Remaining deduction tracks plaster

[joakim_j]

Hello!

Soon (sometime this year) I will attempt to plaster my concrete block basement walls. I've never plastered before, but courage in my heart and so on.

I came across this product, kvarsittande avdragsbanor in metal. It seems perfect for me, as I can align them at my own pace and not have to work against the clock while the plaster sets. But it also feels a bit sketchy... Won't it create a perfect crack line if left in place, and won't they be visible on the surface? Has anyone used such and can provide some explanation, there's basically no info online that I can find.

Or is it perhaps just as well to mount a couple of wooden slats as guide rails, but "cheat" and screw them up, then take them down once the plaster has set a bit and fill in with plaster?

I am aware that real men attach a couple of battens in plaster and that's how it's been done for ages, and grandpa knows best, and if you can't even handle that, then you shouldn't have a house at all.... but still.

 

[Oldboy]

Does it matter how perfectly straight the wall/plastering is? In the basement?
My experience says it's completely unnecessary, just throw up the plaster and roughly level it with the trowel if it's utility space. Basements are normally considered utility spaces.

I have plastered walls in a utility space myself. Those walls are not straight, but it doesn't show unless you take out a plumb line and level.

Surely, those leveling tracks must show in the plaster if it's only painted. If wallpaper is going up, it probably becomes more invisible.

 

[joakim_j]

The walls will be tiled, so it is probably reasonably important that they are somewhat straight at least. Whether they are exactly plumb may not matter as much.

 

[Oldboy]

Ok.
Isn't it fine to just tile over them then?

 

[joakim_j]

Ok.
Can't you just tile over them then?

Yes, that's what I was thinking. But then you won't have a single solid plaster surface behind the tiles; it will be divided by the guide rails.

And then there's a room where I wasn't planning to tile but to paint the plaster, which feels a bit trickier.

 

[Oldboy]

If you are good enough at plastering so that you can invisibly cover up the tracks after the moldings, then removable moldings should work, right?

If you use wooden strips, you can screw them in place, possibly with small spacers to get them level. All calm and controlled. Then plaster, unscrew the strips and plaster again. Shouldn't that work?

 

[joakim_j]

I am almost certainly useless at polishing, but I've never tried so one can't be completely sure

Yes, that's exactly how I also thought it should be possible to do. The problem is just finding (or making) wooden strips that are so thin (6 mm) but still have some rigidity. A suitably shallow U-profile in metal would have been perfect...

 

[Oldboy]

Kind of like a DIN rail?
(Located in, among other places, electrical panels to hold the fuses in place, but should be available in longer lengths. Eyeball memory says they should be around 6 mm thick/high.)

 

[mr.Ola]

I tried putting a masonite board as a drag track but it needs to be nailed down!

 

[joakim_j]

And the masonite has no stability, you can see that with the ones lying on the floor, so it probably only works if you already have straight walls, which I don't have.

 

[joakim_j]

Like a DIN rail?
(Located among other places in electrical panels to hold the fuses in place, but should be available in longer lengths. Eyeball memory says they should be around 6 mm thick/high.)

That could be an idea, but I wonder if I can get hold of a 2.4 m long DIN rail But maybe they can be spliced?

 

[jimmie.p]

I have used these. Check with a level on the wall (they are a bit flexible, so check the level in a few places).

https://www.bauhaus.se/planhyvlat-furu-8x15x3000mm

 

[joakim_j]

I have used these. Check with a level on the wall (they are a bit flexible so check the level in a couple of places).

[link]

Thanks! I was considering something similar, or even this one here.

Did you screw them in or did you do it the old-fashioned way?

 

[jimmie.p]

Thanks! I was thinking about something similar, or possibly that one.

Did you screw them in or do it the old-fashioned way?

I set them directly in the plaster, applying a little extra and tapping them into the plaster. I set 3-4 pieces, then fill the plaster between the first ones and work my way forward, moving the pins one by one as I continue plastering. I also checked that all the pins aligned with a straightedge since I was plastering a long wall and wanted to avoid any waviness in the light.

Moisten the pins a bit when they are new, otherwise they might absorb some moisture from the plaster and possibly come loose.

 

[xLnT]

Bauhaus has metal guide rails that you can easily nail up and move along with you as needed.