Hi all,

I'm preparing to skim a room but the original plaster is very damaged. I've hacked back several blown areas about a foot square and the remaining plaster has lots of cracks and holes of varying size. A builder friend recommended giving the whole lot a coat of bonding; the problem is the brickwork is bungaroosh. For anyone not familiar, it's the stuff that all victorian houses are made of in the brighton area - lime mortar with random bits of flint and brick chucked in.

The stuff is very crumbly and I'm guessing its too high suction for bonding and wondering if I should use hardwall instead. I'd really appreciate any advise on the following:

Can I do the whole lot with hardwall in the same way as bonding?

Or, should I patch the brickwork with hardwall and THEN give it a coat of bonding?

Cheers,
Ben

Plastering Sand and Cement. This will be much stronger and will bind the rubble together. Not too strong mix if there is Lime in the mortar, it needs to breathe.

Thought you might be from Brighton when i saw the thread title

As above really. But hardwall would be a better choice than bonding on this one if that's what you have to hand. Multi-finsh straight on to the Hardwall

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Professional Kitchen & Bathroom Fitters | Master Painters and Decorators | Brighton & Hove

Just looked it up on Wiki!!

Georgian buildings mainly thankfully. How do you guys work with that stuff, Chasing, DPC, Underpinning etc? I do a bit of work there but thankfully have never had to contend with this stuff.

I would consider using a lime render or part lime part cement to patch it up if the areas are large because it will breathe the same and move the same as the wall itself.

With difficulty!! To be honest a lot of the properties that have bungaroosh only have the basement and ground floor contructed from it an then it turns to brick. Although some do have it as the primary construction.

Cutting boiler flues and bathroom extractors are always fun!

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Professional Kitchen & Bathroom Fitters | Master Painters and Decorators | Brighton & Hove

cheers guys,

I'm not sure about using sand and cement as the bits I've taken back to the brick are quite small but the rest of the wall looks like its been sprayed with bullets. I've only ever skimmed plasterboard before and I'm not sure about how you use hardwall. Do I give the whole wall a coat or just build up the hacked-back bits and spot-fill the smaller holes?

Yeah, bungaroosh is a pain in the arse BTW. Makes even putting up shelves a challenge...

Build up the hacked back bits, spot fill the smaller holes, then skim as usual. If you can skim walls, undercoating patches is a doddle.

When I first saw Bungaroosh in the question, I assumed it was somewhere in Australia.

Never mind shelves, Buildings Insurance must be interesting,

"Is your house construction Brick under a tiled or slate roof?"

"No its Bungaroosh."

"Son, Are you taking the p*ss?"

Hardwall is much like bonding in application. Maximum thickness though is around 25mm, if you have to go thicker then build up in layers.

Give the holes a good soaking of bonding agent, it will help to firm up the surrounding lime plaster. the hardwall then I take it you're skimming the whole wall?

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Professional Kitchen & Bathroom Fitters | Master Painters and Decorators | Brighton & Hove

nice one...

Yes, I'm skimming the whole room. It's been a while since I plastered though...hopefully I won't have to get the sand paper out when I'm done...

To make the skimming easier, when you second coat the hardwall, use multifinish instead of more hardwall. This will give you an easier surface to skim because you will not have any bubbling where the skim traps air in the rough undercoat.