Should a newly boarded and plastered wall be level?

35har1old

ThisIsWeird said:

stuart45 said:

Not in all cases. Sometimes you have to build a wall out off plumb to match it's surroundings. For example, if that freezer had to be at that angle, even if it was out of plumb, the wall should have been battered over to match it.
Tradesmen who are used to new builds have to learn that building everything level and plumb can still get you fired.

Ha-ha, yes, of course. Some situations will dictate that - as in the possible rebuild of the wonky pub (extreme example).

But - seriously - if you have a boxing-in, boarding, shelving, a wall to build, or whatever job to do on a house, you do it level and plumb, or you discuss why not with the owner first.

If the plasterer in this case purposely or accidentally got this wall off-vertical, he should put it right if asked. End of.

I totally get what you say - if you are, say, putting up a shelf and it 'looks more right' in a wonky room which you know to not be level, then fill yer boots. But you do not do that in anyone else's home without explaining why first; "Do you want this shelf dead level like this... or slightly off which you may prefer 'cos it fits in better?"

Of course there are exceptions, but not the rule.

To answer the OP's question, "Are we within our rights to ask them to redo it...?" If the wall is off-plumb, then the answer is 'yes'.

What happens if plum is to the left of current position 

stuart45

35har1old said:

ThisIsWeird said:

stuart45 said:

Not in all cases. Sometimes you have to build a wall out off plumb to match it's surroundings. For example, if that freezer had to be at that angle, even if it was out of plumb, the wall should have been battered over to match it.
Tradesmen who are used to new builds have to learn that building everything level and plumb can still get you fired.

Ha-ha, yes, of course. Some situations will dictate that - as in the possible rebuild of the wonky pub (extreme example).

But - seriously - if you have a boxing-in, boarding, shelving, a wall to build, or whatever job to do on a house, you do it level and plumb, or you discuss why not with the owner first.

If the plasterer in this case purposely or accidentally got this wall off-vertical, he should put it right if asked. End of.

I totally get what you say - if you are, say, putting up a shelf and it 'looks more right' in a wonky room which you know to not be level, then fill yer boots. But you do not do that in anyone else's home without explaining why first; "Do you want this shelf dead level like this... or slightly off which you may prefer 'cos it fits in better?"

Of course there are exceptions, but not the rule.

To answer the OP's question, "Are we within our rights to ask them to redo it...?" If the wall is off-plumb, then the answer is 'yes'.

What happens if plum is to the left of current position 

That'll be the next photo. The spreads been back and there's now a 4 inch gap at the top.

GDB2222

Stick a bit of wood under the legs of the fridge?

Kim1965

ThisIsWeird said:

If it's the wall that's off, then yes, no question whatsoever, they should have levelled it - a doddle to do when they dabbed the new plasterboard in place.
If...

Out of interest, are you a tradesman or plastered? 

casper_gutman

If it's the wall that's off vertical (as opposed to the floor sloping, or the fridge-freezer being mis-adjusted) then correcting it won't necessarily allow you to fit skirting. The plasterboard may be sloping because the brickwork behind is sloping and the bottom of the board may already be up against the brickwork. It could be that the only way to make it vertical is to push the top of the wall outwards, as there's no way to move the bottom in any further.

stuart45

Kim1965 said:

ThisIsWeird said:

If it's the wall that's off, then yes, no question whatsoever, they should have levelled it - a doddle to do when they dabbed the new plasterboard in place.
If...

Out of interest, are you a tradesman or plastered? 

Possibly a tradesman, possibly plastered.

GDB2222

The op said “ At the end of one day we could see the builders had stripped the top part of the wall to the brickwork and the bottom half still had a layer of old plaster on”. So, there was scope to remove more material to allow the finished wall to be vertical. Perhaps it is? But, if it’s not, I would get it redone. 

ThisIsWeird

Kim1965 said:

ThisIsWeird said:

If it's the wall that's off, then yes, no question whatsoever, they should have levelled it - a doddle to do when they dabbed the new plasterboard in place.
If...

Out of interest, are you a tradesman or plastered? 

Not a tradesman, occasionally plastered.

Section62

ThisIsWeird said:

stuart45 said:

That's the problem when you work on old houses, especially if you are used to working on new builds. Using levels doesn't always work, as the old saying is ' if it looks right it's right'. For example putting up a level shelf will look out of level if the ceiling line is out. 
Looking at the photo again, it looks like they've leant the wall out a bit that way, so it could be the floor is well out.

This refinished wall should be plumb. End of.

If there was good reason to not do so, the explanation and alternatives should have been run past the customer first. 

There's probably only two scenarios in which a wall is perfectly plumb (even with a newbuild).

One is someone (probably a DIYer) has spent an inordinate amount of time getting it exactly right.  The second is by pure fluke.

In all the other cases there will be a degree of departure from perfectly plumb.  The question is whether the degree is acceptable in each specific case.

Until is it established that the fridge/freezer is level I'd hold off commenting on the wall.

Kim1965

Plasterers will follow what was there before, they are concerned about the finish... However it seems they dot and dabbed the wall, who did this? Be cause this is the stage to get it plumb, this could have been done by the builder.