Today was the day that I was going to be using Thistle magnetic plaster again, and it will be the second time in my renovation project that I use it.
The first time I used magnetic plaster in a real-life situation it didn’t go so well. I mixed it up a little too wet and it just really didn’t work quite as well. The walls look fine now it’s painted, but it just didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped it would.
However, today I spun up the magnetic plaster mix slightly thicker than the last time, and I started slapping it on, and I had set up the camera to take photos, as and when so I got quite photos of me applying the magnetic plaster throughout the process, and I also took a number of videos just show you how it works and generally what it looks like.
The first coat went on lovely, and I was really pleased that it went on nicely, and I was even more impressed that I was fairly clean and tidy and didn’t drop anything, well a few splashes here and there but nothing like last time, which was good, made me feel like I was getting back my good habits from when I was on the tools full time.
Once the first coat was applied, I quickly whipped over it with the SpeedSkim, and I then dropped back and used an 18-inch trowel just to flatten in, and I like to get my eye all over the wall, and this is the best way for me to do just that. However, I feel this part of the process is even more important with Magnetic plaster because it is black, and it hides the misses and blemishes so getting up close and personal is something that I think is the key to get the best finish possible.
As always, in anything worth doing it is always down to the attention to detail and that is something I try to get right, and some may say I am OCD, but I don’t care I am on a constant quest for perfection.
Once the first coat was flattened in I went for a wonder about and had a cup of tea and took some photos and a video and whatnot. I like to walk away from the job in hand and come back as you then tend to see anything that is not quite right, and also it stops you messing around with it.
The second magnetic plaster coat was spun up slightly wetter than the first mix but not much, and I only used just under half a bag this time, and she coated up lovely.
Honestly, it is an absolute pleasure to lay on. The geek in me is coming out a little but its nice to use something different from Multi Finish…
Once again, I dropped back flattened in the 18-inch trowel and then went for another wander and returned just in time for me to pull out the Nela SuperFlex trowel to start the troweling up process.
I often get asked how many times do you trowel a wall or ceiling and to be honest I don’t know. I just do what it takes to get the finish that I want and nothing less (unless it’s a Friday afternoon).
There are a couple of patches on the wall drying as you can see from the photographs with the sunshine was beaming in through the window, the sun was not really an issue it was that it was also cloudy and then when the clouds dropped in front of the sun the room plunged into darkness. This was absolutely doing my head in from being blinded right down to needing to drag a halogen light in the room.
With all that being said the wall troweled up beautifully and compared to my first attempt it looked absolutely beautiful and the wall came out lovely.
It trowels up like multi finish and being black it makes it a little more difficult to see the misses, but it also shows up a lot of the other things that lighter coloured plaster doesn’t, and you really had to get up close to make sure there is not any misses and generally take pride in it.
I am not one for splashing water all over the place and since learning to use a plastic trowel and then moved on to master the Nela Superflex trowel. I am pretty good at not needing water to finish a wall or ceiling by lashing water at it, and you will find that this is something that will come in handy with Magnetic plaster.
Using magnetic is like washing a black car, it shows up those marks and boy does it make it look crap if you leave any splashes, which is very much like multi finish, but it looks a lot worst so minimising the use of water makes for a nice-looking finish.
24 Hours Later With Magnetic Plaster
Do I like Magnetic Plaster?
In conclusion, I’m really impressed with Thistle magnetic plaster and this for me has been one of the most exciting products to be launched by any manufacturer over the last few years, and I keep seeing great new places that would benefit from the use of magnetic plaster, I even think there may be the opportunity for a plasterer to set up a company just applying magnetic plaster.
I would like to thank British Gypsum again for giving me the opportunity to really get stuck in applying magnetic plaster to my own property and working with and supporting the plastering community.
If you have any questions, please post them below, and I will do my best to answer them, and if I cannot I will find someone who can.
