There will come a time where a brick wall in your house needs plastering. It’s inevitable! However, instead of spending out on a plasterer I’m going to show you how to plaster a brick wall.
Like many things in life, you need to follow a plan. You can’t just pick up a trowel and throw any old product onto the wall hoping that it will stick – you need to follow a process.
That’s why in today’s article I’m going o show you how!
There are 3 ways to plaster onto a brick wall, each with there own benefits.however I’m going to show you the easiest ways to tackle this beast whilst giving you the tips to getting decent results. I must admit, this can be a bit tricky but if you follow this simple guide there’s no way you can go wrong!
Follow my lead and we’ll get you results! I’m not messing about because I’m going to get straight into it!
How To Plaster A Brick Wall
The best way to plaster an internal brick wall is by using a backing coat from British Gypsum. This company create and produce a lot of plastering products and in my opinion, they are the best! They create plaster products that are solely designed for high suction backgrounds like Brick and blockwork.
To clarify, a high suction background is basically a wall or structure that is highly porous. So for example when you throw water onto a dry brick wall the liquid is almost instantly absorbed and disappears. This is an example of a high suction background.
It’s the same likewise with blockwork – But why is that important?
Well, the background of the wall your working on determines what product we need to use. If your learning how to plaster a brick wall you need to know which plaster you can use to accommodate for the suction of that material. Now let’s see what can be done!
What products should I use?
There are a few products but I recommend you use British Gypsum Hardwall. This is the only product (bar sand cement), that I recommend you use for plastering a brick wall. This is a fast drying plaster product designed for most masonry background including brick.
It’s great to use and highly recommended because of its ease of use. I used to use Britsh Gypsum Bonding but I found this product far more superior.
Now the next thing you need to learn is how to plaster this product. The method is very similar to a rendering process in the sense that you need to apply the plaster onto the wall and rule it off using a straight edge to get a nice, flat, straight wall.
This is the crooks of the job but let me go into further detail! I know it’s a lot to take in but you can save this post if you like:
[postgopher name=”plastr a Brickwall” pid=”603″]WANT TO SAVE THIS ARTICLE? DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS A PDF >>CLICK HERE<< [/postgopher]
Let’s start with the materials you will need:
What will you need?
Learning how to plaster a brick wall and getting it right starts by using the right tools! You will need the usual plastering tools (more detail by clicking the link), and 1 major tool that makes the difference: a decent straight edge. I recommend Silver line SL40 1.8m feather edge.
Now, what do we do with this lovely tool?
Prepare the masonry or brick background with a thick coat of PVA which will reduce the rate of suction and allow the thistle to set at a natural rate. You mix a bag BG Hardwall with 15l of water which is the recommended amount from Britsh Gypsum.
So you have the lovely mix of plaster and your tools for the job – now are you ready for the good bit?
How Do You Use Hrdwall Plaster onto Brickwork?
You get your trowel and hawk and start applying the mixed plaster when you PVA has dried onto your masonry background. You should apply a thick coat of Hardwall roughly to the thickness of 11mm. Don’t worry about getting it flat and you want to work in sections.
Get a small section covered with an overall thickness of 11mm. Now don’t make the mistake that every else makes – don’t try to get it perfectly flat! It Isn’t possible because that’s what the trusty Feather edge is for.
Once you have a section of Hardwall plaster onto your brickwork you want to use you feather edge to rule the plaster to a flat, straight finish. Once you have ruled your plaster you’ll realise that there have been some sections that are low or haven’t been ruled.
If that’s the case then apply more plaster to the low spots and rule off your render using your straight edge. You want to repeat the process until you have a completely flat wall. It sounds easy but its actually quite a hard thing to master and rendering a thickness of plaster to a flat, plumb finish is actually a dark art.
However, if you stick to it and give it a good go there is no reason you can’t master how to plaster a brick wall. If you have any questions feel free to contact and thank you for reading! For more information and a real knowledge of plastering join our free video course by using the opt-in form at the top of the page or the side.