Preparing walls for plaster

Quite often, during repairs, one has to face such a situation: preparing for a certain type of finish takes no less time and effort than the finishing work itself. At the same time, the preparatory stage is extremely responsible: insufficiently serious or careless attitude towards it can “go sideways”, significantly affecting the quality of the final result. The process of preparing walls for plaster was no exception: if technology and recommendations are not followed specialists, most likely, will have to redo all the work, since fresh plaster is simply fall off. To avoid this, you need to know how to properly prepare the surface, remove the old finish and how to remove the plaster from the wall, which has already served its purpose.

Get rid of the old trim

The first thing to do at the stage of preparing for plastering is to remove the entire finish to the very foundation, even if it holds well, since it simply is not designed for the load with which the new plaster will affect it layer.

• If the wall is glued with wallpaper, then moisten them with water and completely remove with a spatula. It happens that the wallpaper goes badly, in this case you need to use one of ways to remove old wallpaperssuitable for a specific type of canvas. If there is still a layer of newspapers under the wallpaper, they also need to be removed.

• If the wall is painted, there may be serious difficulties in removing it, which can be dealt with. effective paint stripping methods, for example, with special washes or a building hair dryer (the choice of method depends on the base material and the type of paintwork).
• Old tiles can be removed with a punch. For more tile removal you need to use a hammer and a chisel.
• After removing the decorative coating, you can begin to remove the plaster. It is removed completely to the bottom of the wall with a chisel, hammer or pickaxe. This process is quite time-consuming and requires additional explanation.

Plaster removal tool: which one to choose?

Starting work, it is necessary to prepare the necessary tools, the number and name of which will depend on the degree of complexity of dismantling. In order to remove the plaster coating, you will need:

• safety glasses and a respirator;
• rubber or canvas gloves;
• ax / hammer / small sledgehammer to beat off old plaster;
• a chisel, preferably with a long handle;
• scraper / spatula;
• metal brush for cleaning cracks;
• old plaster remover / rotary hammer / grinder;
• garden sprayer / bucket with a wide brush-brush;
• shovel, brush, broom, polypropylene garbage bags.

Removing old plaster

To remove the very old stucco coating, cracked and completely worn out, you can use a steel scraper. With it, falling off areas are tacked off and then cut off. A coating that holds tightly is knocked down by an ax, chisel, or pickaxe.

Regardless of the composition of the plaster, it must be moistened before being removed to make it softer and reduce dusting.

If you can’t remove the stucco coating manually, you can use one of the following tools:

1. Hammer drill. This method is very dusty and noisy, which can create some inconvenience.
2. The grinder. With its help, plaster sections are cut out or the coating is cut into smaller parts, preparing them for beating off with a chisel or perforator.
3. A special machine for removing plaster.

According to experts, the manual method is still preferable: practice shows that the hatchet in skilled hands is more effective than a perforator.

Regardless of the method chosen, you must first remove easily destructible areas, and then use the tools. Removing plaster with different composition has its own specifics:

1. Decorative plaster is usually cleaned quickly and easily, a thin layer can be removed with a grinder.
2. Polymer and silicate compositions require a lot of effort.
3. Removing gypsum plaster, you must first wet it with water and leave for 20 minutes. To increase the compliance of the coating, you can add acetic acid to the water.

Removing plasterboard from drywall

If you have to remove the plaster from a drywall surface, you need to do this carefully so as not to damage the sheets. In this case, use a cycle that resembles a sharpened spatula in appearance.

When removing plaster from GKL, it is necessary to adhere to the following sequence:

1. First of all, the integrity of the coating is violated, weaker spots are removed - this allows you to get to the end of the layer.
2. The cycle is driven under a layer of plaster.
3. The coating is torn off and removed in pieces.

If the plaster is holding well, then you can use a chisel or chisel, easily and gently tapping them.

Old plaster removed, what's next?

After all the old plaster has been removed and the garbage removed, you must go to the following stages of preparation:

• Wash the wall with a stiff iron brush and hot water.
• Check the base for crumbling parts and voids, for this you can tap the wall with a hammer. Falling off areas need to be cleaned. Also, the top layer of the wall can become damp and become fragile from old age, for this you need to completely clean it with an iron brush or a drill with a hard nozzle.
• Gates for wiring or pipes are made in the wall, all cracks are erased, seams are embroidered.
• The final step is the cleaning and priming of the surface. It is necessary to sweep away the dust from the walls, then treat them with a deep penetration primer.

After the primer has dried, you can proceed to installing beacons. They greatly facilitate the work and serve as guides along which they lead the rule. On sale there are aluminum and galvanized beacons for leveling walls with perforations designed for the convenience of their fastening.

The specifics of preparing the walls depending on the base material

The preparation of walls from different materials will be different, since each of them has its own properties.

• Walls made of concrete slabs are one of the most problematic: because of their smoothness, they cannot provide good adhesion to the stucco mixture, which complicates the preparation. To keep the plaster on the surface, serifs are made on the wall with a grinder or an ax. You can also apply a thin layer of glue for tiles or install a grid for plaster.
• The preparation of brick walls is quite simple. You only need to clean the solution between the bricks and spill the wall with water.

• For plastering wooden walls, obligatory cladding with shingles or wire mesh is required, because the plaster does not lie on a smooth tree.
• The design of cinder blocks or sawn shell rock will only need to be liberally moistened with water.
• Before plastering a plasterboard wall, it is enough to simply coat with a primer.

You also need to pay attention to some points:

• Places where surfaces of different texture are joined must be strengthened with a mesh of at least 20 mm wide to prevent cracks and plaster falling off.

• Reinforcing mesh is absolutely necessary if the layer of plaster is thick enough.
• The insulation layer is laid under the shingles or mesh.

If the technology of all stages of work is observed - preparing the walls, kneading and applying mortar, drying of the plastered wall, - the new plaster does not crack or crumble, allowing you to forget about for many years laborious repair.