SECQUENCE FOR INTERNAL FINISHES

Upon arrival to the jobsite the CMU are ready to be installed and yes theoretically ready for cement plaster, you must apply cement mortar to the joints as to fabricate the walls; the CMU faces to be cement plastered are also ready. If not because the wall must be sound enough as not to be damaged by the plastering operations you could cement plaster right away. Because cement mixes reach 70% of their strength after 3 days you might be able to cement plaster the CMU wall. You can consider the mortar between the CMU as kind of a scratch coat that must be recoated ASAP. The more you wait the more mold might grow. Also remember, the greener the cement the better the bond between coats, the short required time between coats is for initial cracking to happen at the scratch coats.

After 3 days we work on the tie beams and columns required as per our codes because we are in an earthquake zone, and because of hurricane wind design requirements that control design of low and light structures. Then after another 4 days we can cement plaster our walls, this adds up to a week. We usually apply cement plaster on a single coat unless the plastering is applied on metal lath.

What you cannot do is apply any paint coat on the cement plaster before it has cured; therefore to apply paint over cement plaster we are required to allow the new plaster to dry and cure for at least 3-4 weeks under dry weather conditions wherever possible before applying the first coat of paint.

Dear P.,

Your PM is pushing hard to complete the works. Yes it is possible to finish the Concrete walls in 3 days and the plastering in 2 days if you have enough manpower.

Say you have a wall 3 meters height. Each day you will build 5 rows of block = 0.20m block height x 5 block rows/ day x 3 days = 3.0m height block wall without tie beams.

4th day you will complete the plastering guides
5th day you will complete plastering between the guides.

So you can tell your PM you can finish in 5 days if he can arrange enough manpower.

With kind regards,

Samer