Plaster is the most important and the oldest building material which is used in different kinds of home and residential construction projects. It can be made from clay, lime, or gypsum and its types vary with respect to their compositions.

1. Basics of Construction – Learn Different Types of Plasters for Walls
Plaster is the most important and the oldest
building material which is used in different
kinds of home and residential construction
projects. It can be made from clay, lime, or
gypsum and its types vary with respect to
their compositions. Earlier in Mughal era,
buildings were plastered while using a
mixture of mud and straw with clay plaster
and wood.
Reference: Marble Mosaic Decorate Your Home While Keeping the Traditional Touch
Here are different types of plasters which have their own functionality and composition.
Bonding Plaster: This is a type of undercoat plaster, which means that it is applied directly on a
wall as a base coat. It is also used for brickwork, block work and breeze block. Having high
adhesive power, it gets bound with most of the surfaces. Usually a bag of 25 kg weight can be
applied to an approximate area of 2.5 square meters with a depth of around 12mm. With a
two-hour setting time, it can be applied on dense concrete blocks or engineering bricks and also
on the concrete itself.
Sand-Faced Plaster
It is actually a layer of cement-sand mortar applied over brickwork and also serves as a damp-
proof coat over the masonry. This type of plaster is used to give a finishing touch to a surface
let’s say to walls and ceilings. To some extent it also serves as a sound and thermal insulation
material. It adds a decorative touch to buildings and also provides a sustainable base for the
paint colors. The first coat of the sand-surfaced cement plaster is applied in 1:4 cement mortar
ratios with coarse sand. The plastering is left for seven days and then a second coat is applied in
1:3 cement plaster ratio on the first coat. In the second coating, sponge is applied on its wet
surface and it should be well-watered for at least 15 days.
Browning Plaster
The type of undercoat plaster is used on more absorbent surfaces. The backing coat plaster
usually comes in grey or pink color. It is more appropriate to use this type of plaster on surfaces
such as common bricks and building blocks or surfaces which have stronger absorbing ability.
Rough Cast Plaster

2. Rough cast plaster is composed of sand and gravel in a specific proportion and is applied over a
freshly plastered surface. The base of plaster consists of two coats under 12mm thick layer and
a top layer with thickness of 12mm in a cement mortar ratio 1:3. Modern house designs in
Pakistan use rough cast plaster for a more durable and decorative touch on the surface of walls
and ceilings.
One Coat Plaster
It is a mixture of binding plaster and multifinish and is called as patching plaster. This is basically
used to level the surface by filling up patching in one go and can be applied with a more greater
thickness as compared to undercoat plasters. Roughly, the thickness of the layer goes up to
50mm.
Smooth Cast Plaster
The finishing touch it gives resembles with that of the sand-faced finish except fine grained
sand and it is used at the place of coarse sand. There is no need of sponging to expose the sand
surface. Usually this kind of plaster is used to coat the internal walls.
Board Finish
Board finish plaster is used on the surfaces with low to medium absorbing ability. It is better to
be applied on Plasterboard and Dry-Coat plaster.
Multi-finish Plaster
This is a top coat plaster, which is best for giving a high finishing touch to other surfaces.
Besides these, there are various other types of plasters, which are used in construction.