al wrote:
"doozer" wrote in message

The final skim thickness will vary from place to place around the house.
Some places it will be as little as 1mm others around 5 or 6mm. I found
the thicker bits easier to fix. Just mix up some nice smooth filler and
slap it in the hole. Smooth it with a filling knife (or float if the hole
is big enough to warrant it) leaving just a little extra at the edges.



The filler to use - anything in particular? I have a fresh tub of standard
indoor Pollyfilla which is light and creamy. Should I try and fill the
entire depth at once or build it up?

If you've got more than a couple of millimetres thickness to fill I'd
use one-coat plaster. I use the stuff in white plastic sacks with red
logo & printing on it, from B&Q (and maybe other places - it's not an
own-brand but I can't remember the brand name). That goes on up to 50mm
thick (they say) and doesn't sag the way polyfilla does. There are
own-brands in the sheds which may be alright - I haven't tried.

Actually I don't use polyfilla for thin bits either - I tend to use
Tetrion or even cove advesive (shed own-brand is quite cheap) which I'm
sure is the same as cellulose filler but vastly cheaper. There's also a
white cellulose filler in paper sacks, about £10 for 10Kg, which is very
good for fine filling. You'll find it (and one-coat) by the bags of
plaster etc in the trade section of big B&Qs.

Before filling I'd prime the area thoroughly with PVA, diluted enough to
soak into the plaster rather than dragging loose stuff off into a sticky
mass/mess. If you've had to dilute the PVA much to wet the wall you can
give it another dose of less-dilute stuff (DIY law#94: you can never
have too much PVA :-). You can apply filler before the PVA has dried or
afterwards, doesn't seem to matter either way (though I daresay some
smartypants materials scientist will be along to correct me on that ;-)