hi guys kirk and jason here with Kirk Giordano plastering today what I want to show is an age-old
question we've been getting this since I've been in business I thought man why not just show it
once and do a video and that way when folks asked you could show it to them on video instead of
doing samples all the time what I'm gonna do here guys we're doing a to coat system a scratch in a
brown and they said I want it smooth I said well how smooth do you want it do you want a scratch
in a brown and let it cure and do a Santa Barbara or BMI marble or smooth finish like that or do you
want a to coat system he says I want a to coach the system we're going to paint it and I wanted to
smooth as you can get to to coat so i thought i'd show you folks how smooth we can get the to coach
some do's and don'ts first thing we're going to do is I had this board set up on the ground and
Jay said hey dad do you really want to bend down I said hell no not if I don't have to so he set me
up here what I'm going to do guys is I'm going to scratch this out I want to simulate exactly what
we're doing the best way possible and that way means I have to do oh my first coat at 3/8 and then
my second coat at 3/8 well right now I'm going to do all these squares I won't bore you with
doing them all but what I'll do is this one's going to be a hard rubber float finish that's
using this after it cures to show you how smooth we can get it and hopefully jake can zoom in with
their camera show you a little bit better there's going to be a light float finish this could be a
heavy float finish a little extra water and this is going to be a steel trowel finish I'll take
my steel trowel and I'll finish it what happens if you use a steel trowel with a scratching brown
the crack is that normal yes that's why is what they do is they put two coats they do a scratch
coat they allow a scratch coat to cure then they come with the second coat that also is allowed to
cure and what will happen with those two coats naturally during the drying process which is 48
hours for scratch all about all i would say we usually go a week minimum to two weeks for three
weeks in the winter to allow the brown coat to cure if we're going to do this color coat so
what I'm going to do here is get these coats on finish this one up here clean it up a little bit
put my scratch marks allow that to set for a little while then we're going to come back and do
the follow-up code I'll show you that when we get to that point okay guys we got that scratch Coast
set up I feel like I'm back in apprentice school we had to do a lot of these samples minute ago I
was kind of nervous about putting these finishes on because I thought this board was going to flip
but that's a pretty solid offer already so now I'm just going to go ahead and brown out these squares
and I'll show you what the heck i'm referring to with these different finishes okay we just
spread this guy on yeah are you doing dude let's be working this last time just because you work
on my 70 now that's one way to spend your lunch time in hundred-degree weather then again Jason
and I are showing you guys how to do this I couldn't have picked up well all depends on
how you look at it's a hot day but I don't mind working in the heat i'd rather work in the heat
then say 40 degrees or the cold i actually love the heat plus it's helping this sample dry out
get back to where we started wow that's for sure this this little a frame we set up won't flip now
because it's pretty sturdy alright guys i'm gonna do is as soon as I'm done here i'm going to show
you immediately what i'm referring to as far as these textures and should i wait 48 hours and come
back and show you i could but i think you guys will get the point i hope you will because again
i'm going to use this video here to show what you can and what you can't do and what to expect from
me or anybody doesn't matter who's doing you're stuck will work if you tell a fellow hey all i
want is to coach well decided to skip trial finish i'll show you what we can do as far as to get it
smooth now keep in mind guys i've done houses I've done a few custom homes 8,000 10,000 square-foot
houses and I've had people say Kirk I want a hard steel trowel finish and I tell them all well if
you want a hard steel trowel finish and you only want the two coats you know that when the scratch
in the brown cure naturally it's going to hairline the degree of hairline depends on say the house
if it's a brand new house on three stories new foundation that house is going to crack because of
settling if its a 50 year old house three stories it's going to likely crack less anyhow I think I'm
getting the feel for this right here to see just how much time is necessary I can look at all of
these coats and determine when to do my finish and so stay with me because as I'm just trimming
out the corners making it look pretty which is not necessary it's also giving me a chance to
get a feel I'm feeling this out and seeing when it's ready for the rest of my so-called smooth
finishes okay guys we're stage we're in right now is some of us ready sums not but I don't need it
completely ready to show what I'm trying to do okay guys let me show you a few things these are
hard rubber floats hard rubber that means they're rubber and they're hard this is a plastic FLOTUS
for polishing usually interior these are swimming pool trials when you're doing swimming pools you
may have noticed i use these quite a bit I fancy them they're great square Charles sponge floats
ok now Dan walk by earlier says dad I can't even make out what that is how people on the camera
are going to do it there's a hard rubber float what I'm going to show you up here hard rubber
float finished down here is going to be a heavy float finish that heavy just means a lot of water
up here is the light float finish a little bit of water so it comes out a lot smoother the grain is
going to be very fine this is going to be a very heavy because I'm gonna use a lot of water over
here is just going to be a steel trowel finish alright I'm going to take the hard rubber float
these are hard rubber guys and now this is for a to coach system we can do an entire wall like
this now again if we do the entire wall like this it kind of looks like a uh well you can still see
the grip guys there is some grit because you could only float sand so smooth just like when you trial
it you could only fan trowel down so smooth so the sand if it was interior plaster yeah you can make
that pretty smooth like I don't like to use the terminology glass but you could you can get it
interior much smoother on the exterior you have sand to deal even if you use a finer sand which
tends to crack more used to have set now that's that's about that's what we call a hard rubber
exterior to coat float system now I'll start up here a light float finished now I have one
of my floats in a bucket of water right here this one's got water in it so if I hit this the water
is going to drip down here and that's not what I'm looking for these are both dry in order to prove a
point I will just use a dry float and basically what I'm doing is I'm bringing out a little bit
of sand I'm straightening the wall out compressing it and bringing out a little bit of sand and I can
go this I can bring the sand out twice as much or half as much but this is what I consider a light
float finish see we're just very light just keep going over it then we let up and if I wanted to I
could even smooth the net while allowing time or just coming back with a dry float time and since
I'm working against time meaning I'm doing all this right now rather than three separate days
that that is a light float finish done with these green sponge flows ok I will do this one here this
is a heavy flow finish or you can go medium or heavy flow to finish now the idea is put some
water on it guys now the water brings out the sand or aggregate ok it's bringing out the so-called
aggregate aggregates just a fancy word for sand or rocks portland cement has sand concrete that's
rock both made with Portland cement the only difference is the aggregate size ok now you
see that brings out a lot of the grit if I want to bring even more I just put more water see and just
I can leave float lines in it where you see the lines or I can just go over it a few times where
there's no float lines but you get the idea ok now that is a heavy float finish and this is the
less likely to crack of all of them but will they all absolutely okay now the last thing I'm going
to show you guys is a hard steel child finish and I could use a square chow or the other truck now
this here again you could only steel trowel sand so much again I stay away from that terminology
glass because this has sand in it this is mighty smooth right here what happens with the mighty
smooth to coat finish this when it cures or cracks but we don't have that time and we're not going to
show that i'm just going to explain it you will get cracks in it hairline cracks like wait when
I say hairline like the hair on your head it will crack especially under windows and doors if you
just do a to coach system when I worked Union 30 years ago we had slickers like this to hand and we
would slick the houses down and that was when I was working for McDermott and sealing Danny
Smith class during a lot of those big companies and the slickers we do the scratch coat then
the brown and we slick it and I remember saying hey I'm Knicks in the cracking so that's not our
business our job is to do a to coat finish and so last thing I'm going to show you guys is Jay said
well dad how about we do either a BMI marble or Santa Barbara smooth mission finish over one of
these patches so he loaded it up we're going to show you that but this has got to cure out
again another another in this Sun we're about 100 right now in this sudden it's got to hit it
about another 20 minutes maybe we might even let it get to be an hour we're trying to assimilate
this as best as possible to the actual scratch coat 48-hour cure brown coat two-week tour and
then a color coat which is done after that and by the by the way too if you're doing all that
system you hydrate the walls anyhow in about a half hour hour depending on we're doing a lot
of other stuff here guys we're multitasking I'll come back and show you the Santa Barbara smooth
finish it's not going to be much smoother than this but the idea is if we do a to coat finish
guys doesn't matter who does it doesn't matter what contractor does it it will hair line crack
time what it's natural and normal for to coach to hairline that's why we allow it to dry so then a
third coat will cover it but the majority of my work they say Kurt two coats and so I'm hoping
this video will explain once and for all the same question I've been asked over and over for 25
years okay guys we're at the final stage of this long drawn-out sample my son Dan who is my biggest
credit he has more questions than anybody he came over here and started messing with this and hard
rubber floating it if you if you allow this to set and then you come back it kind of when it's dry it
gives a totally different finish so the finish I was showing you earlier was was that right there
you got to hit it right the right time if you hit it too late then you'll get that and it's
not what I was referring to anyhow now Dan also says well daddy I was telling what i was going to
do it he says what's the difference if you're not going to get it any smoother than this because the
fact if this I'm not going to get it any smoother than that the big big difference guys is is what
this whole video is about for a to coach system and steel child finish expect hairline cracks
the proper way is to hydrate this and allow it to cure for two to three weeks and then you come back
with either BM eyes marble finish or smooth finish or you come with la Habra's Santa Barbara smooth
mission finish Western has it and there's about 50 others in acrylics too okay for the sake of I
already see this start in the hairline right here but anyway for the sake of the next coat you would
apply it this is I think this is BMI because we were just using with their product but even it's
a cement ish asst finish guys cement issues finish is different problem say the acrylics so why would
anybody use an acrylic well it's their choice okay guys let's see now so this is the smooth
finish and what we generally do guys is we start a whole wall go down and come back and then double
it up but for the sake of this there's no need to it's just what should be the idea is to explain it
where you get an idea of what's going on you just charlet Charlotte Charlotte get all the lines out
and you could still see the brown coat that second coat covers that but both finishes will be similar
that the only difference is this is the proper way to get a smooth finish with and with the least
amount of cracking can't even a Santa Barbara or a ver maior any other cement Tisha's finish crack
when you're done absolutely but it's less likely to crack as much as a to coach system anyhow guy
I sure hope that answers some of those questions if not just call me email massacre cave I don't
understand this or that if you like what we do please click down and subscribe anyhow guys my
name is Kirk Jason on the camera as usual we'll see you folks on the next one have a great day