You can patch damaged plaster with joint compound and joint tape. Fasten with 2" drywall screws. Again, this is a minimum. At openings like junction boxes, spread the compound on quickly using the joint knife. Photo By Ancient Surfaces in New York – image from Ancientsurfaces. Provided the crack survives without crumbling into chunks, fill and tape it much the same as though it were a drywall joint. This is an investment that pays back every day in energy savings. Plaster in a historic building is like a family album. This article concerns itself with three-coat plaster, applied to wood or metal lath and troweled smooth. Plaster has been used for thousands of years, and can even be found in pyramids. Once the brown coat has cured, the top or finish coat goes on, either smooth or in a variety of textured finishes. Stucco or plaster finishes may be tinted with pigments to match your choice of paint color and applied with a trowel, putty knife or roller. Or, try an accent wall! Plaster’s greatness is in its solidity. In other words it’s thicker on some parts of the wall than others. Plaster walls shouldn’t overwhelm you. Once you close it all back in, if you have a block house, you’ll end up with super-deep window sills and exterior door jambs, which are awesome. Their mass will cure you of wanting to use one in about an hour. Again, dampen the surface with water. Drywall is easy to repair. Steps to Repairing Plaster Walls Protect walls and floors in the repair area with plastic drop cloths; use painter’s tape to hold the drop cloths in place. They go in so fast the plaster doesn’t break much, and there’s usually so much wood lath that they catch wood behind the plaster. However, if these squeeze-through blobs are broken below is looking for an excuse to come loose. This is because drywall has many advantages as a material, yet it has a similar look and effect as the previously popular plaster. Sanding the old plaster walls doesn't work. Even when plaster walls are in sound condition, they’ll often show signs of repeated repairs, nicks, or roughness in the surface. Joint tape is too thin to follow it for long. If you can climb in an attic above a room, use the mass of the sledge to pound the ceiling down. Use the trowel to scrape directly across the opening and remove as much material as you can. Use the same plaster for the brown coat and apply it in much the same way: For the finish coat, use Durabond or veneer plaster: It’s a good idea to bring in a set of bright lights and check the walls closely for voids and high spots. Leave any sound material intact. Instead of shooting them straight in, however, I shoot them in at opposing angles in a V. It increases my chances of making a strong nail-to-wood connection. Old plaster walls are little difficult to paint and you have to put a little more effort into the surface preparation job before you apply the first coat of paint. Plaster is inflexible, and the impact vibration sings through the rest of the house. Practice moving the plaster from the hawk to the trowel before you actually apply the plaster to the wall. Next use a pry bar of some type to pierce the plaster and get in behind the lath. Good installation or bad, however, the presence of plaster signifies several things beyond the age of the structure, notably the home probably: So whether you’re adding trim or doing a gut-and-rehab on an old house, here’s a few tricks for working with plaster. No kidding. From what I can tell the plaster is potentially showing several different forms of damage: hairline cracks, delaminating cracks, bubbling (and possibly, bulging). Old work can be replicated, but that's another story. We sheet it with plastic, which we cut a little proud all the way around the door. Try to drive a hand-nail in it while upgrading a room with chair rail or crown, and the nail head will either bend (if the plaster is directly over block), or it’ll just crush the plaster and not really catch anything. Three coats of wet plaster are applied in layers to the lath: the scratch coat, the brown coat, and the finish coat. Allow each application of plaster to dry and sand between coats. Behind the plaster walls are narrow strips of wood called lath. Plaster walls have a tendency to crack and crumble if you attempt to hammer a nail directly into the wall. For smaller jobs, there’s no need to mix up a traditional lime- and sand-based plaster. Use a joint knife to remove the accumulation from the trowel, then scrape the trowel at the hard angle once again. I usually hold it vertically and sort of drop it onto the lath to get a feel for how much force is required to break the connection. If needed, apply drywall/plaster tape to the wall to fill in larger, bumpy areas. An active cold-air return sucking air could easily bypass RRP’s draping system and deposit lead dust throughout the home. And, if this doesn’t signal the word “permit” to you, it should. If you are working above the plaster ceiling of a lower floor, such as removing a bathroom, and you have the subfloor out, check the “keyways” below you (the plaster that squeezed through the lath). Pierce and Pry. OK, now on to the good stuff. https://www.thisoldhouse.com/walls/21133086/how-to-repair-plaster-walls Before we can start to prime our walls, we first must ensure that the plaster is dry. Try to keep the skimmed repairs as thin as possible as you work quickly around the room. It has been common practice to put a box fan in the window and blow the dust outside. To get an accurate measurement on how thick the wall is, I measure it from straight-edge to straight-edge in three places—top, middle, bottom. Its to dense and was just a waste of time. Imagine that lined up on the curb for the garage man. Then fill in the hole as above. For lath and plaster repair, it’s important to use good techniques and the right materials. Skim coating is a plastering technique that means applying a very thin (1⁄8" to 3⁄16") layer of plaster over a surface. The first step to removal in a plaster demo project is to strip all the mouldings. When replacing doors I find it best to fabricate new jambs on site. If you’re faced with an extensive network of cracks or cracks in haphazard patterns known as map cracking, cover the walls with sheets of adhesive-backed fiberglass mesh with an elastomeric coating, such as Nu-Wal, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Then pull. The most versatile finish for most home applications is a satin finish that combines the soft warmth of a matte or flat finish with the ease of cleaning that comes with semi-gloss or gloss finishes. It could take up to a month (or even longer in cold climates) for a plaster wall to cure fully enough to allow for painting which slowed the construction process down. I think this project is going to be a … As the plaster begins to dry, brush a coat of water over it and smooth it out quickly. Mix to the consistency of mashed potatoes, and only as much as you will need for the patch. For scratch or brown coats, choose a basecoat plaster mix, such as Structo-Lite, a perlite-aggregate gypsum that is much lighter than a traditional sand-based plaster. This forms a gasket when the door is closed, and we keep it closed snugly with a simple screen door spring. A crow bar (much lighter) works here, too. The handwriting of the artisans, the taste of the original occupants, and the evolving styles of decoration are embodied in the fabric of the building. Typically, old plaster walls are more temperamental than the drywall, therefore, you should not skip any part of the prep work or you may find yourself doing repairs in the long run. Wait a couple of minutes for the water to soak into the wall. Stand close to the wall to avoid mess and spillage. The blast gate closes securely with the help of a tightly installed screen door spring. Work the material into the void from different directions to get all the air pockets out. Apply the plaster with an arcing motion, taking care to press material through the wood or metal lath (see below). However, a drop cloth with a couple layers of cardboard beneath it will really help. At its worst, it’s a brittle wall-covering that’s practically looking for a way to jump off the wall. Also, since the compound tends to get stiff quickly, scrape it off into the bucket and take out a fresh scoop fairly often. How traditional plaster is made. Add small dabs of plaster to fill in hollows, then smooth out the ridges. With the walls open, you have the opportunity to insulate and update old plumbing and wiring (pipe and wire is cheapest while walls are open). In more modest homes, the brown coat might be skimped on or otherwise skipped, which leaves the plaster finish thin and easily damaged. See, the problem with cutting the new jamb to the accurate width is that plaster undulates. Then check for shrinkage—spots where the new coat has shrunken away from the old one. It helps to occasionally wet the edges of your tools, wiping them in a clean bucket of water to remove any build up. Sand the patch smooth with fine-grit sandpaper on a sanding block. Keep the brown coat at least 1⁄8" below the level as it begins to set up. Large metro areas that have a large stock of older homes tend to have tradespeople who specialize in plaster application and repairs. Assuming you are skim coating freshly repaired plaster walls that have not been wallpapered or painted, begin by applying a bonding agent. But first (there’s always a “but first” with me  isn’t there? Drywall is quickly becoming a replacement for plaster for the interior walls of homes. Another big reason the industry never shifted back to plaster—aside from the fact that plaster is much more labor-intensive and expensive to install than drywall—was the immediate need to house soldiers returning en masse from the War. The way you would have to do that is to tear off all of any loose plaster and paper and paint that was remaining on your wall, and probably clean it and seal it with a product called KILZ. If you get a dumpster, which is probably the fastest and easiest, you have to make sure it can fit in—and not damage—your driveway. Make the coat as level as possible to provide a solid base for the finish coat. Prep the surface by generously dampening it with water before you begin. Old houses are famous for settling and leaving door jambs frustratingly out of square, requiring new ones be installed when doors are upgraded. If you have old plaster walls, you may notice that the damage distracts from the beauty of the rest of the room. Using colored plaster rather than painting over a textured plaster finish ensures the color won't chip, scrape or peel … First press hard on either side of the crack to make sure that the plaster isn’t moving. I’ve tried various approaches to demolishing plaster, and the fastest one I’ve found is what I call “pierce and pry.” First, strip all the mouldings. Leave them in place. Copyright 2020 Extreme How To. Start by drilling small pilot holes at least 2" away from each side of the crack. Houses in this condition may well have wallpaper, which was used as decoration as much as to hold the plaster together. Our house has majority plaster walls that were all covered with wallpaper. Lower grades of framing lumber aren’t entirely stable and can twist and warp even when nailed in place. “If a plaster wall gets wet and stays wet, the plaster will rot,” Mr. Reeve said. A 12-by-12-foot by 8-foot tall room will generate about 3,000 pounds of debris. When dry, mix a batch of Structo-Lite, a lightweight perlite-gypsum base coat. Then fasten the washers with 2" screws. Patching cracked walls is a skill that falls somewhere between the trades of plastering and drywall finishing. Split-jamb doors can be a good solution here, but their limited trim and door packages might not match your old house mojo, which is why we end up fabricating jambs on site. In case of a power shortage, the stair can be operated manually. Once you’ve reached solid plaster, brush away all the loose debris. If the patch has a depth of around 12mm (1/2″), you should be able to plaster it in one go, if it is deeper, you may have to make two applications, otherwise, the weight of the wet plaster will drag itself away from the wall. (Note: I let dust clear before taking this photo and took the gear off; I got so wound up in getting the photos I forgot to put it back on.). Give your plaster walls a fresh coat of paint before hanging your pictures.
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