3 hits a day, which is easily achievable if you set up correctly .and still get done for about 3.30pm cleaned up and set up for the next day
 
3 hits and finished at 3.30pm, don't see it myself, 8- 11.30. 12 -2.30 ,2.30 -5.30 is more likely unless you are doing 1.5 hits at a time if you follow me,
 
thanks boys i appreciate all the advice and minh the laying down method you describe im familar with but the 3" stroke laying on method im not familiar with i will try that tommorow.
 
It sounds like you're doing just fine to me, if your work really is of a high standard.
Do you feel like you're pushing yourself each day? Do you go home knackered from a days graft? If the answer is no then you could push yourself to get quicker. If the answer is yes then you're doing your best and speed may come with time but remember plastering is like any physical activity, some will always be quicker than others. You may never get any faster but that needn't be a problem if you chose the type of jobs you work on. Just keep the quality up.
 
essexandy said:
It sounds like you're doing just fine to me, if your work really is of a high standard.
Do you feel like you're pushing yourself each day? Do you go home knackered from a days graft? If the answer is no then you could push yourself to get quicker. If the answer is yes then you're doing your best and speed may come with time but remember plastering is like any physical activity, some will always be quicker than others. You may never get any faster but that needn't be a problem if you chose the type of jobs you work on. Just keep the quality up.
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Thanks mate to be honest i dont ever feel tired when i go home but during the hit im always getting a bit of a sweat on and only start to calm down and feel in control when its all layed down and im troweling up so in that sense i suppose i could try and throw a few more metres on i just dont want the quality of my work to faulter for the sake of another couple of £. im not sure but it might just be a confidence issue
 
crmy78 said:
Thanks mate to be honest i dont ever feel tired when i go home but during the hit im always getting a bit of a sweat on and only start to calm down and feel in control when its all layed down and im troweling up so in that sense i suppose i could try and throw a few more metres on i just dont want the quality of my work to faulter for the sake of another couple of £. im not sure but it might just be a confidence issue
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You shouldn't be breaking out in a sweat when plastering. If you were climbing up and down from your hop up I could understand but it sounds as though you are rushing around too much. Take you time :-)

When you hold your trowel on the side, look at the line your knuckles make in relation to the trowel: that is the band of pressure you should be applying to the trowel. You will notice that it is off centre and the reason for that is simple: when you apply pressure evenly there, the toes receive slightly less pressure. This results in the toes not digging in and leaving lines when you flatten down. Try to remember this, because if you distribute the pressure towards the toes, you'll be in a constant battle trying to remove lines. The same happens if you distribute pressure more towards the heel :-)

When you go to work tomorrow, as you lift the trowel off the surface when blending in, let me know whether you can hear a noise when you're doing this :-)
 
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Minh said:
You shouldn't be breaking out in a sweat when plastering. If you were climbing up and down from your hop up I could understand but it sounds as though you are rushing around too much. Take you time :-)

When you hold your trowel on the side, look at the line your knuckles make in relation to the trowel: that is the band of pressure you should be applying to the trowel. You will notice that it is off centre and the reason for that is simple: when you apply pressure evenly there, the toes receive slightly less pressure. This results in the toes not digging in and leaving lines when you flatten down. Try to remember this, because if you distribute the pressure towards the toes, you'll be in a constant battle trying to remove lines. The same happens if you distribute pressure more towards the heel :-)

When you go to work tomorrow, as you lift the trowel off the surface when blending in, let me know whether you can hear a noise when you're doing this :-)
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You are fecking joking aren't you?
 
plastering kinetics... you can only learn by watching, doing and been shown, been told that a 3 ft stroke is called the 3ft stroke is great, I always wondered that...I hate short strokers,bottom bit, middle bit top bit mmm its an irritant , your hand should stroke from the floor to the ceiling near enough on an 8ft wall, other than that get a cat...
 
johniosaif said:
plastering kinetics... you can only learn by watching, doing and been shown, been told that a 3 ft stroke is called the 3ft stroke is great, I always wondered that...I hate short strokers,bottom bit, middle bit top bit mmm its an irritant , your hand should stroke from the floor to the ceiling near enough on an 8ft wall, other than that get a cat...
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How high is a wall? Would you be able to use one stroke a 3m high wall?
 
Stop arguing boys :RpS_laugh:. Im in the game to learn so il take all the advice on board and just see which one suits to get me that bit quicker. thanks everyone
 
im not the one asking people to listen for a noise if there feathering in, i also wassnt the one telling someone to jam there trowel into the wall 85 times to learn how to trowel up in a previous thread
 
jrplastering said:
im not the one asking people to listen for a noise if there feathering in, i also wassnt the one telling someone to jam there trowel into the wall 85 times to learn how to trowel up in a previous thread
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All advice is based on their ability. What do you think is the significance of the noise when feathering off?
 
what do i care as-long as said patch is feathered in to a high standard i couldn't care if my trowel sang "thats the way ahha i like it" everytime it touches the wall
 
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