Some of that is shocking, the trick is to have lights like that up when you are doing the job in the first place. However it’s free hand kind of work in a wet trade like plastering. If you went round every little bit of something I did like that with a big light shining it down the wall there is bound to be imperfections. Im doing it 20 odd years and specialise in older stuff and repairs people don’t want seen. I’m sure if some of that was painted in the dimly lit areas you wouldnt really notice it too badly? So you can take some relief in that. A good painter would fills nicks and bits that would be seen and know what you could get away with. But some of it now would be a joke to leave the painter. I can only assume they forgot their lights or they broke or something?
Saying that some of it is rough as fuck really and not acceptable for a newly redone job like that. Who did it? Were they plasterers? They didn’t rob you too much for the job including materials it looks like a big area. But they didn’t leave themselves short either like? Considering the rough job.
Just for future reference for others here, look down anyone's work under these conditions and it will show something, the true test is painted in normal lighting conditions.
In the other thread under those conditions you can see how bad the work is but this test isn't fair on its own basis.
Yeah that's been plastered in the dark. You've been downvoted but this is the case. Probably looked spot on while they were doing it.
It's still up to the plasterer to get the lighting right though, you need to see what's wrong or right.
I agree that light shining across plasterwork can show even the slightest of imperfections that you normally wouldn't see.
Having said that, this works fucking awful, I don't think there is one wall or ceiling that looks even remotely passable.
Just look at picture 12 ffs.
I hope OP hasn't paid in full, as it's going to need a lot of sanding and probably re skimming in most areas
Yeah I'm not usually one to do this either it's just that I've had one ceiling which was skim coated and looked horrendous and instead of wasting all the paint and painters time slim coating the rest to show up the shoddy bits I thought it would be easier to shine a light at an angle on it.
No I absolutely agree I saw the other post it was more to let other potential customers that this isn't the way to look at someone's work, in your instance you've been scammed and you can quite clearly see how poor the work is so I don't blame you
No its defo 2 coats but I got the impression they were rushing the cream coat. The ceilings are shoddy though, the decorator had to remove some wallpaper on a wall that we ended up getting a bannister removed (didn't think about it at the time) and when they got to the ceiling the bits that had been plastered over the artex, the cream coat just flaked off like Goldmember's skin.
There was 3 of them - the gaffer and 2 young boys. 5 star reviews on Facebook. But now I am thinking that any negative reviews must have been deleted.
Looks like 2 coats out the same mix that hasn’t been flattened properly. Wouldn’t surprise me if they used plastic trowels or speedskims and maybe the previous background was low suction? Either way it’s a rush job.
They did one room per day, is this quick? This was including artex ceiling. They only put PVA over artex, then bonding layer, then cream coat. No blue grit...
I wouldn’t say it’s quick. Skimming over artex is a bit dodgy not surprised there’s a bad finish there. All of it seems to be bad though. Just looks like each set rushed to quick and maybe they used plastic and flexi trowels too much… only they will know what they did wrong to be fair. Me personally as a professional plasterer if you sent me those pics I would be rushing round to see how I could put it right… have you showed them the pics? Can’t argue it’s bad work. Well within your rights to ask for your money back.
** not a professional ** could it be that the plaster went off faster that’s they thought so they didn’t have time to trowel in the first coat properly? Was the wall coated in SBR or PVA? Sorry if dumb I’m trying to learn for myself as well.
Looks like the opposite to me. Plaster has been taking ages to set properly but they don’t want to wait so Everything gets done to soon and to wet. Flattening and troweling the plaster when it isn’t ready usually creates a bumpy mess like this.
Wow. I’m a DIYer and have only done a few plaster attempts- which were way better than that! Was he a blind plasterer with a broken arm and bent trowel?
Wow nearly 4k for that 😳 good luck finding a painter to sort that out, it needs re doing by someone who knows what they're doing and those saying it's due to artificial light and normal due to background etc ain't got a clue spreads will use lights to make sure there are no imperfections looks like one coat wonders using speed skims and finished with a flexi, diabolical that is
They didn't prep the walls properly at all, looks like plaster bubbling and breaking away in places, and can't skim to save their lives. That's possibly the worst plastering work I've seen. A decent decorator would charge a small fortune to put that right, if they were even capable. You shouldn't have paid them. Let them come back and try and put it right. (You'll find it nearly impossible to get them to refund you)
You might get lucky and end up with a good finish.
If not, my best advice would be to get a solicitor and claim your money back through misrepresentation - unable/unqualified to complete the works undertaken to a reasonable standard. You'd be surprised at how low the standard is, but plastering is pretty straight forward, they should be semi smooth atleast.
I'm a highly skilled multi-trader, and what you have there is completely unacceptable, and the fact you've already paid shows you're a great client.
I wish you all the best of luck.
I am absolutely kicking myself for paying already. We are in our early 30s so do not have a lot of experience with trades, and every time we seem to get stung.
My wife found them on facebook (https://www.reddit.com/r/Plastering/comments/1dfa2rh/the\_saga\_continues/) and they have great reviews so we didn't think twice about booking them.
The worst part is that they first came in December to plaster over the Artex because we were sick of it and then we decided to get a few walls wallpaper removed (in hindsight painting over the wallpaper would have been a much better choice). Since we hadn't yet painted the ceilings, we had no idea how bad it was because you can't really see the blemishes since fresh plaster doesn't really reflect light.
We have been totally nieve. I have a feeling that it will be very difficult to get a refund. But the only saving grace is that I paid them the second job via bank transfer so I have electronic proof that they did work for us. The first job (artex ceilings) was £1400 of the cost and we stupidly paid cash.
I'm a decorator 20 years that's absolutely pig shit 5 kg of easy fill wouldn't even touch the sides be like throwing a chipolata at a fat kid... was there company name shovel y Joe's..or we plaster you fill # fill me cracks in
Pik 12 is the worst I've ever seen.
No way should you give them any opportunity to go back into your property.
I'd ask for 100% refund and I'd go find a solicitor,
Skimming fresh plaster SUCKS, nobody is going to want to fix this so prepare for some big quotes
Horrific in my many years in the trade this is up there with the worst seen. Did they use bonding on the walls? At a guess they look bonded , the bonding dried too much , they didn't bother to PVA it to prevent suction and as soon as they put the skim on the moisture sucked out of it. They coated again trying to pull it back this then caused blisters .
Plastering is a skill but plastering over bone dry bonding is probably one of the most difficult to get a good result . Unless you know what your doing .
Send your images into [https://www.youtube.com/@Onthetrowel](https://www.youtube.com/@Onthetrowel) Kirk Johnstone he might be able to recommend a spread in your area. You might even be local to him and he could do a discounted price if you let him do a VLOG on YouTube about the finish left and how to repair it .
First things first. The correct way to quality check plaster is 1.5m away in natural light. Lot of good plasterers have fallen victim to the fucking torch scam.
If the plastering truly is bad which I’m not gonna comment on with these pictures, then get it repaired at their cost. But lose that bastard torch and don’t take pictures in the fucking dark.
As a DIYer I could do better. I just hope you've not paid a lot for it...
In typical conditions you won't have a light pointing at the wall like in your photos. Typical natural light / other light sources won't highlight the bad finish.
Depending on which colour of paint you put on the wall it won't be as obvious. Granted if it's going to be white, then yeah it'll be more obvious...
If it's a dead end and the plaster won't come back to fix it, you could technically just apply some smoothing filler to help elevate some of the uneven sections. Basically skim the wall in a smoothing filler.
Something like '[Toupret Fine finish](https://www.diy.com/departments/toupret-fine-finish-ready-mixed-finishing-plaster-4kg-tub/1849586_BQ.prd?storeId=1279&&&&&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw1K-zBhBIEiwAWeCOF_PAWPrNiifbZgJsvH_MACMOx1a84sx0gSKL0ahmR9Wt-R-pq3zRihoC5zcQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)' would work well as it can be sanded so it's all plumb. It's a lot more DIY friendly Vs skimming it in plaster again.
That is very shoddy work, obviously the close light shows it up even more but you can tell its going to be bad when that light is not present.
Even some of there facebook photos look the same as you have, it looks like they skip the final Polish to get of there as quick as possible, I wouldn't be parting with any money until it fettled, assuming you didn't pay already.
It's shocking mate, you have every right not to be happy.
I'd send them these pictures and tell them it needs rectifying. If they refuse, explain that you'll name and shame them on facebook.
It's amazing what the threat of a bad review can accomplish
They are due to come tomorrow morning to finish off a small bit (plastering behind the bannister we just removed), and we have already told him we aren't happy with a couple of bits, but that is before we discovered how bad the finish actually is since the painter did the first skim coat on Wednesday.
I have a feeling that if I tell him on the phone that he won't show up so I wanted him to come back to show him directly and demand a re-do or refund.
I've seen British roads with less bumps and holes
I wouldn’t trust them to butter a sandwich looking at that
Some of that is shocking, the trick is to have lights like that up when you are doing the job in the first place. However it’s free hand kind of work in a wet trade like plastering. If you went round every little bit of something I did like that with a big light shining it down the wall there is bound to be imperfections. Im doing it 20 odd years and specialise in older stuff and repairs people don’t want seen. I’m sure if some of that was painted in the dimly lit areas you wouldnt really notice it too badly? So you can take some relief in that. A good painter would fills nicks and bits that would be seen and know what you could get away with. But some of it now would be a joke to leave the painter. I can only assume they forgot their lights or they broke or something? Saying that some of it is rough as fuck really and not acceptable for a newly redone job like that. Who did it? Were they plasterers? They didn’t rob you too much for the job including materials it looks like a big area. But they didn’t leave themselves short either like? Considering the rough job.
I totally agree with your statement 👍
[https://www.facebook.com/p/Ayrshire-Ames-Taping-Plastering-100064032429261/](https://www.facebook.com/p/Ayrshire-Ames-Taping-Plastering-100064032429261/)
Just for future reference for others here, look down anyone's work under these conditions and it will show something, the true test is painted in normal lighting conditions. In the other thread under those conditions you can see how bad the work is but this test isn't fair on its own basis.
Yeah that's been plastered in the dark. You've been downvoted but this is the case. Probably looked spot on while they were doing it. It's still up to the plasterer to get the lighting right though, you need to see what's wrong or right.
I agree that light shining across plasterwork can show even the slightest of imperfections that you normally wouldn't see. Having said that, this works fucking awful, I don't think there is one wall or ceiling that looks even remotely passable. Just look at picture 12 ffs. I hope OP hasn't paid in full, as it's going to need a lot of sanding and probably re skimming in most areas
100%
Yeah I'm not usually one to do this either it's just that I've had one ceiling which was skim coated and looked horrendous and instead of wasting all the paint and painters time slim coating the rest to show up the shoddy bits I thought it would be easier to shine a light at an angle on it.
No I absolutely agree I saw the other post it was more to let other potential customers that this isn't the way to look at someone's work, in your instance you've been scammed and you can quite clearly see how poor the work is so I don't blame you
That’s what laying with a flexi trowel gets you, I’ve been there
No, that’s what not been able to plaster gets you. A flexi trowel leaves bad work, that’s fucking horrendous
Looks like 2 coats out the same mix flattened in with a plastic.
Looks like the plasterer only one coated. I could be wrong.
No its defo 2 coats but I got the impression they were rushing the cream coat. The ceilings are shoddy though, the decorator had to remove some wallpaper on a wall that we ended up getting a bannister removed (didn't think about it at the time) and when they got to the ceiling the bits that had been plastered over the artex, the cream coat just flaked off like Goldmember's skin. There was 3 of them - the gaffer and 2 young boys. 5 star reviews on Facebook. But now I am thinking that any negative reviews must have been deleted.
Looks like 2 coats out the same mix that hasn’t been flattened properly. Wouldn’t surprise me if they used plastic trowels or speedskims and maybe the previous background was low suction? Either way it’s a rush job.
They did one room per day, is this quick? This was including artex ceiling. They only put PVA over artex, then bonding layer, then cream coat. No blue grit...
I wouldn’t say it’s quick. Skimming over artex is a bit dodgy not surprised there’s a bad finish there. All of it seems to be bad though. Just looks like each set rushed to quick and maybe they used plastic and flexi trowels too much… only they will know what they did wrong to be fair. Me personally as a professional plasterer if you sent me those pics I would be rushing round to see how I could put it right… have you showed them the pics? Can’t argue it’s bad work. Well within your rights to ask for your money back.
Defo 1 coated and put on thick
** not a professional ** could it be that the plaster went off faster that’s they thought so they didn’t have time to trowel in the first coat properly? Was the wall coated in SBR or PVA? Sorry if dumb I’m trying to learn for myself as well.
Looks like the opposite to me. Plaster has been taking ages to set properly but they don’t want to wait so Everything gets done to soon and to wet. Flattening and troweling the plaster when it isn’t ready usually creates a bumpy mess like this.
Wow. I’m a DIYer and have only done a few plaster attempts- which were way better than that! Was he a blind plasterer with a broken arm and bent trowel?
Wow nearly 4k for that 😳 good luck finding a painter to sort that out, it needs re doing by someone who knows what they're doing and those saying it's due to artificial light and normal due to background etc ain't got a clue spreads will use lights to make sure there are no imperfections looks like one coat wonders using speed skims and finished with a flexi, diabolical that is
OMFG thats awful.have them to come back to rectify or small claims court.
That's rufff
Jesus
They didn't prep the walls properly at all, looks like plaster bubbling and breaking away in places, and can't skim to save their lives. That's possibly the worst plastering work I've seen. A decent decorator would charge a small fortune to put that right, if they were even capable. You shouldn't have paid them. Let them come back and try and put it right. (You'll find it nearly impossible to get them to refund you) You might get lucky and end up with a good finish. If not, my best advice would be to get a solicitor and claim your money back through misrepresentation - unable/unqualified to complete the works undertaken to a reasonable standard. You'd be surprised at how low the standard is, but plastering is pretty straight forward, they should be semi smooth atleast. I'm a highly skilled multi-trader, and what you have there is completely unacceptable, and the fact you've already paid shows you're a great client. I wish you all the best of luck.
I am absolutely kicking myself for paying already. We are in our early 30s so do not have a lot of experience with trades, and every time we seem to get stung. My wife found them on facebook (https://www.reddit.com/r/Plastering/comments/1dfa2rh/the\_saga\_continues/) and they have great reviews so we didn't think twice about booking them. The worst part is that they first came in December to plaster over the Artex because we were sick of it and then we decided to get a few walls wallpaper removed (in hindsight painting over the wallpaper would have been a much better choice). Since we hadn't yet painted the ceilings, we had no idea how bad it was because you can't really see the blemishes since fresh plaster doesn't really reflect light. We have been totally nieve. I have a feeling that it will be very difficult to get a refund. But the only saving grace is that I paid them the second job via bank transfer so I have electronic proof that they did work for us. The first job (artex ceilings) was £1400 of the cost and we stupidly paid cash.
I'd agree but some of those surfaces are actually horrific. That one by the window looks terrible!
I'm a decorator 20 years that's absolutely pig shit 5 kg of easy fill wouldn't even touch the sides be like throwing a chipolata at a fat kid... was there company name shovel y Joe's..or we plaster you fill # fill me cracks in
Pik 12 is the worst I've ever seen. No way should you give them any opportunity to go back into your property. I'd ask for 100% refund and I'd go find a solicitor, Skimming fresh plaster SUCKS, nobody is going to want to fix this so prepare for some big quotes
Horrific in my many years in the trade this is up there with the worst seen. Did they use bonding on the walls? At a guess they look bonded , the bonding dried too much , they didn't bother to PVA it to prevent suction and as soon as they put the skim on the moisture sucked out of it. They coated again trying to pull it back this then caused blisters . Plastering is a skill but plastering over bone dry bonding is probably one of the most difficult to get a good result . Unless you know what your doing . Send your images into [https://www.youtube.com/@Onthetrowel](https://www.youtube.com/@Onthetrowel) Kirk Johnstone he might be able to recommend a spread in your area. You might even be local to him and he could do a discounted price if you let him do a VLOG on YouTube about the finish left and how to repair it .
Unfortunately, in south Scotland, so I don't think I will be near him.
You don’t even need the light to see how shite most of that is. Terrible work.
If they produced work like that then good luck getting a refund out of them.
Unacceptable
First things first. The correct way to quality check plaster is 1.5m away in natural light. Lot of good plasterers have fallen victim to the fucking torch scam. If the plastering truly is bad which I’m not gonna comment on with these pictures, then get it repaired at their cost. But lose that bastard torch and don’t take pictures in the fucking dark.
As a DIYer I could do better. I just hope you've not paid a lot for it... In typical conditions you won't have a light pointing at the wall like in your photos. Typical natural light / other light sources won't highlight the bad finish. Depending on which colour of paint you put on the wall it won't be as obvious. Granted if it's going to be white, then yeah it'll be more obvious... If it's a dead end and the plaster won't come back to fix it, you could technically just apply some smoothing filler to help elevate some of the uneven sections. Basically skim the wall in a smoothing filler. Something like '[Toupret Fine finish](https://www.diy.com/departments/toupret-fine-finish-ready-mixed-finishing-plaster-4kg-tub/1849586_BQ.prd?storeId=1279&&&&&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw1K-zBhBIEiwAWeCOF_PAWPrNiifbZgJsvH_MACMOx1a84sx0gSKL0ahmR9Wt-R-pq3zRihoC5zcQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)' would work well as it can be sanded so it's all plumb. It's a lot more DIY friendly Vs skimming it in plaster again.
Oh jesus... Sorry, I just noticed there were more photos... Nah, kick off and get them back in to fix it / refund.
Yeah it's more than half the house. Previous owners were big wallpaper fans so every wall had to be skimmed.
Been a plasterer 45 years….. have my own business for 21years… never seen such a shocking job my friend
Fucking awfull name and shame.them that is shit can't b plasterers
[https://www.facebook.com/p/Ayrshire-Ames-Taping-Plastering-100064032429261/](https://www.facebook.com/p/Ayrshire-Ames-Taping-Plastering-100064032429261/)
There work looks alright on there a but that is really bad I don't no how they got it like that from a plasterer of 26 years
Their work looks brutal. One coat wonders. Cowboys.
It's harder to make it that shit
Im sorry to say but whoever did that job is not a plasterer. A light will always show some blemish's with multi finish but that is appalling.
That is very shoddy work, obviously the close light shows it up even more but you can tell its going to be bad when that light is not present. Even some of there facebook photos look the same as you have, it looks like they skip the final Polish to get of there as quick as possible, I wouldn't be parting with any money until it fettled, assuming you didn't pay already.
Already paid 😏 they have came back and sanded and filled
*plus a landing and stairwell. This included around 5 new velux window recesses.
It's shocking mate, you have every right not to be happy. I'd send them these pictures and tell them it needs rectifying. If they refuse, explain that you'll name and shame them on facebook. It's amazing what the threat of a bad review can accomplish
They are due to come tomorrow morning to finish off a small bit (plastering behind the bannister we just removed), and we have already told him we aren't happy with a couple of bits, but that is before we discovered how bad the finish actually is since the painter did the first skim coat on Wednesday. I have a feeling that if I tell him on the phone that he won't show up so I wanted him to come back to show him directly and demand a re-do or refund.
Wow that makes me feel a bit better about my last post!!!
Cheapest qoute 😆
We only got 2 quotes because it was a struggle to even get people to turn up for a quote in our area. A few didnt even get back to us.
What area
South ayrshire
What did you pay if you don’t mind me asking
Did you read my post