Plastering over chased out walls - advice please

sillywilly

Hi - am having a couple of additional electrical sockets chased into walls soon. Was just wondering if it is possible to plaster over the conduit myself?

If so can I just use a powder filler or should I get a bag of proper plaster?

Are there any techniques for this and is it possible to do for a fairly competent DIYer?

Obviously trying to save money - any ideas or advice greatly appreciated - Thanks

amcluesent

It's a DIY job IMHO. Get a bag of plaster, rather than faff about with filler.

Switch off the lecky, and give the channel to be plastered a light spray of water, then apply plaster to to pretty much wall level but don't try to make perfect in one application. Let plaster go off, then apply a second skim coat to level off with wall surface. Give a quick sand down when dry.

danofessex

with the skim coat give it a dry trowel (without water) once the plaster is starting to firm then spray it slightly with water and trowel again. this should help it blend in.

ormus

filler is only good for a few mm depth. plaster is much better and cheaper!
if its very deep then use some brick mortar first. then plaster.

27col

You can get mortar mix in very small bags. It is by far the best way to fill a deep chase. Then it is easy enough to skim with a filler.

warpedchippie

Hi,

I do this on a weekly basis with my work (kitchen renovation/fitting).

Get a bag of bonding plaster, mix enough to do the job required, not too dry, and apply to chases level with finished surface.

Wait to dry, get a flat scraper and scrape off any raised areas.

Then use fine surface filler (ready mixed), or drywall joint filler to finish.

If you want to do the job quicker, then mix a small amount of cement with the bonding to make it go off quicker.

If you're feeling really confident you could even use just the bonding, and work-it to a finished plaster finish, without actually using finishing plaster or any other filler ( I do this, but it requires a bit of experience).

Hope this helps,

Steve

keystone

Easi-fill.

Cheers

jcb208

Agree Easy fill is best much better bonding then plaster and easy to rub down If your filling is not great

sillywilly

Wow - thank you all for taking the time to give me some helpful advice and so quickly too. Will look into all the options suggested.
I guess I want the easiest, cheapest, quickest and best finish - not asking much!! I think the chasing is going to be about 6 metres in total plus the height and depth to insert the cable and conduit.

Thanks once again,
Cheers

keystone

sillywilly wrote: »

I guess I want the easiest, cheapest, quickest and best finish - not asking much!!

You're not are you - you can have a cheap job and you can have a proper job - what you can't have is a cheap, proper job.

Cheers

Kevstir

Done exactly that last week, used easy fill, will use it again, easy to apply and easy to sand..