How to plaster the walls and ceiling of your bathroom yourself

The text aims to help people who still prefer to renovate their home using the "do-it-yourself" method by providing them with some basic rules and guidelines on what is important when plastering a bathroom. Plastering the walls in a home is one of the most confusing and intimidating procedures for most people, and often even the most independent homeowners prefer to consult professional craftsmen, if only because of the plaster .

Either way, if your bathroom is still sad, stuck with colorful tiles from the early eighties, and you want to refresh it on a minimal budget, you can't miss your knowledge about plastering. Better invest the amount you would spend on masters in plastering courses or in better quality materials, because applying plaster in the bathroom is not that difficult at all, as long as these things suit you a little.

It's a good idea to start by familiarizing yourself with all the tools you'll need for this process. Then, it's a good idea to pay attention to how to remove old plaster. And while most people will tell you that it's hard to master the art of plastering without a course, we believe that if you focus on a few basic components, you'll be just as good as a professional.

Roughly speaking, applying the plaster includes the following stages:

1. Two layers of PVA glue on the bare walls.
2. Smooth it well and let it dry before applying the second coat.
3. Apply the second coat and let it dry thoroughly.
4. It is a good idea to apply three of these so-called "wet coats" to get a nice glossy finish.

It's a good idea to get a quality trowel. Standard plaster needs weeks of breaking down by a plasterer, and the already broken one gives a fine finish, just like the result of a professional application, which is much more expensive.

Place the resulting mixture in a plaster tray with the special wheel.

It's important to keep your tools clean. Even a microscopic piece of hard material can ruin your attempts to create a glass surface.

Once you've plastered the walls, move on to the ceiling. At first, it may seem like there's more plaster on you than on the ceiling. You may have to go slower as you get used to it, but it's a good idea to keep an eye on your pace so that one area doesn't dry before you've applied the next brush. This can make the plaster uneven.

When the ceiling and walls are ready, you will need to familiarize yourself with applying a tack coat on top, as well as improving the appearance of the corners using specially adapted metal attachments.

Once you start working on your own bathroom, however, you will probably have to remove the old unsightly tiles first. You will find that the difficulty of plastering depends largely on the condition of the bathroom walls themselves. Most often, when homeowners renovate the bathroom, they simply refresh the plaster already present under the tiles, which saves them a little work. How much this will be possible also depends on the pieces of plaster that will come off along with the tiles. The holes that will gape after the tiles are torn out will need to be perfectly filled. You can use ordinary base plaster to fill them. If you are wondering which will take you less time, removing the old plaster or filling the holes in it, our experience definitely shows that removing the old plaster is more labor-intensive.

If you are worried about the look of the walls after plastering the ceiling, you can safely reverse the sequence. It is only recommended here. It is normal for plastering to take a full day, and the bathroom renovation to be completed, in general, up to a week. Use a special corner trowel to get cleaner corners where the ceiling, walls and window sill meet.

In the end, even if the result is not as perfect as it would be after the intervention of a professional plasterer, your satisfaction with the work done will certainly be even greater. Remember that sometimes it is difficult to guarantee a quality job even from the most recommended craftsmen. Plastering the bathroom walls is a good start, as they do not need to be as precisely smoothed as the walls in any other room of the house that are not tiled.