Sand plaster wall smooth

modelreject

I have to smooth out a lumpy wall up our staircase. At the bottom of the staircase is worst as the bumps comes out worst here. I think the best option is to sand this back about a couple of centimetres to get it in line with the upper part. After that I assume I could sand the rest down or get a plaster in to skim it? My main question though is how to make this process less messy. I will be putting protective sheets down and wearing a mask and overalls. Should I use an electric sander as this will save time and effort. I could get someone else in to spray water every now and then to reduce dust levels or is there a special sander I could use?

Many thanks.
C

ormus

a lot of sanders have an exit pipe to connect to a vacuum cleaner. (you may have to gaffa tape it on).
however, its not totally dustproof.
and it makes a mess of yer hoover.

iamcornholio

Plaster dust is so fine, a normal household vacuum could blow around the whole house

If you are using electric sander then make sure it is a professional one with proper extraction, and the vacuum has good filtration

Better to use a proprietary mesh hand sanding system, as the sheets don't clog, and produce less dust but are more efficient

But when you say reduce by 2cm do you mean thickness or width. As no sander will cope with 2cm depth - you will need to knock the plaster off and feather in some new stuff

modelreject

@amcornholio It's thickness. I will check out feathering. Obviously I want to do this cheaply but get a decent result so the less for a plasterer to do the better

mart.vader

modelreject wrote: »

@amcornholio It's thickness. I will check out feathering. Obviously I want to do this cheaply but get a decent result so the less for a plasterer to do the better

To sand off 2 cm is a lot of work and dust.

You are better off to chisel the excess plaster off (preferably using a cheap chisel, as this will not do the chisel any good) then smooth off with new plaster.

If you decide to sand over any of it, a belt sander would remove the most material.

modelreject

@mart.vader I will give that a go on a small area tonight with a very wide chisel or wallpaper scraper.

Delivery_Driver

Don't do it, I tried sanding some bumps out and was clearing up the dust for weeks.It gets everywhere and I had to clean the Dyson out a few times to get it working something like again.
You'd be better off asking a plasterer the best way to go about it.