DIY Plastering Before Tiling

I've found there's a time and a place to get a pro in for plastering.  When we moved in to our house, I stripped all the layers of wallpaper off and managed to take big chunks out of the plaster.

There were a lot of sighs.

I got through so many tubes of Polycell filler before I realised it wasn't the cheapest option either.  You can't say it's not flipping handy though!

And ripping out the bathroom tiles left the most damage.

But when my father in law showed us onecoat plaster was all we needed before re-tiling and how it never needed to look pretty, it came in really useful as a solution for my 3d Wall Panels from Mano Mano.

You might want to come back next Sunday, as I'll be sharing with you how I did it with a YouTube video.

So, how can you do it too?

For my 2m squared area, it was just like mixing cake batter at a much bigger scale.

I used:

• 12kg plaster
• 6.24 litres water
• Plastering trowel (all I had was a bucket trowel which isn't best)
• Wire brush
• Soapy water
• Large masonry paint brush
• Clean mixing bucket
• A mixing paddle
• Screwdriver that holds the paddle (mine was broken, so stirred by hand)
• PVA solution (watered down PVA glue to a milky solution)
• Hand sander in a 120 grit

Method

1. Made sure the wall is sound and chipped/sanded away at any loose paint and removed any loose bits of old plaster - nothing should be wobbly.
2. Gave my painted surface a rub down with a wire brush.
3. Washed the area with soapy water and left to dry completely.
4. Gave the whole area a brush of PVA solution and left to dry for 24 hours.
5. Pour the clean water in my clean mixing bucket and gradually stirred in the plaster.  (It's roughly twice as thick than cake batter) but you may need to add a bit more plaster or water.
6. Then covered my area with plaster as smooth and as level possible.  Note, I wouldn't recommend filling areas deeper than 1cm at a time.
7. Leave to dry completely - I was naughty filled some deepish holes and had to wait a week and sanding everywhere until roughly level.
8. You may need to patch things here and there if you're not happy.
9. Give a final coat of PVA solution, leave to dry and tile away!

Here's how I did it!