Any experience with Fibafuse material to cover cracked plaster?
My old , circa 1910, plaster walls are badly cracked on the third floor. So far I’ve put many many plaster washers into each side of the cracks to anchor the plaster to the wood lath. Now I’m trying the Fibafuse material which comes in 36″ x 75′ rolls. Doable but a bit difficult for one person. Especially on a coved ceiling. Wondering if its worth the effort. Please let me know if you have any experience with this or any similar product.
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I'm going to check with my plaster guy on this one.
PlasterMike (My plaster guy) wants to know what bonding agent you're using, as well as what trowel for the cove.
I'm using All Purpose, ready made, but thinned down to a yogurt consistency. A pool trowel on the cove. The guy at the drywall/plaster supply store said that All Purpose was the way to go and that I didn't need to use a bonding agent before getting the mud on the wall. I roll the mud on with a 3/4" nap paint roller and slather more on with a trowel if it seems too scant. I expect to put another top-coat of all purpose mud on all of it and then sand. Please let me know what your guy thinks.
Here's a synopsis of my conversation with Mike. First, make sure the existing plaster is well anchored. Remove the loose stuff, then coat everything with Plaster Weld, a bonding agent. Fill the bigger cracks with Durabond or EasySand. Then, go with the Fibafuse and the All Purpose. AP isn't very strong, hence the setting compounds first. You're looking at a few coats to get this right.
Thanks Andy and please thank Mike for me. The more I work with the Fibafuse material the better I feel about it. I'm doing a top-coat immediately when I slap it up on the wall and once it dries (about 24 hours) I do a skim coat with more AP mud. No doubt there will be some areas that need a third coat before the dreaded sanding day.
Using a sander like the Porter Cable drywall tool or the Festool Rotex with dust extraction can make sanding orders of magnitude less horrible.