In article ,
Fred writes:
Hi,

On the few occasions I have put up plasterboard, I have always covered
the joins with that mesh tape and filled with joint cement. I've also
covered with screw heads with the joint cement at the same time too.

I was reading on the 'net, I forget exactly where, and it implied that
you only need to do this if you are painting or papering direct onto
the plasterboard. It implied if you were plastering on top, you didn't
need to do this and the plaster would cover the screws and joins.

Have I been doing it wrong or did I read it wrong? Should I cover the
screws and joins with joint cement eve n if skimming over the top?

The skim will do it. You still want the scrim tape though.

Different plasterers have different preferences for floating
board edges (i.e. where there's nothing to screw the edges to).

I make sure there's a 1/4" gap between floating edges. I then
fill this with bonding coat, forced right through and out the
back of the gap. That very effectively bonds the board edges
together. Then you still scrim tape it as you apply the first
coat on the boards.

Some plasterers don't bother with the gap, as doing the bonding
coat is extra effort, and a crack won't appear along the join
until a long time after they've been paid and gone.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]