hi guys Kirk Jay and family here I'm gonna show you guys how thick to apply a scratch coat a lot
of you guys call me and say hey Kirk I know you say go 3/8 for the scratch 3/8 for the brown and
then save an eighth for the color coat which totals 7/8 which will equal a weap screen or a
drip screen same thing and usually most windows everything got to be true and plumb but if you
don't have the the feel for it I'm gonna share a simple way that you can do it because a lot
of people say well how am I supposed to know when I have 3/8 of an inch on guys it can vary it can
vary from a quarter to a little bit more than 3/8 you could actually even go a half-inch in
fact it's better to put a heavy scratch on than the brown coat let me show you something guys
you see all this why there's Salford wire it's sticking out a good rule of thumb is bury the
wire if you bury the wire you're for sure gonna get at least a half inch on us I'll give you an
example okay we're gonna start right here next to this window yeah I'm gonna put some on blue
had a fun job today cuz this job just happens to have a whole lot of stairs and we forgot the HOD
so carrying all this stuff up when buckets all I gotta do is put it on that's the easy stuff
so ok just for the sake of showing you guys in a small area I'm just gonna go maybe a yard 3x3
guys now notice when I when I plastic as a rule sometimes just put the hawk here out of habit
you don't really need to do that but if you look on the ground that's how I plaster hardly drop
any I've had guys who slashed it with me at the end of the day there's two three wheelbarrows on
the ground but that's not what this is about it's about how much do you have to put on in
order to know you've got a proper scratch I say three-eighths minimum notice I take it
oh so it doesn't go all over the place and take it up okay now that we have this on I'm
just gonna trim it out and I'm gonna use my trowel like you would a rod or a Darby okay
take it up and just square it off now that's how you know you've got enough even though you can't
measure it you can't see the wire then you take a scratcher scar fires technical word boring stuff
and you just scratch it now this is gonna set for roughly about two weeks technical two days
before brown coat but we're gonna let it set a lot longer because we have that luxury on this
now notice you can't see the wire guys that's thick enough if you can't see the wire that's
thick enough if you do it like this guys and I see a lot of guys do this they'll put it and
they'll go tight as as they can well guess what now you can see that wire and also that's about
an eighth of an inch thick so you can see the wire like that and you go ahead and scratch it
You see all the wire. I mean, you can do that, but then you're brown coat it'd have to be a
little thicker to adapt to it. It's always better to leave a little heavier scratch,
and again guys, just cover that wire. You can't go wrong if you cover the wire and you scratch it,
so all your folks call me and say I can't. I don't understand the death because I can't see
it you don't have to see it just look at the wire cover it up anyway my name is Kirk I'm
with Kirk Giordano plaster and we thank you for watching and as usual we'll see on the next tip
once again folks we thank you for watching, and I really enjoy all your comments if you
guys like this video, please click the like button down below and also if you enjoy what
we do subscribe to our channel so we can keep making these videos for you my name is Kirk
and Jay we thank you for watching and from the entire giordano family we'll see on the next one