All You Need to Know About the Plasterer

Overview

A Plasterer is a man who works with plaster primarily. He can be both skilled and unskilled. He can simply form a layer of plaster on your wall or even go on to make decorative shapes on your wall or even on your ceilings. The process of applying plaster on the walls is called plastering. Plastering is done both on a private building as well as commercial places. Thus, it has both commercial and private use and a plasterer is required for both the purposes.

From where it started?

Let’s go down into the history and find out from where this plastering work started and how these plasterers emerged. Plastering is considered as one of the oldest handicrafts business in Indian and the world. Even you will be able to get the glimpse of plastering in early manages where they used sticks and knives to apply the plaster in their rooms. Of course, it was not that even but that’s how the entire plastering profession started. They initially used to plaster their house only with mud.

After a while mud which is also known as slime was found and thus it gave the form of one of the major component of plaster which exists even today. It was observed that using mud the plaster was much more durable and used to make the bricks stick together and last longer. The perfect example is Pyramids of Egypt where the plasterwork was done which is still standing strong and existing even today. Do you know what Egyptians used at that time? They used a plaster which was made up of calcined gypsum which is very similar to the plaster of Paris we use today. Can you believe that even hair was used to thicken the same?

Later in the Greek architecture, it was seen that a special plaster was used which is made up of white lime stucco. This was said to be one of the most durable plasters of those days and it was widely used in temples. It also makes the decorations easier and that is the reason why Greeks have such beautiful and tall architectures.

Tools Used by a Plasterer

There are different kinds of tools which are used by a plasterer. Some of the basic tools used by a plasterer are as follows –

Laths:

Laths are the narrow strips which are made up of straight grained food. The thicker laths should be used in ceilings whereas the narrow ones are used in partitions. Laths are usually nailed to the walls.

Lime:

Lime is mostly used for internal plastering which is made from calcined chalk, and oyster shells. These days hydraulic lines are also used by the plasterers. These are mostly used for the external work. In this case, perfect slaking of calcined lime is of utmost importance.

Hair:

Hair is used as a binding material. Traditionally, horsehair was being used by the plasterer because it was easily available. Hair is known to repair or heal the minor cracks in the mortar.

What Kind of skills are required in a plasterer?

Different kinds of skills which are expected in a plasterer are as follows –

Patience:

You need to be patient so that you are able to understand the client’s expectations. This will help you to deliver exactly what they are looking for.

Listen:

Listening is very important than speaking. You need to listen to what the walls of the room are saying. Some may appear stronger but are not that durable actually. So, you need to give a good ear to the walls and then get the plaster done accordingly.