Plastering, painting, fencing and inside second coat rendering

Having finished putting all the plasterboards up, it was time to start doing the not so nice job of plastering. Some people call this "stopping" others "finishing". In some ways it could be called "just a terrible job" but that depends on how good you are.

We have put up details on plastering before, so we won't bore you with all the details, but essentially the plastering has the following stages: (1) putting on self adhesive tape over the joins that run horizontally on the walls; (2) Fixing all the external corners with metal guards to ensure that they do not crack if you bump something into them; (3) applying the basecoat plaster mix (a dry powder that is mixed with water to get a workable mix) in the corners and then applying the paper tape to join up the gap and then cover this with some more base coat ; (4) same as no.3 but in the ceiling - apparently one should not use the self adhesive tape in the ceiling as it does not have the same flexibility as the paper tape; (5) let all this dry for about 24 hours and sand back if necessary - this is where the plastering skills will show - the less you have to sand, the better you are!!!; 6) This is were we are not actually following the normal guidelines, as one should normally do a second coat with the base coat, but as this is really hard to sand, we are using the top coat as both the second and the third coat. This is a premix that come in 20 kg buckets and is much easier to work than the base coat. Further you do not have to worry about the 60 minutes working time of the base coat before it goes hard. Anyway, apply the second coat in all the areas but extend further out than with the base coat. Then allow it to dry for 24 hours; (7) sand back to get a nice and smooth finish; (8) apply the third coat, this time extending even further out from the join and allow to dry for another 24 hours; (9) The final sanding takes place, then dust clean and you are ready to put on the paint, first the base coat/sealer and then most likely two coats of the colour you want.

Sounds easy, doesn't it ? Well, we're sure it is not too bad if you are a professional, but we do find it hard and not the nicest work, especially the sanding part. Applying the plaster is not too bad, but the sanding is terrible as you have to were a face mask, have to stand up and bend your neck (when you do the ceilings). You generally get dust everywhere, especially all over your face. But, considering the cost of getting it done professionally, we would still do it again ourselves (this is written at a stage when we are not yet done with the whole house, so this might of course change!).

So, just to bore you with a couple of pictures:

Third coat applied in the horizontal wall join, but not yet sanded.

Third coat applied in the office ceiling, but not yet sanded.

Corner completed with two coats and sanded back - we decided only to use two coats in the corners as we were happy with the result after two coats.

Walk in wardrobe completed with 3 coats, but not yet sanded.

Unfortunately we have not taken any pictures of the finished result which have already been painted over in some of the rooms. But as we still have the other half of the house, this might come at a later date. As for the painting, the walls and ceilings have so far been painted with the first undercoat/sealer. Once the second and third coats of render have been finished we will then complete the painting job.

Taking a break from the plastering we decided to do some more fencing around or future orchard. The posts were already driven in by a tractor - we did not fancy digging the holes in the heavy clay we have - and we had already strained the wires to hold the rabbit wire. What remained was to put in the star pickets and install the rabbit wire. This was done in less than a day, after consultation with Mara (Jodie's sister) on certain techniques. Great to have free advice over the phone.

The area to be fenced was around 90 meters and as such we could get away with using one piece of rabbit wire the whole way around. We started by fixing it at one end to the timber posts and then rolled out the wire on the ground to the nearest corner. In order to get the wire nice and tight we used a technique we picked up at a fencing course and again some advice from Mara. Basically we used a plank of wood, nailed 4 nails into it and bent them over, then drilled a couple of other holes to hold a piece of wire.

The board with the nails were then fixed to the rabbit wire and the other wire fixed to car.

The car was then driven slowly forward until the wire was nice and tight, at which point we fixed it to the post using 40mm fencing staples.

The end result, part 1

The end result, part 2

We have now also started the next part of completing this fence, but no pictures as of yet. Will get back to this later, so keep checking the pages for updates!

As Jodie has managed to build up a lot of flexi time at her work we decided that it would be best for her to take week off work to help out with the building. In order to progress we decided to do some rendering in the rooms where the plastering was finalised and we have now had 3 days of rendering. The second coat of render is no in place in our bedroom, the hallway from the living room to the bedroom/office, the office, the kitchen and most of the dining room. We will continue the next two days and then hope to finish the dining room and the living room.

Southern wall in bedroom completed. As can be seen we have a white painted plasterboard wall on the eastern wall (with the door) and pine lining in the ceiling.

Close up of the join between the render and the pine lining. The pine lining will be sanded and eventually white washed so we have not worried too much about a bit of render coming onto the pine.

Southern and eastern walls of the bedroom

The rest of the eastern wall of the bedroom

A close up of the wide window sill in the bedroom

Now the office, this being the eastern wall with a higher window sill. This one has two bales under, whereas the bedroom one had only one bale under.

Southern wall in the office, including second hand window

Close up of finish between the render and the plasterboard. This is taken from virtually the same angle as the following picture:

which hopefully makes you think like us and say that the current status looks much better

The full southern wall and a bit of the eastern wall of the office. Please note: this is not the lamp we will be using - it is only there to have some working light !

Kitchen wall completed

So that is about it for what we have done since last time. Hard to see a lot of the progress, but as stated above, the plastering is not the nicest job, so it has taken a bit of time to complete.

Anyway, will come back with some more once we have done some more work.

Any problems, please email webmaster. This page was last updated 24/07/2008