Plastering

Outside, we have just had the brickwork completed. The new aluminium joinery was installed prior to this, and the bricklayers created new sills for the triple stack sliding doors in the living area, as well as bricking up the now-unused pre-existing external doors.

All of the internal building work has now been done. This included framing and lining unused external doors, removing of a section of wall between the kitchen and living area, moving the hot water cylinder to a more appropriate location and of course insulating and re-gibbing almost all of the living space.

The kitchen is currently being made, and will be ready for installation in line with the completion of the painting.

In the meantime, with the building work now done, it’s on with the plastering.

The plastering scope actually ended up being quite extensive. Being an older house, the interior walls weren’t in perfect shape to start with. Since we were going to do a full paint, we didn’t want those imperfections showing through.

This meant we wanted the plasterer to go through the entire interior room by room and fix any and all imperfections to a paintable standard.

The living area where new Gib had been installed needed to be finished to a paintable standard.

At this stage, we didn’t know a lot about the different grades of plaster finishing, or the process required to be undertaken. We knew the result we were after, and we expected to consult with the plasterer to achieve that result.

As it turned out, there was a lot more to plastering than we realised!

Firstly, it’s important to note that when it comes to plastering and painting (and decorating generally), some tradespeople can do both, while others specialise in one or the other.

When we posted our jobs, we posted both a painting and a plastering job. In the end, we opted for two tradespeople.

For the plastering, we went with Zane Gerlich of ZG Plastering & Painting. While Zane could have done the whole job, we had already begun working with another painter (who didn’t plaster).

Zane was happy to do the plastering component, which we appreciated.

Some qualities that attracted us to Zane were his quick responses and friendly, energetic demeanour. He inspired confidence with how he approached our job.

When we met him on-site to discuss the plastering in detail, we were in for a good lesson on plastering!

One of the first things we discussed was the “Level” of finish we desired. Plaster finish level is defined in AS/NZ 2589.1, and ranges from 1 to 5.

But that was only the start.

In the bedrooms, there had been some minor cosmetic earthquake damage in a few corners (as with all homes in Christchurch!). The complicating factor was that the rooms were wallpapered with a finely textured covering. The wallpaper appeared to be quite old, and removal was something we wanted to avoid, as the rest of the walls were generally in a good condition.

The challenge was to mask the damage in a way that didn’t stand out. Zane was happy to do his best, but advised that paint choice would also determine how obvious the repair was.

As part of the decision-making process for plaster finish, we consulted with Resene Paint. Elaborating on the various challenges we faced to achieve a great finish, we sought advice on the best paint option for masking imperfections. Resene advised that they had a special paint that was designed for this particular application, Spacecote – and we’ll cover this in an up and coming chapter.

After consulting with Zane, Resene and our Painter, we decided on a Level 4 finish for the living area. It would give a great result in the particular lighting conditions and paint combination we were going for, while saving on a full Level 5 finish.

The other areas of the house would also be finished to a Level 4 standard, and Zane would do what he could with the tricky wallpapered areas.

After the information gathering and decision-making process, Zane priced up the job and supplied a quote.

There was quite a lot of additional detailing required that was beyond the scope of a painters role. A painter will “fill” small imperfections and “gap” (which involves running a bead of gap filler in joins) details like new architraves (window surrounds) etc. However, through the process of replacing the glazing, there were quite a few areas that required a proper plaster.

There were also the surrounds of the two new cavity sliders, and a multitude of areas in the living area which required a ground-up plaster.

Zane was thorough in his scope, and gave us a fixed price quote for the whole job, which we were happy to accept.

We hadn’t appreciated what an art plastering is! And a process. We got the impression from Zane’s approach that he was both very diligent and good at his craft.

As the plastering work unfolded over days, with the layers of plaster slowly built up and sanded back, the space grew in both it’s sharpness and homely vibe.

The result was fantastic! Zane’s diligence really paid off, and we often found ourselves looking in some nook or cranny and saying “wow, he fixed this too!”. The result we felt we were left with was a “new house” feel. There wasn’t a scrape, dent or hole from that old wall hanging anywhere.

Naturally, we were really excited to get the painting underway, but before that could happen, we had more decisions to make in that department – which we’ll cover next week.