Preparation for Return of the Plasterer

The plasterer is scheduled to spend next week (Hopefully starting Monday) plastering the bedroom, en-suite and walk-in-wardrobe areas. As before, the blockwork will be sand & cement rendered, then skimmed with multi-finish plaster that also skims the plasterboard ceilings, soffits and stud walls.

On Monday I took delivery of all the materials that he needs. You may remember the difficulty I had with the sand last time. This time I went down to my local builders merchant and inspected the sand before I ordered it. I was impressed - not at all clay like. It is nearly double the price that I paid last time, but hopefully, you get what you pay for. Coincidentally I called the plasterer to ask him for a recommendation, but he was not there, so I left a message. He did not get around to calling me back until it was too late, but luckily his recommendation is exactly what I have.

Activities over the last week or so have focused on preparatory work for the plastering. Of course, this has also involved the re-appearance of the electrician to reorganise and complete the cabling to our new plan. This is nearly done now, with hopefully a final visit tomorrow to finish things off.

While he has been a little tardy in his appearances, I have been reasonably pleased with the standard of work (though he did drill a hole through one of the steel I beams, which I thought I had agreed we would not be doing). For instance, he has gone to the extra effort of using metal pattresses on the stud walls, rather than the push fit plastic variety. This has helped to group the sockets together in areas, such as the set of 6 shown in these photos, which should be hidden behind the bed-head :

Of course, while the lighting and ring-main circuits are largely done, one of the tasks for this weekend is to pull through some co-ax for the TV, Cat 5 network and telephone sockets, all of which we are doing ourselves.

I have also nearly completed fitting the door linings which, as before, are spaced away from the rough-set stud work in order to ensure squareness and alignment, which will pay dividends when it comes to door hanging.

These pictures do not show it particularly clearly, but I have used a pair of housing joints to attach the top rail to the two vertical studs. This makes it more likely that the rail will stay where it is put, and add to the stability of the door lining :

I have bought the door linings shrink-wrapped at my local builders merchants and generally they have been pretty good. You get the two side pieces, the head and three door stop beads to attach once the door is hung. The head comes with two pairs of housing joints to accommodate either a 30" or 33" door, depending on which way up you fix it. I have opted to fix the linings to the studwork using screws, which takes longer than nails, but I think gives a more secure finish.

Another job that has just started is the window linings. Foil backed plasterboard "dabbed" into the window reveals with Grip-fill, and spacers where necessary. Jan did the first one, and once again, resorted to the trusty Triumph scissor jack and flexed horizontal timber off-cut to hold things in place :

Three windows still to do.

So, the task list for the weekend :

1. Co-ax, Cat5 and telephone patresses and cabling.
2. Complete door linings (one more still to buy)
3. Window linings
4. Loft hatch lining
5. Noggins for wall lights and shaver point.
6. Complete insulation of stud walls.
7. Plasterboard reverse side of stud walls.
8. Missing plasterboard screws in ceiling and soffits (I only did a percentage of those needed, to save battery power in my electric screwdriver !)
9. Spray foam in some of the plasterboard gaps in the soffits
10. Odd pieces of plasterboard in the en-suite, to close some awkward gaps.
11. Tidy up my tools and empty the room !

After last time, I concluded it would also be better to fit the window-cills before the plastering, but the plasterer said he would prefer me not to, so it is removed from the list.