to floors and outside walls or do decorative work. Plasterers use tools such as trowels, floats and

hawks.

Plasterers often mix their own materials (from sand and cement) or have an operative do it for

them. First they mark the area of wall to be covered. Then they fill in the area with base coat

plaster. They level it off and scratch the surface to make a good base for the second coat. The

second coat is applied to the required thickness, often one centimetre but sometimes up to 2.5

centimetres on an uneven wall. When the two base coats are dry, plasterers spread on and

smooth out a thin coat of plaster.

Outside walls are done by the same method but cement is used instead of plaster. They may

Floors are built up in layers in the same way as indoor walls. The surface is left smooth to take a

floor covering.

Fibrous plasterers work with plaster that has short lengths of fibre added to hold it together while

they are working on it. They make ornamental plasterwork and decorative panels by moulding

and casting plaster in workshops. The finished pieces are then fixed on-site. Fibrous plasterers

may work from architects' designs or copy pieces of plasterwork from artists' drawings or from

photographs.

Plasterers need to work quickly with the plaster before it dries out. They must finish off their work

to a high standard and leave it ready for painters and decorators to work on