Following all the directions from the paint can and from several watched youtube videos I started with the small toilet room. The instructions looked very easy but the real application process was a nightmare for a first timer! It's like building a sand castle while the tide continuously hammers on it and start over again. It was all new to me. I have two steel trowel and a plaster that hardens really fast. The first coat was a mess, I saw alot of bubbles and some areas cracking. I didn't give up so I went ahead and bought a sanding machine. Yea, sanding machine so I can cleanup the surfaces and at least make it smooth and almost even. My problem was I put too much plaster on the wall. The plaster is heavy enough that gravity pulls them while at the same time they are drying. Even though I followed the recommendations, experience always teaches you something people won't tell you. They suggested to do the following:
1. First coat - put enough plaster on the trowel and apply to wall at 20 degree angle.
2. Second coat - put enough plaster on the trowel and apply to wall between 40-60 degree angle.
3. Third coat - put less plaster on the trowel and apply to wall at 90 degree angle.
4. Apply more coats to make elevation effects more obvious.
5. Seal it with wax using the same trowel to prevent the plaster from building molds/mildew.
I followed all of them but what drove me nuts was that the plaster had higher viscosity and quickly dries out that it's so hard to re-spread them on the wall once they are applied. Also, what I found out was that the bigger the trowel the better and faster the application process is.
My small toilet room has a total of 10 coats. I sweat blood on it. I was curious how it looks so I did it but it came out really nice. I actually used an electric buffer that would polish the finished wall after applying the wax. That served as my motivation to tackle the humungous bathroom which after a year I'm still doing it. Some of my friends called me crazy since I never had any experience doing this. But at least I tried and I think its paying off.
Here's what I'm currently painting. A shot I took from my iPhone 1st generation.
And here's the completed painting of the plaster from my small toilet room attached to the master's bathroom.
As of this writing, I had just finished the 4th coat on the bathroom. I have another 3 at least more to do. The bias side of my brain is insisting to just call somebody and have it finished. I'm not listening to it so I'm gonna finish it myself. I will post an update on this blog as soon as I'm done with the rest of the bathroom painting.
No pain. No gain.
Update as of 02/19/2011.
Finally finished the entire master's bathroom, all i have to do is mount the light fixture on the wall. Will post more pictures once all furnitures are up! As per Michae's request below I'm attaching the small toilet's look after 10 coats.
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