Sh1t at the best of times, I did a 2 day course once (3 years ago) but haven't really done any thing since.

I have a wall in my kitchen that previous occupants put plaster board up and then applied about 50 layers of paint.

The problem is there are horrible looking cracks in between the pieces of plaster board and I don't think my plastering skills would be good enouth to take the job on.

Question is - there is a product on the market that you can paint on and then smooth over ( I think it's meant to cover up artexing) has anyone tried this and would it do the job on covering over the cracks or do I bite the bullet have a go at the plastering and then pay for my mess to be rectified by a professional?

I tried the 'smooth over' stuff from polycell (they do 2 or 3 varients....one for artex others for patching up cracks in plaster).

Waste of time, would rather have spent the cash on a few bit of plasterboard a few days practice and plastered the sod...in the end I paid someone to do it.

S_R

Not used it myself, but there's one called Smoothover made by Polycell. No idea how good it is, but I think it's only for covering minor imperfections. Anything bigger should receive loving attention with filler anyway.

Well there you go, damned by someone who has used it.

Big bag of filler and a lot of sandpaper then...

I've used the Smoothover, I won't be using it again.
Faster and easier using filler and sanding it back. The results with the Smoothover aren't brilliant.

Vinyl wallpaper. Careful, though. Fablon is very similar but horrendously expensive.

Plaster board it, then plaster it as smooth as you can and then sand the rest flat - leave to dry for quite a while it depends on how warm the room is, then you can paint or whatever. Alternatively put a big piece of wood over the area and shelve it and voila one big spice rack.

Get a professional to do it you tight git!

Where are you? I can recommend an excellent plaster at mates rates if you are close.

How hard is it to do a bit of plastering?!

Pva, scratch coat, top coat, smooth over - job done...

Depending on what type of paint they've used, you might want to sandpaper the paint lightly but two coats of pva should see it ok.

Does require patience though, which I always believe is like rocking horse shoite! :D

Been down this road with really, really crap results.

Do yourself a favour, get a plasterer to do it. They all accept cash and make it look p1ss easy.

Best way I found of getting a cheap good one is to keep an eye out for a local council van and ask them. They nick the plaster off the council, turn up in the council van using council tools on council time (i.e. no overheads) and are happy with 50 quid for a couple of hours work.

Tried for fcuking days to skim my kitchen extension (about 20 full sized boards) with that Smoothover crap, spent a b*stard fortune on it and just ended up with a 3D representation of the surface of Mars.

Council plasterer turns up with his totally free materials, spends 2 hours skimming it and was happy with a few brews and 50 quid. Fair play to the actual plasterers out there, it is a proper skill and a proper art form.