Is it possible to plaster drywall: how to do it right and how to do it?

Many novice craftsmen who have started self-repair are interested in how to properly plaster drywall. Indeed, after installation, drywall sheets require some manipulations before finishing: sealing and reinforcing seams, covering recesses from self-tapping screws, and finally leveling the entire plane. But not everyone knows what material is used for these purposes - plaster or putty. Let's see if drywall needs to be plastered, what materials are used for its roughing, and consider the case when plastering is really necessary.

Do you need to plaster drywall?

The most frequently asked questions regarding GKL plaster will be as follows:

How to plaster drywall under wallpaper?
How to plaster the ceiling and drywall?
How to plaster plasterboard walls?

The answer in the vast majority of cases will be one: no way. Gypsum board is sometimes called dry plaster because drywall sheets attached to the frame perform the same function as the plaster mixture applied to the wall: they level it. And these questions arise because not everyone sees the difference between plaster and putty.

Plaster is a material for rough rough leveling. It has a coarse-grained structure, can be applied in a sufficiently thick layer and is designed to eliminate significant defects in the base. Even the finest-grained gypsum plaster mixture cannot serve as a substitute for putty when processing gypsum boards, since it cannot be applied in such a thin layer.

Putty is a finely dispersed building mixture, due to which it can be applied in a layer only a few millimeters thick. It is putty after drying that allows you to get a perfectly smooth surface, which we expect to see after finishing the walls with drywall.

Thus, walls, ceilings and any other plasterboard structures should not be plastered, but puttied. And if you come across advice on the rules for plastering GKL, do not trust such an article - it was written by an incompetent author.

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Plaster on drywall is applied only in one separate case, which is rather an exception to the rule and will be described later.

Plasterboard putty

So, we found out that instead of plaster, putty should be applied to the plasterboard. In this case, the question may arise as to how much it is really needed. Some people think that under the wallpaper it is enough to apply a primer to the surface of the plasterboard wall, but this decision cannot be called correct.

Putty in the case of GKL performs the following tasks:

Fills the seams between the sheets, strengthening the weak points of the joints.
Masks the recesses from self-tapping screws, with which drywall sheets are attached to the frame, prevents the appearance of rust from screws on the finish.
Hides small cracks and dents that may appear during installation.
Allows you to make the surface for painting so that it looks perfectly even and smooth.
When preparing the GKL for wallpapering, it forms a protective layer that allows the wallpaper material not to stick to the cardboard surface “tightly”. If you skip the puttying stage, it will no longer be possible to remove the wallpaper from the plasterboard wall during subsequent repairs without damaging it.

Important! To seal the seams between sheets of drywall and puttying the entire surface, different putty mixtures are used. In the first case, you need to use a special putty for the seams, for example, Knauf Uniflot, in the second case, a thin-layer finishing putty mixture.

You can read about the rules for sealing seams using paper tape or sickle. here.

Drywall puttying technology from "A" to "Z" is detailed here.

When is plastering allowed on drywall?

Plasterboard walls and ceilings can be plastered in one single case: when the structure is mounted unevenly and of poor quality. If mistakes were made at the frame installation stage, profiles or wooden beams were not leveled, there may be deflections and protrusions on the finished drywall surface, it may be filled up.

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In this case, there are two ways:

Remove drywall sheets, disassemble the frame and mount everything again.
Level the plane with plaster.

Since the sheets can be damaged during the process of dismantling and reattaching, in some cases the surface will be easier to plaster.

Leveling a curved plasterboard surface with plaster

In order to correct the errors made during the installation of a plasterboard ceiling or wall and prepare it for finishing, you will need:

Spatulas - wide and narrow.
Gypsum plaster.
Putty for seams and finishing.
Primer "Concrete-contact" and a roller for its application.
Paper tape, sickle mesh or fiberglass, cut into strips about 7 cm wide.
Construction mixer, container for mixing the mixture.
Long level or rule.

Let's get to work. The first stage is sealing the seams, surface preparation.

We chamfer the edges of the drywall sheets with a sharp construction knife, if this was not done before installation.
We prime the seams. After drying, fill them special putty for seams. We reinforce the joints: if paper tape is used, it is glued exactly in the center of the seam to the putty, for fiberglass it is better to use PVA glue.

The pits from the caps of the self-tapping screws are smeared with the same putty mixture.
After drying, the entire drywall surface is primed with a Concrete-Contact primer.

Priming the drywall before applying the plaster will prevent the material from getting wet and improve the adhesion of the plaster mixture to the smooth cardboard surface.

How should drywall be plastered for leveling? Further actions depend on the scale of the irregularities.

If the recesses on the surface are small, you can use the method of plastering on the strip:

The recess is filled with plaster mixture.
The solution is stretched by the rule. The recess turns out to be filled with plaster, on a flat area its layer will turn out to be small.

For more serious irregularities and distortions, you should use a beacon profile, which is set according to the level so that after applying the plaster a flat plane is obtained.

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After the plaster has dried, the surface should be sanded and puttied in the usual way. For painting, you will need to apply 2-3 layers, one will be enough for wallpaper.

Marina

I had to plaster drywall when I moved in to live in a wheelchair where there was no ventilation. The bathroom in this stroller was enclosed by two plasterboard walls, but due to dampness and lack of ventilation, these partitions were heavily eaten by fungus, especially downstairs. The walls were very uneven, and I plastered them with putty on wood. It turned out okay.

Answer

Ivan

I even putty drywall completely very rarely, only when I'm going to paint it. But this happens very rarely, most often I stick wallpaper for tint, and then I paint it. Therefore, I seal the seams on the gypsum plasterboard, hide the marks from the heads of the self-tapping screws and carefully primer. I would not plaster drywall even in the case indicated in the article, even with a GKL mesh it may not withstand the load of the plaster, and a lot of moisture will get into it during this procedure.