Learn How to DIY Plaster – A Beginner’s Complete Guide!

Plastering, it’s a skill, a bloody arm-ache and something that costs hundreds, if not thousands! Money we don’t all have, do we?! Well, I know I don’t! When we started renovating this house five years ago, we did everything possible to avoid having to plaster. I learned how to patch and repair walls so well that they didn’t need  DIY plastering. But you know what? It was dirty work. So much dust and so much sanding.

Our kitchen renovation was such a big job, that we couldn’t simply patch the walls. There were large chunks of plaster missing and patching would just be a step too far. So, we learnt to plaster. OK, I say ‘we’, but it was Grant who learnt to plaster. He took a DIY plastering course (total cost £250) and plastered the kitchen, the dining room and the conservatory. And you know what? After he got a rhythm going and a fair bit of practise in, you really can’t tell it’s been done DIY style.

So, perhaps you want to save a wad and do your own DIY plastering too? I’m going to share everything he learnt and everything we know, to help you DIY tackle plastering yourselves as well!

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A DIYers Guide to Plastering

If you’re reading this, you probably want to know whether or not you can do your own DIY plastering and how to go about getting started with it. Plastering is most definitely a skill, so you should understand that before you begin. Any skill can be learnt, but it’s going to take you a bit of time and a bit of practise.

This means you may need to accept the fact that your plastering won’t be the same as the work of a professional who’s spent 30 years in the trade. You can, however, start with a small space, build your knowledge, practise – and the great thing about plastering – you can always go over it doesn’t quite go to plan!

With a bit of time, learning and careful work, you can totally tackle plastering through DIY! You’ve just got to put the effort in to learn how. So, I’m going to take you step-by-step everything we know to get you started with your first time.

How to Mix Plaster

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? You can’t ice a cake if your mix of icing is all wrong. Too lumpy, too thick, it ain’t gonna happen. You can’t plaster a wall if you can’t mix plaster correctly either. It’s the first step to a successful plastering job.

First of all, you’ll need a paddle to use with your drill which will enable you to mix the plaster (or you can use an electric mixer if you have one) and you’ll also need two decent sized buckets. You can get proper plastering buckets for this which is what we have and I would probably recommend – we have these ones.

There are lots of different types of plaster, but typically multi-finish is the one most used. Pour some plaster into one of your buckets and slowly adding water, start to mix on medium speed with your paddle and drill.

Keep adding water until the consistency is creamy and you should be able to leave peaks in your plaster. Always make sure the corners of your bucket are completely mixed as well and that there are no dry spots. We always use a bucket trowel to mix in the corners by hand to check!

It’s also important to make sure you only mix a small amount of plaster each time. Plaster goes off pretty fast, so you’ll end up either chucking loads away or trying to use it and regretting it, as once it firms up, it won’t go onto the wall very well at all.

Fill your second bucket with water, and fully rinse off your mixer paddle by inserting into the water and using on high speed. It’s important to keep your tools clean because you don’t want flakes of dried plaster falling off into your next batch of plaster later. You can also use a wet paintbrush to brush down your mixer as well.

How to PVA a wall before Plastering?

You only need to use PVA if you’re plastering over a wall that has existing plaster, or if it’s a surface with low-suction, such as a glossed painted surface. You do not need to use PVA when plastering directly onto raw plasterboard.

Mix up a PVA and water solution to the ratio of 3:1 and paint it directly onto the wall. The solution will help to seal the wall and it will create a ‘key’, improving the suction so that your plaster will adhere better. You should cover the whole wall and once it starts to feel tacky, begin plastering.

You can also buy special grit-like primers as well which have a higher performance and they’re also coloured, so you can make sure you’ve left no section uncoated.

Side note – Whether you need to use PVA or not, it’s important your wall is dust-free before you begin plastering or you’ll have a nightmare making it stick!

What Tools Do You Need for Plastering?

A cheapo plastering trowel will get you by if you only have the smallest of spaces to plaster (i.e. you’re patch-plastering), but if you’re doing a whole wall, trust me on this, invest in a good trowel! There really is a difference.

The trowel we use is a Marshalltown Permashape Finishing trowel. It is fairly expensive at £45+ (we managed to get ours secondhand from eBay!), but unlike cheaper models which have sharp edges, the Marshalltown trowels offer pre-worn edges, making for a sofer glide and leaving fewer trowel marks.  It’s also slightly curved rather than perfectly flat, which is a much better shape for achieving a professional finish and it’s also much lighter in weight and it won’t rust. You need to just trust me on this – but investing in a professional-rated trowel, will make your life significantly easier and you will most definitely notice a difference! There’s a reason the professionals invest in good quality tools!

Other tools you’ll need for DIY plastering (other than the mixing buckets and paddle I mentioned earlier), is a hawk to hold your plaster, a bucket trowel to move your plaster from the bucket onto the hawk, a paintbrush (one you don’t mind ruining) and its also a good idea to keep a spray bottle at hand as well.

Having a couple of different sized trowels can also be useful as well, particularly having a mini trowel – as you’ll find using larger trowels incredibly difficult when working in small tight spaces.

Keeping Your Tools Wet When Plastering

When you start to plaster, it’s really important to never let your tools dry with plaster on them. If this happens, your plastering job will become the stuff of nightmares and you’ll end up dragging dried flakes of plaster across the wall, then having to pick them out, making for a near-impossible task.

Keeping your tools wet will ensure plaster won’t dry on them. This means keeping a clean bucket of water close by and a wet paintbrush to periodically brush down your trowel and hawk with water. This is especially important when taking a tea break as well! Keeping everything clean will save you a lot of hassle and keep your walls from being ruined!

You should also make sure to clean your bucket of plaster before mixing up a new batch each time. The plaster will go off surprisingly fast and any dried bits at the top of the bucket will only ruin your next batch of plaster. It’s also a good idea to brush any dried flakes off plaster off your clothes as well, otherwise, there’s the potential for it to fall off into your bucket of plaster. Keeping everything clean is hugely important when plastering!

Getting Your Plaster Onto the Wall

So I think I’ve covered what you need to know before you actually start, now let’s get onto the technique, process and what you need to do to actually plaster. The aim of your first coat of plaster is to make an even and level base for your second coat of plaster. If there are any high points in the wall, then this is the step in which you’re aiming to even those out. You want your plaster to be smooth with the first coat, but it doesn’t need to be perfect.

Before you begin, wet your trowel and plastering hawk slightly. Then, using your bucket trowel, move some plaster from the bucket onto your hawk. Holding your hawk correctly will take a bit of time getting used to (you may also suffer from a bit of arm ache!), but essentially you just want to hold it upright so your plaster doesn’t slip right off.

Use one side of your trowel to scoop up some plaster off your hawk. Then, starting at the bottom of the wall, place the edge of your trowel against the wall at an angle. From here, you’re going to pull your towel upwards, pushing the plaster onto the wall and then curving around with your trowel to almost make the shape of an upside-down umbrella handle. As you move your trowel upwards along the wall, the angle on your trowel should get more and more shallow as there’s less plaster to push on.

You may also need to do this technique in the opposite way as well, starting at the ceiling and pull downwards. Keep repeating this process until you’ve covered the whole wall in plaster.

When to Start Smoothing Your Plaster Out

Don’t worry about smoothing out the plaster until the wall is completely covered and you’ve left the plaster to firm up a little. When it’s ready, start to move your trowel over the plaster to smooth out any trowel lines and take off any excess plaster as you go. You put this back onto your hawk and it usually comes in handy for filling out any gaps.

Make sure to work in different directions when doing this, to cover the whole area. You’ll also need to apply a little more pressure to your trowel during this step, a good firm press will help you to achieve a better finish, however, it’s important not to press too hard or you’ll gauge the plaster.

If you have any gaps, you can add more plaster to fill them in, and as mentioned earlier, the aim is to make a decently smooth, level base for the next coat of plaster, but it doesn’t need to be perfect. Most trowel lines should be removed, gaps filled in and overall, just a good even base.

Knowing When to Leave The Plaster to Firm Up

An important part of plastering is getting used to the plaster as a material. The process of plastering means you can only achieve certain steps when the plaster is at the right workable state, so you’ve got to leave it long enough to firm up before moving onto the next step.

If you start smoothing your plaster out too soon (or adding a second coat), you’ll end up simply pushing your plaster around the wall and making a mess. If you leave it too long, it will become too firm and you’ll have the opposite problem. You’re aiming to start smoothing (or adding a second coat) at that in-between stage. It’s something you’ll learn and be able to recognise when you start plastering and have enough practise in.

Dampen The Plaster If It’s Drying Out Too Quick

If you’re working on a large wall, or it’s a particularly warm day, you may notice your plaster drying out too fast. Panic not, you can dampen the plaster on the wall, to keep it workable for longer. This is when a spray bottle can come in handy, but you can also use your paintbrush as well to paint on some water. You can apply more or less water, depending on how much you need and the plaster should then become workable again.

Always Apply Two Coats of Plaster

Whilst some plasterers may only do one coat of plaster thinking they’ve achieved the perfect finish and can, therefore, go home early, from what Grant learnt on his course (and a few things I’ve read online), only doing one coat of plaster is actually a bad thing. It means the plaster will be too thin and this may cause it to crack whilst drying. Yes doing two coats is more work, but do you really want to start the process again? We always recommend two coats of plaster!

When to Apply The Second Coat of Plaster

Your second coat of plaster is where you want to get the wall smooth to the point of perfection. You should wait until your first coat has firmed up quite a bit (you may be able to notice a slight change in the colour of the plaster) before going on with the second coat.

To tackle the second coat, you essentially want to repeat the whole process above, but paying particular attention to the finer details when it comes to the smoothing stage. The aim is to remove ALL trowel lines and have a perfectly smooth surface. For this, you’ll need to apply quite a bit of pressure with your trowel to really give a smooth finish. It is, however, really important not over polish the surface, otherwise, you may have problems with paint adhering correctly. That means knowing when you’ve done a good job and when to stop!

How to Paint In Your Corners and Paint Out Imperfections

Plastering into corners and right up to edges can be tricky – you may end up with too much or too little plaster, there may be gaps and generally, just look a bit iffy. Once your plaster has firmed up slightly, use your paintbrush to gently brush over your plaster in the corners. This will give a crisp and defined finish. Don’t be too rough though – you don’t want visible paintbrush marks in your plaster, gentle is key.

You can also use this technique to paint out any other imperfections, such as gaps and lines before going back over with the trowel. These various techniques are the route to a perfectly plastered wall, fixing imperfections and smoothing over!

Know that Practise Makes Perfect

Despite this blog post telling you that you can DIY plaster, plastering still isn’t always easy. It is a skill, it takes practice, care, precision and a lot of experience to get it 100% right. That is, however, not to say you can’t DIY plastering. Of course, you can, but you should know it’s going to take some time to get used to learn the process and get to know what you’re doing.

If thing’s don’t quite go to plan, don’t panic – most things are usually fixable. If your plaster dries and it feels a little rough in places, you can sand it. If you have the odd gap, then you can polyfill it. There is almost always a way to fix these things, so pick your battles when plastering and don’t stress over every single minute detail. We still struggle with small spaces around pipework and in-between sockets, but Polyfilla always saves the day!

As a DIYer, I think it’s impractical to expect 100% perfection, especially for the first few times you plaster – aim for 90% and be happy with that. And also know that you’ll get better and better with each wall you do. You can see the walls we’ve plastered in this post if you’re interested in seeing how they turned out!

Start Small and Rope in a Friend!

I highly recommend starting with your smallest wall, something that’s achievable and somewhere you don’t mind going back over if you don’t quite get it right. If you have a large wall to plaster, it may also be worth getting a friend to help, this lessens the stress of the plaster drying out on the wall before you get round to smooth it.

So go on, Get stuck in!

So there you go, that’s everything I/we know about plastering. Please read this as one DIYers guide to another, we are certainly not professional plasterers, but this is what we know, what Grant learnt on his DIY course and what has worked for us. We highly recommend taking a DIY plastering course if you can, because it will allow you to get a fair amount of practise in, before going ahead in your own home. You can read about the DIY course Grant went on here, it cost £250 and has saved us a ton of money over the last few years! Plus, we’ve now plastered Grants parents house (which you’ve seen in all these images above!), so you can even pass on those savings to families and friends too.

I hope this blog post was useful! If you have any other tips to add, please let me know in the comments below. Otherwise, I would love to know if you’re now thinking about giving DIY plastering a go?

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