November 20, 2005
plastered
The lil’lady of the house took a plaster repair seminar this past Saturday.
The seminar, sponsored by a local neighborhood rebuilding organization, focused on “the typical problems of plaster repairs in older homes.” Working on a private residence across the river in Manchester, she learned the right way to fill cracks and and larger holes in plaster walls.
The short of it is that there is, as you might think, much to know about plaster. Second hand, here is some of what she took way from the seminar:
- Plaster walls are usually at least 2 layers of plaster, a “brown” layer of plaster&sand that connects to the lathe, and a “white” finishing layer.
- Try to avoid sanding plaster. Small surface corrections can be made by moistening the plaster.
- She also asked about the hair that we’ve been finding in the plaster in our walls. The plaster master guy that for a while the hair was thought to provide more support for the plaster, but that they stopped using it after a while.
Yeah, the hair is horsehair (either literally or figuratively). Did they advocate using plaster screws (washers about the size of a quarter) to reattach loose plaster to the lath, around cracks and holes? I have not been able to find them anywhere locally. From what I understand they help cracks from recurring, getting worse, and you use them in conjunction with mud/tape/screen etc.
Bill, the instructor, did recommend using the plaster washers and he said they could only be found at Pleasants.