Plastering job quality

andre_xs

Dear All,

we had our bedroom ceiling re-plastered. We felt that this isn't the best job and complained the next day. The plasterer said it would look like poor painting (he did the first two coats, we did the last coat of white paint). The job was £350 for plastering the ceiling, room size roughly 3m by 4m, just outside of London. We haven't paid yet and want to meet and discuss with him first.

However, it's not even about the money so much. It was a lot of work to clear out the whole bedroom (which is also a home office), wardrobe, shelves, etc., the cleaning afterwards, etc. We are now stuck with either leaving it as it is, or going through all of it again.

Any tips what to do in such a situation? The plasterer was personally very nice, no hard feelings there - it's just the quality of the job we're questioning. Or is this type of quality to be expected? See the attached pictures, they are just a small selection of the overall quality. At places, the finish is not smooth but rather 'bumpy' (maybe the plasterer meant those with bad painting, but it's actually the plaster…

Kind Regards,
Andre

andre_xs

Some more for illustration…

andre_xs

As we said before, the plasterer is a nice person. We don't want to be unreasonable, but the other plastering which has been done in the house had a notably better quality. Maybe we were just lucky with an exceptionally good plasterer back then?

Edit: If that is relevant. It was not plastering directly on plasterboard. There was already a layer of very poor plaster (done by the father in law when we moved in to save money). The idea was to skim it so that the finishing is better.

rob7475

That's not the best finish, I wouldn't be too happy if i'd paid for that.

I do my own plastering and ceilings are much harder than walls to get a good finish. Sometimes blemishes don't show until you paint. You mention that it was a bit of a state to start with. If he thought it was too much of a mess to get a good finish by skimming, he should have offered to overboard before reskimming - did he not offer this?

Give him the opportunity to sort it out by filling and sanding first. If he's reluctant, suggest witholding some of the payment so allow you to get it rectified yourself

searchlight123

Sorry but that finish is unacceptable. I'm no plasterer but I have had various rooms plastered over the last few years and I would not be happy with that. Why did you paint it when it must have been obvious this was a below par finish? It just looks like it hasn't been smoothed off (skim coated) at all, at the end of the job

Doozergirl

It's not the best job in the world but there are elements there that were a lack of preparation before painting. Even freshly skimmed walls will need some preparation before painting - there will inevitably be splashes and splodges.

The issues that are there will not require a reskimming - it would be a matter of additional decorating prep - filling and sanding.

But you're saying the plasterer decorated as well?

andre_xs

Yes, they did the first two coats of paint, I just did the last one.

Problem is that we were in a bit of a hurry. I noticed the finish only while painting the last coat. We had to finish because we were expecting guests two days later.

rob7475

If the plasterer painted as well, how long was it left before they painted it?

andre_xs

They plastered on Friday. I told them about dents and scratches, they said they'll come back Monday and I shouldn't worry. He did some stuff, not sure what because I didn't watch him, but surely some sanding. Next time I looked, it was already painted. Monday morning it looked dry (light pink colour)

andre_xs

That came back Monday anyway because of some other work.

andre_xs

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80027220#Comment_80027220

You say, no reskimming. But just to note, most of the ceiling is covered with such 'imperfections'. It might be easier to just skim everything.