$25/sheet Veneer Plastering

PlainPainter

A G.C. told me that his plaster sub gets $25/board {8x4} for labor only to mesh and trowel veneer plaster. It seemed kind of cheap to me, that a subcontractor, who would be doing the plastering - and his helper, would be only bringing in $25/board. That means this guy would have mesh the joints, fill them - then trowel on plaster over two boards, and wet trowell them 3 times over - and do that all in an hour, just so his company can gross $50/hr to pay for him and his helper and everything else associated in the business. I imagine after all the mixing and supplying plaster - that the helper could join in the fun of wet trowelling also - as that doesn't take too much skill. But still - didn't seem like much incentive to do the job right.

Now I come in to paint like a month afterwards - and even though I wiped down the walls with vinegar and rinsed to neutralize any hot spots, and remove all the dust. The primer/paint would come off with blue tape - and it revealed a crumbly soft plaster job beneath the removed paint - as if the plasterer just didn't do his job in properly 'trowelling up' the plaster and subsequent wet trowellings to properly harden the plaster. Is it me, or this typical $25/board labor type work?

Bob Kovacs

Sounds like you now understand why the plasterer was only charging $25/board...............