how to tell if quality plastering job?

ezman

How do i tell if a plastering job has been done in a quality manner?
I have recently had my kitchen replastered (5.8m X 3.5m) not including the roof and somehow allowed myself to get ripped off to the tune of £630 - the wife was at home and signed the cheque!!grrrr....anyway that's my stupid fault and i have to live with that - what I can;t accept is bad workmanship for the price - not having had any experience with plastering before I'm unsure as to what constitutes a good job.

There are a few hairline cracks - is it normal to have to call them back in?
Also wires have been left untacked in places and are covered in plaster. The skirting boards and window sills are also covered in plaster. :mad:
To give a bit of context the whole kitchen is being redone so perhaps they thought the kitchen fitter should clean it all up afterwards? Maybe he will...

dmxdave

How long did the job take and how many people were there? I would think hairline cracks are normal as the plaster dries out. Don't know what you mean about the wires. Good tradesmen should clean up after them.

ezman

hi, they took approx 11 hours - for 6 hours there was 2 people, for the remainder just one. cheers.

bookduck

know of a plasterer in south london that charges £130 a day labour.

Personally I would check for flatness and being square rather than hairline cracks.

sassybooboos

i had plastering done too.

looked ok until it had dried which took days. could see the plasterboard nails and trowel marks etc.

but had another plasterer do another room and once it was dry and painted was fantastic,

i think word of mouth is a good idea when getting plasterers.

ive moved to new area so thats what im going to do this time

jason_s_2

Take a picture and post it on here ezman, and get as close as you can.

ezman

Wires left untacked and covered in plaster, and on skirting...

Is this normal, probably is, but i wouldn't know...

A more general view, not bad?

Spoke to kitchen fitter this morning, said this is caused by movement upstairs and that i should see new builds....

this part hasn't been done as there's no room - it's impossible to do??

The kitchen fitter shrugged off all my complaints this morning (he is organising all the various people but they are getting paid individually for their work. probably a bad idea).

adaze

Looks a bit rough to me. Though getting a good finish round the radiator would be hard unless they took it off, which they should have really. Is that cracking after a day or two? Ours has a few hairline cracks but they appeared weeks if not months later. They should clean up after themselves, but I had one plasterer who ruined our wooden floors and another who was really tidy, though there were still bits of plaster here and there. I think it is the kitchen fitter who has probably told them what to do so take it up with him.

agent_orange_2

ezman wrote: »

hi, they took approx 11 hours - for 6 hours there was 2 people, for the remainder just one. cheers.

My mate, who is a plasterer, just skimmed our living room (8mtrs x 3.8mtrs). He started at 7.30 am and finished 1500 hrs - on his own.

Your photos certainly seem to show a pretty untidy job. I'm amazed they didn't tell you it would be an untidy job, not removing the radiator. The cables should surely have been chased into the wall. Surely you didn't pay £630 for the skimming alone?

misgrace

Hi there ezman, I am a decorator, and TBH I have seen worse, yes, its messy theres no doubt, but unfortunately when I have had to go in after plasterers, I have to spend a couple hours of cleaning up thier carp, and making good round sockets, radiators, windows, PVC/glass, door frames, skirting etc.

No offence to Jason or nelly,:p or any decent plasterer who posts on here, but 99% of the plasterers I have gone in after are the most sloppiest tradesmen I have ever come across.:rolleyes:

ezman

agent_orange wrote: »

My mate, who is a plasterer, just skimmed our living room (8mtrs x 3.8mtrs). He started at 7.30 am and finished 1500 hrs - on his own.

Your photos certainly seem to show a pretty untidy job. I'm amazed they didn't tell you it would be an untidy job, not removing the radiator. The cables should surely have been chased into the wall. Surely you didn't pay £630 for the skimming alone?

ah, well they did scrape of some artex, not a lot mind and the existing layers of wallpaper...
tbh this whole experience shows how much i need to clue up on this stuff, i am at their mercy!
the crack may look worse than it is cos it's shot on macro quite close up....
thanks for all the replies, there doesn't seem much i can do about this though