Wednesday 2 July 2008

Well the weekend that was!!!!!

Well- the weekend!!

We had booked a plasterer who said £200 and he would come and PVA the ceiling Friday night then him and his mate would come and skim on Saturday.

What really happened was this: He turned up with his gear on Friday night and dumped it on the drive - we were worried it might be pinched so hauled it all inside. He was in a rush so said he would PVA tomorrow and come Sunday to skim. Last words - see you at 9.00am

Saturday - Richard came at 8.00pm and made a splendid job of making the hatch bigger and fitting our gorgeous QVC steps - great. By 11.00am I rang the plasterer - no answer so I texted him - got an text back at 1.20pm!!! to say - sorry he couldn't lie he had been at an all night party - you know how it is!!! No actually I don't!! - He would be there in half an hour. He finally turned up at 3.00pm and PVA'd the ceiling and went off saying he would be back at 11.00am on Sunday.

Sunday dawned - I left Alan in waiting for him. I was in Homebase using my 15% voucher on paint etc and replacing Alan's Black & Decker Mouse sander. Alan phoned at 1.10pm to say he hadn't arrived yet and would I ring him - so I did - he said he was having his dinner first and he would be there in an hour!!! He finally turned up at 2.15pm and started to plaster leaving a hell of a mess as he worked.

After about an hour (he was huffing & puffing and sweating - I kept giving him water - I am sure it was drink - he was red eyed) He shouted me to come quick - there were huge blobs appearing in the plaster and it was dropping off the ceiling and taking the artex off with it!
He said that he could only think that whoever had put the artex on hadn't PVA'd the ceiling first and because he had wet it with the plaster as then the plaster dried it was pulling it off - it was falling off as he was speaking! If it wasn't so awful it would have been funny. So he and Alan decided to quickly scrape off all the plaster and the artex came off as well but you can imagine the mess that created. It was everywhere - he hadn't at that point done the extension ceiling at the back of the room which was the reason that we were skimming the ceiling!

Anyway off came the plaster, I started scooping it all up with a shovel and so did Alan - the guy said he would give us a hand but then proceeded to remove his gear which coincidentally took as long to remove as it took us to scrape it off the floor and bag it up. (he did take away the bags of plaster for us) Hey - who needs a sauna!

We then asked him what we could do with the back ceiling - he climbed up and peeled the tape off which was masking tape! stuck on over unplastered plasterboard. He said he could only suggest Alan steamed off the artex and then had it plastered. He was most concerned that we would say he was rubbish at his job and that it had never happened to him before - we assured him it wasn't his fault as it wasn't. I could have said your reliability and timekeeping are rubbish but I didn't. We asked how much he wanted and he said £100 - so we paid and he went off to the pub!

So - after a cllo drink - it was so hot - Alan gets the steamer set up and starts to steam and scrape the artex off - after about 10 minutes the plasterboard started to disintegrate and fall off. So he pulled down the ceiling and coving (just in the back area which is about 13ft x 6 ft. What a mess - all had to be bagged up again by us!

It was so badly done he was glad at the end he had taken it down - we rang Richard and he came the next night to inspect it all! and he is coming to re-plasterboard it on Sat am when Alan has added more noggins etc.

Whilst it is open Alan called my brother (an electrician) becuase he could see the wiring for the lights and we wanted to add another light at that end of the room. That was fitted last night.

So what a long winded way to get a wall light up! and artex off a ceiling - hope you haven't fallen asleep reading this - it was so awful at the time we just laughed and I still love my house after all this - Mam and Dad were appalled at how much we are having to do but it is our choice.

Waht I forgot to mention is that Sunday and Monday evening Alan has sanded the main ceiling with his little Black & Decker Mouse (wonderful tool thoroughtly recommend it) and it looks lovely - just a couple of littel cracks to fill - I can't unerstand why they covered it in artex.

Last night we spent hours hoovering the plaster from the under the skirting boards and getting the dust up, now the floor is washed it looks qquite presentable - an any one else's eyes its actualy a dump but after Sunday afternoon when it was covered in huge lumps of damp plaster and artex its paradise.

Sorry I have no photos to add and its just boring writing .................

8 comments:

mrsnesbitt said...

Phew!

Plasterers eh!
We had to have one in after the plaster started coming off with the stripper!

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Cowboys and Custard Mercantile said...

Not boring at all..!
In fact we seem to live parallel lives in some respects..
We had a plasterer in too this week... well a chippy then a plasterer to finally plasterboard and plaster a internal roof that hasn't been touched for two years since we moved in.. to cut a long short.. Chippy turned up Monday then said he' d be back on Tuesday... I waited in for two days and eventually he turned up on Thursday!! I think the breed has the same characteristics... can't tell the time!
Lovely to hear from you and good luck with the next stage!
Michelex
P.s I have been seriously thinking about having a blogging sabbatical but when I get comments such as yours.. it makes it all worthwhile.. thank you!

Cowboys and Custard Mercantile said...

Hi Catherine
Thank you so much for your latest comment..
Can you send me your email address please?

Love
Michelex

P.s Our roof leaked this weekend and guess what... wet plaster!

Rosie said...

I'm enjoying reading what you have been doing to your house since you moved in.
Feel free to copy the menopause list. Hope it helps.x

OhSoVintage said...

OMG what a nightmare, Catherine! The artex on the ceiling in the first room our plasterer worked on all had to be chipped off (he did it)as it hadn't been applied correctly and the new plaster was pulling it off but it's now ok and the other rooms have been ok too(so far). I think we have been luckier with our plasterer than you with yours!Ours came when he said he would and worked like a trojan (fuelled by copious mugs of strong coffee)!
Thankyou for your kind comments on my blog. We shall be able to follow each other's progress (rather slow in this house at the mo).
Ruth x

Carol said...

Poor you. I hate this part of doing up new homes. Well you are getting there. It will be lovely soon. Then you will get to do all the really nice bits!
Carol xx

Unknown said...

Oh you poor old things, what a performance! Still just think how lovely it is all going to be when its finished. Oh we have got one of those mouse things, works perfectly!
Rosie

Claire said...

Hi, thanks for popping over to me, I thought I had it bad with my house before reading your last entry....lol!!! I'm so pleased you like the kitchen and bathroom. The kitchen sink is from Howdens, they are a trade only supplier but if you've got builders you should be able to purchase through them if they have an account with them (does that make sense?) The bathroom suite we got from Bathstore,(bathstore.com) I highly recommend them for price and service, if you wait until they have 60% offers its even better. Hope this helps. We still have so much to do although were not living in it yetm we are due to move in the middle of August but with the children finishing school next week, work is going to come to a standstill.......argh!! You know where I am if you need to moan....lol.......claire xx