Hopefully you can get a nice smooth surface with your trowel on your first attempt. Doing this will keep sand out of the finish coat. You can see me do this with the edge of my float in the video several times. Before laying this coat it’s a good idea to scrape down any areas of existing plaster that have sand stuck to them. It should be fairly thin, perhaps a ¼ inch or so. This coat should sit a bit below the final surface to leave room for the finish coat. This coat is a mix of sand and plaster as well. The second coat goes on much easier as most of the holes and gaps in the lath will already be filled in. Lots of it can end up on the floor or on your head. The plaster is more or less squeezed through the holes or gaps in the lath. In older homes it often had horse hair or other fibres to help it stick to the lath. The first coat, called the scratch coat, is a mixture of sand and plaster. Each coat of new plaster should be misted with a squirt bottle before the next coat is applied as well. The existing plaster and lath needs to be slightly damp.
You can spread the coats out over a few days or even do them all on the same day. Plastering is usually done in 2 or 3 coats. For general interior work gypsum based materials are a better choice for amateurs. Lime plaster is the superior choice especially for kitchens and baths but it’s much harder to work with. Gypsum plaster, known as plaster of Paris is also made by heating in a kiln. The resulting lime is used for plastering and for cement. Lime plaster is the oldest type, made by burning limestone in a kiln. Plaster can be gypsum or lime based or even a mix of the two. When repairing or restoring a plaster surface it’s important that the lath is secure and sound. In both cases the lath is fastened to the ceiling joists or wall studs.
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Lath nowadays is a metal screen-like material but earlier construction is thin strips of wood. Plaster construction has two parts, the foundation called lath, and the plaster that is spread through it and on top of it. Spray bottle Plaster wall and ceiling construction Hammer and chisel for opening up the plaster. Get some galvanized nails for fixing down the lath. It’s a latex product that washes up with water. Plaster bonder is also a great idea as it really helps with adhesion. The wood should be roughly an inch and a bit wide and a quarter inch thick. You can use metal lath, or wood if you prefer. Use general purpose sand for your 1st and 2nd layers. It will give you around an hour of working time. It’s a plaster of Paris based product with premixed retardant. It will set up before you can get it out of the bucket.
REPAIRING LATH AND PLASTER WALLS HOW TO
Watch the video or continue reading and you can learn how to repair plaster walls and ceilings too.ĭon’t use straight plaster of Paris. Renovations, electrical work and plumbing problems often require plaster repair work in your house. While it was a big very messy job I am super happy with the end result.
REPAIRING LATH AND PLASTER WALLS PATCH
Having said all that I ended up using a gypsum plaster product to patch up some rather large holes I’d made in my ceiling. ‘A few drops of dishwashing detergent’ isn’t really helpful is it? Cream of tartar supposedly works too but I’ve had no luck with it. The tradespeople aren’t giving up their secrets. Retardant information is not readily available on the internet in any meaningful form. Plaster ‘sets’ or cures in a way similar to concrete. I have tried some of them myself and the biggest issue one faces is knowing what retardants are needed to slow down the cure. And it is very hard to find any tradespeople still doing it.īecause of the skill required some types of plastering are simply too difficult for the average homeowner. Drywall has almost completely replaced it in North America. The ancient art of plastering is sadly dying in our modern era.
But it isn’t like drywall and uses very different techniques and materials. Learning how to repair plaster walls and ceilings isn’t as hard as you think.
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