Construction Engineering and Infrastructure Projects

B. Tech., Second Year, VJTI, M umbai

Vandana Kotak
▪ Terminology used in Pointing and Plastering Work
▪ Types of Mortars for Pointing and Plastering
▪ Methods of Pointing and Plastering
▪ Defects in Pointing and Plastering Works
Plastering is the method of covering rough and uneven surfaces of the
various components of a building with a plastic material (i.e., mortar
which is called the plaster).
Objectives of plastering are as follows:
▪ To provide an even and durable finished surface.
▪ To enable the external surfaces to resist the atmospheric
influence particularly the penetration of water.
▪ To provide the internal surfaces a smooth surface such that dust and
dirt can not lodge.
▪ To protect the surface against vermin.
▪ To form a good surface for taking color wash, distemper or a paint.
▪ To hide a poor workmanship or use of inferior quality materials.
▪ It should adhere to the surface and remain during all
seasons withstanding the effects of atmospheric agencies.
▪ It should not shrink with time and yield for formation of
cracks.
▪ It should provide an even surface with non-absorbent
and washable qualities.
▪ It should be hard, durable and high resistance against fire.
▪ It should provide a surface as to form a decorative finish.
Durability of plastering depends on its adhesion with the
background. A good-background is one which has enough strength
and plain enough for suitable application of plaster.
Types of background are :
(i) Solid Background
(ii) Lathing
(iii)Boards and Slabs
The main characteristic of the solid background is that the nature of surface
presented. Whatever may be the condition of solid background, preparation of
surface is of prime importance. Following steps are undertaken:

• The background surface must be first prepared by cleaning the surface and
roughening the mortar joints.
• Any projection more than 12 mm on the background surface should be
removed, and cavities and holes are fitted properly to obtain an even surface.
• In order to get a good key for the plaster with the wall surface, all the joints in
the masonry are raked out for a depth of at least 12 mm.
• Dust and loose mortar are brushed out of the raked joints.
• The surface is rendered free from oily, greasy spots and efflorescence.
• In case of re-plastering of old works, the smoothness of the surface is destroyed
by hacking it with some tool.
• Whenever concrete surfaces are to be plastered, rough sawn boards should be
used. Mechanical keys may be applied to the inside shuttering or metal mesh
may be left to help in the bonding of the plaster later.
Laths are provided to form a foundation to the plaster work.
When lath is used, the number of coats of plaster is to be three.
Laths may be of two types, viz., metal laths and wooden laths.
(i) Metal Laths:
▪ In the market variety of laths are available. The most
used one is the plain expanded metal laths which is
prepared from sheets of mild steel.
▪ Metal laths are supported and fixed with 9–12 mm
diameter steel rods or steel channels. The plastering is
carried out on both sides. They are fire-resistant.
(ii) Wooden Laths: Strips of well-seasoned wood are used for
this purpose. The strips are generally 25 mm wide and 1–
1.20 m long. Based on the spacing of timber joints the
length of strips is adjusted. The thickness varies from 3 to
12 mm. The thicker strips are used for ceilings whereas
thinner strips are used for walls and partitions.
▪ Boards and slabs have the advantage that a uniform thinner coat of
plaster can be given.
▪ As the boards have relatively plain surface, they give good results
with two coats or even with a single coat plastering.
▪ Special treatment may have to be needed for soft type of boards, to
make better adherence of the plaster.
Based on certain factors such as desired appearance of the surface, cost, degree of maintenance,
etc., the external walls are finished with suitable additional material than mortar. These are
various forms of external finishes as discussed below.
▪ Sand-faced Finish: It comprises of two coats.
▪ The first coat is carried out in cement mortar of proportion 1:4 . The
thickness of the first coat is 12 mm, and the plaster is watered for at least 7
days. Zigzag lines are made on the first coat to give adequate-adherence
surface.
▪ The second coat is of 1 : 1 plaster and the thickness is 8 mm. Sand used for the
second coat should be of uniform size. When the coat is wet the sponge is
worked such that the density of sand grains appearing on the surface is equal and
uniform. After completion of the second coat the surface is kept well-wetted at
least for 15 days.
▪ Pebble-dash Finish: This type of finish is also called as Dry-dash finish. In this
type of finish, the finishing coat is made of 12 mm thick. Over this plaster, small
pebbles or crushed stones of suitable sizes (from 10 to 20 mm) are thrown and left
exposed. The pebbles are sometimes lightly pressed or tapped into the mortar
after throwing.
Rough-Cast Finish: This type of finish is also called as Spatter-dash finish. The
plaster is of 1:3 proportion with one part of cement and three parts of coarse-
grained sand by volume. Using a large trowel the mortar is dashed against the
surface and the surface is roughly finished by the light movements of a wooden
float.
Sand-faced Finish

Pebble-dash Finish

Rough-Cast Finish
▪ Scrapped Finish: In this type of finish, the final coat of mortar is
allowed to become stiff for a few hours. Then the surface is
scrapped with a steel straight edge, or a board studded with nails
or old saw blade in a particular pattern. The finish is a rough
finish and is less liable to the cracks.
▪ Smooth-Cast Finish: This finish is just like rough-cast finish and
gives a smooth surface because of use of fine-grained sand.
Generally a wooden float is used.
▪ Textured Finish: In this type of finish, ornamental patterns or
textured surfaces, such as ribbed stucco or fan textures, are
made on the final coat of plaster with the help of using suitable
tools.
▪ Depeter Finish: This is another form of rough-cast finish. As in
the case of pebble-dash finish a rendering coat of 12 mm thick
is prepared. While the coat is wet, pieces of gravel or flint are
pressed with hand on the surface. It is possible to have the
desired patterns selecting materials of different kind.
 Depeter Finish

Textured Finish Scrapped Finish

Smooth Cast Finish

▪ Machine Applied Finish: Machines are used to throw
or spatter the material on the wall in a variety of ways
which gives variety of finishes. The machines may be
manually operated or mechanically operated. In order
to through the material a sort of gun is used.

Any external finish, unless it is painted should not require

any maintenance over a long period of time. Light-
colored finish is required to be maintained only by
periodical painting. An external finish is often required to
be protected against rain penetration through the walls.
Cracks also should be avoided.
▪ Laying Trowel
▪ Plum Bob
▪ Gauging Trowel
▪ Float
▪ Floating Rule

Gauging Trowel
1. The prepared surface is washed well with water and kept for sufficient time before
plastering.
2. The type of plaster is decided and mixed.
3. It is preferable to apply the plaster by throwing it with force against the place or surface
to be plastered.
4. If the surface is very much uneven a preliminary rough coat is applied to make it even.
5. Screeds are developed with the help of plumb bob to act as gauges to obtain uniform
thickness of mortar.
6. The mortar is dashed against the surface between screeds and levelled using floats and
straight edges.
7. The final finish is obtained with trowels and the surface is watered for about 7 days.
8. For surfaces which need two coats, the first coat is made and then the surface is
roughened.
9. The roughened surface forms a good seating for the second coat and the surface is
watered for 2 days.
10. After this, the second coat is applied with a thickness of about 3 mm and the surface
finished with trowel and is watered for about 7 days.
▪ Cracks may appear on the plastered surface which may
be easily seen (called hair cracks).
▪ Sometimes the soluble salts are brought to the surface.
Such materials appear in the form of a whitish
crystalline substance which is called efflorescence.
Efflorescence affects the adhesion of paint with wall
surface.
▪ Small patches sometimes swell out beyond the plane
of the plastered surface. These are called as blistering.
▪ Because of inadequate bond available on brick work or
concrete, the adhesion of plaster may not be complete.
▪ Presence of soluble salts on the surface adhesion might
have been lost by their crystallization and expansion.
▪ Failure of bond of successive layers may cause
formation of loose mass which is called flaking.
▪ Failure of plaster may also occur if the suction of the background is not
uniform. Further-background which are absorbing a lot of water
from the plaster may affect the strength of the plaster.
▪ Failure of bond between successive coats may cause peeling of some
portion of plaster.
▪ Plaster sometimes contains particles which expand on being set.
Because of this a conical hole is formed in the plastered surface.
The conical hole is termed as the blow or pop.
▪ Because of poor workmanship, uneven surfaces may be formed.
▪ Presence of excessive dampness at certain parts of the plastered
surface makes that portion soft. Further thin coats may also cause
soft points.
▪ Plastering done on metal lath may show sometimes rust-stains.
(i) Primarily the workmanship towards brickwork and plastering should be the best.
(ii) The bond of the brickwork should be properly maintained to give the plaster a proper
bond.
(iii) The surfaces which are affected by efflorescence should be removed by rubbing with
brushes. Then a solution of one part of hydrochloric acid or sulphuric acid with five parts
of clean water is prepared. The solution is applied on the affected surface. Then the
surface is washed with water.
(iv) The efflorescence should be prevented by selecting a suitable material for mortar.
(v ) Good quality bricks only should be used.
(vi) For brickwork and plastering work, water free from salts should be used.
(vii) In order to avoid the absorb of water in plaster by the background, the background
should be well watered.
(viii) Excessive troweling leads to cracking which should be avoided.
(ix) Prevention of water on to the wall should be avoided.
(x) Damp proof courses should be provided whenever needed.
(xi) The plastered surface should not be exposed to excessive water by natural agencies or
otherwise.
▪ Finishing of mortar joints to have a good appearance is called
pointing.
▪ In general, constructions made with good quality bricks and
stone masonry are finished with pointing to have a pleasing
appearance.
▪ Pointing may be carried out either in lime mortar or
cement mortar.
▪ In lime mortar, lime and sand are mixed in equal volumes. These
two materials are ground carefully in a mortar mill.
▪ Cement mortar also is of equal proportion of cement and sand.
▪ In both the cases the sand used should be clean, fine and
free from any organic impurities.
▪ The mixed mortar should be used as early as possible and in no
case later than 30 minutes.
▪ The existing mortar joint is raked out at least to a depth of 20
mm.
▪ The joint is perfectly cleaned by using a brush.
▪ The mortar joint is made wet by washing with clean water and
kept wet for a few hours.
▪ Over the prepared joint the mortar is carefully placed in the
desired shape. For this purpose, a small trowel is used, and the
mortar is pressed and brought into close contact with the old
interior mortar of the joint.
▪ For at least three days, the finished surface is well-watered
if lime mortar is used and ten days if cement mortar is
used.
The choice of a particular type of pointing depends on
the type of masonry and the effect required.
▪ Flush Pointing: This type of pointing is formed by
removing the excess mortar from the joint and made
flush with the surface of the wall. Although it does not
give a pleasant appearance, it is durable and does not
give any room for accumulation of dust. Thus it has large
usage.
▪ Recessed Pointing: This joint also has a vertical face as
that of flush pointing but pressed inside the wall surface
using a special tool to a length of about 5 mm or more.
This gives a very good appearance
▪ Beaded Pointing: This is a special type of pointing
having a good appearance because of the beading
point. This type is made using a steel or iron rod with a
concave edge. This type of pointing is difficult to
maintain
▪ Rubbed Pointing: This type of pointing is also called as
keyed or grooved pointing. Here a groove is made at
the center of height by a pointer. This type of pointing is
generally adopted as it is easy to make and gives good
appearance
▪ Struck Pointing: In this type the face of the pointing is
made inclined downwards. The upper edge of joint is
at about 10 mm inside the wall surface and the lower
edge is kept just inside the face of masonry. It is not a
common type as water can get collected.
▪ Tuck Pointing: In this type of pointing, a groove is cut
at the center of the mortar joint of 5 mm width and 3 mm
depth. This g roove is then filled with white cement putty
with a projection of 3 mm. If the projection is done in
the mortar, is called half tuck pointing.
▪ V-Pointing: In this type of pointing a V-shaped
groove is formed in the mortar joint.

▪ Weathered Pointing: In this type of pointing a V-

shaped projection is made.