Refina Plasiflex finishing trowel

Plasiflex trowel for skimming and finishing plaster a review

                           The 14" plasiflex by refina tools

As a decorator you may come across Artex ceilings which are a little dated i have often been asked to skim over these or do i know a plasterer who could do the job?

I am used to using caulking tools with plastic blades for joint finishing and saw these trowels used for skimming, they have a very flexible edge and are becoming a popular choice with professional plasterers. I decided to buy and use a plasiflex to skim over a swirl artex ceiling for a customer.

The tool itself is very well made and the edges surprisingly flexible.

It was as you can See from the video very easy to use and i was very pleased with the results.

After preparing the ceiling by scraping away any high spots from the artex i then repaired some quite large cracks with self adhesive joint tape the tape was then roughly skimmed over with plaster.

a generous coat of thinned unibond applied to the ceiling sealed the artex ready for skimming.

As you can see the ceiling was perhaps the worst type to test my plastering skills which had been confined to patching small areas and skimming onto boards but i found this tool surprisingly easy to use it very lightweight and ergonomically well designed for prolonged use.

Once you get used to the feel of the tool and spreading without pressing the plaster too much it was a speedy job to quickly apply the first coat of plaster to back fill the artex which in places was a couple of mill deep.

once set i began to apply the second coat and it was only then that this tool began to show its true ease of use the flexi edge smoothed the rough first coat without effort and it was very difficult to believe it was this easy to skim such a rough large area so quickly.

The ceiling dried to a great unpolished finish ideal for mist coating a couple of days later.

I would not hesitate in recommending this product and it paid for itself on its first job.

So if you do the odd bit of patching or want to branch out into offering to skim rooms this would be a good choice of tool.

flexible not half!