Hi I'm John from A&E construction and you're watching build with A&E then
Today I am going to talk you through the process of dabbing. We have primed the wall as you can see a lot of
people use a PVA but we like to use an aggregate base primer basically it soaks
into the brickwork lot better gives you much better key with the
aggregate in there so which is basically what we use you know everybody's
different you can also use different things for different applications but we
think this is the best sort of product to use there's many different ones out
there on the market so just check the local builders merchants see what's
available and what be good for you as we do the bathroom we're using the green
board which is moisture resistant board to make sure that no water can penetrate
through it's a lot more mold resistant a lot better to use in bathrooms kitchen
areas and stuff like that as you can see I got the white marks on the wall because
I've already pre-cut the wall so it's easier and quicker when we are dabbing dabs
already mixed up and ready to go I had to mark on the floor this chalk line which you
can see over there quite a bit of difference in the wall behind it and as
we're doing the bathroom and the floors being tiled we need to make sure that
ours tiles run straight so the room is square so that's why I've done this line across
there just to make sure so I can dab one and when i am dabbing my boards I can dab to that
and then make sure then that it's perfectly square everywhere as I
mentioned before I have pre mark the walls and I've also put a stream line across
the floor so we know exactly where we go with the board helps keep the room nice
and square because obviously this will define how square your room is I've already
looked at the wall which is also an important thing to do just to see how
level it is and we know that the bottom has got to come out slightly overall see
there's a bit of a different there in the wall there so we need to reflect that
with our dabs, apply your dab along the edge of the board like I said I know
that's where the edge of my board is so we have a solid beaded dab all the
way down just like this make sure each dab touches each other so you got one
continuous bead all the way across the edge of the board
as I mentioned the walls are slightly running out so as I get down towards the bottom
well across the whole length of the board really need to be making sure that the dabs
are getting thicker we've got to maintain the plume of the wall but also gotta to get
out to this line
that's just what you got to do like I've mentioned before as well we using the
green boards the moisture resistant boards because it's a bathroom there are
loads of different sorts of boards for loads of types of different applications but this is what
you need to be using when you're doing a bathroom just to make sure there's
never any issues with any water penetration or anything like that when you get to
the bottom again well in this bathroom there gonna be retire up stand
doesn't really matter as much but especially if you're doing bedrooms so
for that you need to manage to fix out your piece of skirting so solid beam away
all the way across the bottom it's also helps with maintaining the air
times through also any issue if there is a fire or anything like that stops fire coming up through the floor
see the chalk line across there gotta make sure it comes right out with these dabs
when we stick our board. Also worth rementioning as well about the bonding agent we use on the
walls like I mentioned a lot people use PVA it's a cheap alternative ever
it's been used for years so nothing against it at all
you know it's not gonna fail it is what it is but we always prefer to use a bonding agent
with and aggregate in when skimming or when dabbing always gives
much better key and this sort of stuck soaks straight into the substrate as well so gives you a much better key over
time you can find with PVA occasionally it can actually just peel straight up off
the wall it's always better to use something that's soaked into the wall rather than
sits on top of it so it's same as we did on that side dabs are getting bigger
try maintain the plume of the wall make it easier as well when we actually flattening the board out
get my steps that wall work there is probably about a bag of dab different people do it different ways you mix
it up on your own better to do a big bucket you haven't go to keep stopping
and start and normally about one bag of dab would probably do about two boards
to be honest but obviously we got to get quite thick with this as you can see
we have put your frame of board around make sure you do this around all your boards
all the time a lot of people just will go dab dab dab every 300 or 400
the problem you got there is cracking yet if you haven't a solid bead around
the edge of your the board then the board is gonna crack the skin will crack and that's it
once is cracked it's cracked you got moving in the board there's nothing you
can do about it so always best to keep your dab solid all the way around the
perimeter of the board again with these dabs getting bigger as they're going down the
wall
that is a little wet and what we are gonna do is add a little bit more dab into this because it's got the end of the
bucket yeah that's a big bucket it tends not to mix well to the bottom of the bucket
because that's quite thick it's quite difficult to mix it through the whole bucket just gonna add a a little bit more of dab in her
a little more powder you need to the dab to be very thick just to make sure it's
actually got the tick on it doesn't just sag down the wall just mix it in by hand
just like that if you're interested in seeing a video on how to mix any plaster
bonding, skim anything like that just leave some comments in the box
below we'll see if we get in the future so
I'll make a video about that as well okay plumed these dabs through the middle not as
critical to get a full solid bead towards the middle of the board because obviously
you've got no joint so you're not going to get any crack in there whatsoever
that's just all around the edges
put packers underneath just to keep it off the floor as you would in any room
that way if there is any movement in the floor at all it doesn't transfer to the board doesn't
cause any cracking any floor moves and your boards sat directly onto it
all thats gonna happen is its gonna push the board and it's gonna cause crack straight
the joint of the board so always make sure you put a packer in
once you've dug the wall and it's gone off you can take the packer out and you've
got and maintain a solid gap all the way across many different plasters have many different
techniques about doing this my favorite way is to use a level and the rubber
mallet that way then you know you're gonna be level at all times some people
use a feather edge like the board in so it's nice and flat but then you got to
get a level running as well you might already be too late you might have made
it out of the plume you've got to wack it back even further cause damage to the
board and your ears
all right we look at the level we know we need to take the bottom of the board
inside slightly so it pulls in what can happen is obviously with the weight of the
board pushing down into this packer you can't make it difficult to push the bottom of
the board in so just a gentle nudge and gentle lift up and it will naturally put itself in
we are getting somewhere near now. Here we go theres the line appearing there the blue line that
we've got to make sure it's square all the way across different angles
see there's no gap here nothing at all that's what you're looking for that main
let's make sure then that your board is completely flat all the way across then
level there, level there
bit of a tap in there
check across this way and we are all good check the with plum and we are plum there you go!