Rating Q2 plaster: Poor work or normal?

Hello everyone, the interior plaster is now dry and the painter would like to start soon. Q2 with gypsum plaster was agreed upon.

Yesterday, I took the following pictures with a flashlight and raking light. I am aware that raking light makes more visible than usual, but is this “normal” for raking light and Q2 or bad workmanship? I tend to think it is bad workmanship. The site manager has been informed but has not been able to check yet.

That is clearly quite badly cleaned / filled. I can manage that too. No [Malervlies] can cover that up. They definitely need to go over it again.

(PS: I do not mean streaks and flakes. But for Q2 there must be, as far as I know, a "standard measure of flatness." From my point of view, this is not visible here. A textured wallpaper should be applied without having hills and valleys.)

Take a slightly longer spirit level or a straight edge and hold it against the wall. Then take photos.

Are the walls straight? With gypsum plaster, a smooth wall surface should be possible. What’s shown in the pictures I would call botched work. I suspect the gypsum plaster had already set after being applied to the wall and was scraped off too late.

But plastering work is usually done by some Romanian sub-sub-subcontractors. They get paid by performance, meaning per square meter. Someone once told me it’s somewhere between 15 and 20 euros per sqm. Including material and as a company.

You shouldn’t be surprised by such results. This wouldn’t even pass in Romania.

I would first be interested to know what exactly was commissioned.
- Plaster smoothed or scraped
- Ready for wallpapering, ready for painting, or other definition
- Single layer or multi-layer
- Flatness tolerances agreed
-...

Apart from that, dents, craters, and ridges are also not in accordance with the contract even at Q2.

For example, standard Q2 smoothed is defined as:
"Wird die Qualitätsstufe 2 (Q 2 – geglättet) gewählt, sind vereinzelte Abzeichnungen, wie z.B. Traufelstriche, nicht auszuschließen. Schattenfreiheit bei Streiflicht kann nicht erreicht werden."
This is significantly better than the actual condition at your site.

Thank you for the feedback. Yes, it was also a crew from Eastern Europe here:

The following was agreed:

No open flame

1st layer lime-cement-light plaster applied
Quality level: Q2
Compressive strength: >2.5 N/mm²
Plaster thickness: 10mm

2nd layer
Apply fine plaster/smooth plaster and trowel smoothly