Happy new year all!

A friend of mine has had a new conservatory put on the back of his bungalow and now wants to know if we can skim over what used to be the external rendered wall to make it look like a proper internal wall? I am guessing that it will definitley need an undercoat plaster prior to skimming as it's quite rough? Would i be best using bonding after a few coats of PVA or hardwall for the undercoat?

Any help is most appreciated......

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It's a dirty horse but someone's got to ride it

Is it painted? If it is, i personally would go for a bonding agent such as wickes plaster bonding agent rather than pva on this one. Then give it a tight coat of bonding and skim it when the bonding has set

Or,

dot and dab plasterboard then skim it.
Hope this helps you

i would dot and dab then skim. good luck

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You'll never know if you don't ask.......or try and then balls it up and learn by the last balls up, but still...best ask!

Hi Andy / Steve, yes it is painted so I will take your advice and use the bonding agent for this one instead of PVA. I thought about dot and dab but think this will be the easier option on this particular wall.....hard to explain without the use of a picture, I'll try and post one when I've finished to see what you guys think.

Thanks again for your help, this forum is excellent!

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It's a dirty horse but someone's got to ride it

HI guys, sorry to tag onto this question, but i have a very similar job coming up which i'm doing for a friend and i just need a bit of advice if possible as i'm fairly new to plastering and have only really done reskimming and bond/skim jobs on artex ceilings up to now.

My job is the same scenario as in the original question but in my case the wall hasn't previously been rendered or painted, it is just exposed red brick.
With it just being red brick, would you use hardwall or bonding? I'm thinking hardwall but i'm not entirely sure, and would you still pva first?
Also when applying hardwall, would you give it 2 coats or just one before going over with 2 coat multifinnish?

plasterboard would be easier i know but my mate really doesn't want it.

thanks for any pointers you can give me.

Hi andy.

Use hardwall on red brick.
What i do is float the whole wall and because its red brick it will pull in very quick. Now go over the top of it with more hardwall. Rule off flat, fill hollows and rule again and leave it, when its firmed off, devil float it. When set (dark) skim it. No pva needed because theres no suction.

hope this helps

Big D make sure the render is sound though first mate, make sure the render hasnt failed.

Hi LUFC,

yeah cheers, I checked the render first and it looked in pretty sound condition. We did most of the work last weekend, just got one small area left to skim that we didn't have time to finish as this job took a lot longer than I first thought due to the height of the wall and angles etc...I will post a picture when finished.

Thanks for the help, much appreciated mate.

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It's a dirty horse but someone's got to ride it

Andy-P, Thanks for the advice, its much appreciated.

looking forward to seeing the photos

Sorry...no photos, haven't got the software to get the pictures off my phone onto the PC!

Thanks for the advice though it looks great now it's finished..although it took me a day more than I originally thought due to the height of the wall and angles involved... I had a 6ft high platform but still couldn't reach the top of the wall, I ended up having to finish the top using a 20ft ladder which took ages to keep moving it! Still I suppose you live and learn!

By the way, thanks for the tip on using the Wickes bond it....worked a treat on the render and I could even see which parts I had covered as it was a pink colour! Very good :grin:

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It's a dirty horse but someone's got to ride it