Plastering and drylining
Toolbox talks for plasterers and dryliners
Shaun Holmes
I've spent over 20 years in UK construction. Plastering and drylining is my trade. The briefing I still use before a boarding job is short: what is in the dust, how the boards are getting upstairs, and what we might open in a ceiling that has been there since before 2000.
Sanding filler and plaster is not a separate talk. It sits in the silica dust talk, because that is where HSE's controls for construction dust are written up, including the difference between silica and the gypsum in plasterboard. An L class unit can be suitable for gypsum. It is not the unit for silica. Read that talk before the sander comes out.
The pages stay open to read. The printable pack for this trade, the talks below plus a sign-off sheet for each one, asks for an email the first time.
This talk supplements the site's own risk assessment and method. It does not replace them, and it is not a substitute for competent health and safety advice.
Talks for this trade
About 5 minutes
Silica dust
Sanding filler and plaster, and cutting masonry, puts dust in the air you cannot judge by looking. This is the talk for water, the right extraction, and the difference HSE draws between silica and gypsum.
Read the talk
About 5 minutes
Manual handling
Boards, bags of plaster and lengths of metal stud are the lifts. HSE sets no single safe weight. Change the lift before you teach someone how to bend.
Read the talk
About 5 minutes
Working at height
Ceilings, stairwells and openings in floors. A hop-up is still work at height if a fall could injure someone.
Read the talk
About 5 minutes
Ladders and stepladders
The short reach to a ceiling is where a stepladder gets used because it is already on the van. HSE allows that only for low risk and short duration.
Read the talk
About 5 minutes
Asbestos awareness
Opening a ceiling, a soffit or a wall in a building built or refurbished before 2000. Awareness is not a ticket to work on asbestos.
Read the talk
About 5 minutes
Noise at work
Sanders, mixers and chop saws. Read it before the machine starts, not after someone has to shout the briefing.
Read the talk
About 5 minutes
Power tools and hand-arm vibration
A sander or a mixer sits in the hands for a long time. Vibration is a separate harm from the dust.
Read the talk
About 5 minutes
Slips, trips and falls
Wet floors from mixing and skimming, and offcuts left where the next person will walk.
Read the talk
Tools for your trade
- How many bags of plaster?
25 kg bags of Thistle MultiFinish, with an optional BondingCoat or HardWall undercoat.
- How many plasterboards?
2400 by 1200 or 2400 by 900 boards, plus screws and joint tape.
- What day rate should I charge?
A day rate from the take-home you want, the days you cannot invoice, and the share you set aside for tax.
- Mileage allowance calculator
The HMRC flat mileage rate for a car, van or motorcycle, with the 10,000-mile split.
- VAT threshold checker
A rolling 12-month turnover set against the £90,000 VAT registration line.
HSE pages for this trade
These are the HSE pages I used. None of them are affiliate links.
Construction dust (opens in a new tab)
HSE says regularly breathing construction dust can cause lung cancer, asthma, COPD and silicosis, and that over 500 construction workers are believed to die from silica dust every year. That figure is HSE's. I have not updated it.
Silica dust (opens in a new tab)
Bricks, tiles, concrete and mortar contain silica. The fine dust is too small to see. Water or on-tool extraction comes before a mask.
Manual handling (opens in a new tab)
Avoid the hazardous lift, assess what you cannot avoid, then reduce it. The law does not set a kilogram limit.
Working at height (opens in a new tab)
Avoid the climb, then prevent the fall, then shorten the consequences. Collective protection comes before a harness.
Asbestos (opens in a new tab)
If you think you have found it, stop and tell the person in charge. Do not work on it on the back of an awareness talk.
Noise (opens in a new tab)
Sanders and saws are a noise problem as well as a dust problem. Hearing protection is the last line.
Hand-arm vibration (opens in a new tab)
The time a tool is actually in the hand is the exposure. A sander used all morning counts.
A blank register, with nothing else on the page, is the toolbox talk sign-off sheet. The full library is on the toolbox talks page, and a year of topics is in the 52-week planner.
Plasterers and dryliners toolbox talk pack
The talks on this page, each with its own sign-off sheet, on one page you can print. The talks stay here to read. Opening the pack asks for an email the first time.
Get a ready-to-read toolbox talk every week
I've spent over 20 years in UK construction. Every issue of my free weekly email includes a toolbox talk you can read out on Monday morning, plus plain-English tips for the van and the office.
Free tools for a day rate, a tax estimate, a CIS deduction, and materials are on the tools page.