My wife and I want to add a second story to our house, the current house is all lath and plaster from the 1940s. We would like to stay with the look and feel of lath and plaster in the addition. Any recommendations on what to use now? I am not sure the city will allow all of the lath slats nor am I interested in paying someone to install this stuff if it is OK.
Thanks for any help or recommendations.
Replies
Where are you located?
Here in central NJ, new plaster walls are almost unheard of. When I first started, I knew a couple of old-time masons who could also plaster. Now I don't know of anyone, and neither does any other contractor I know.
But in New England ( at least, according to the This Old House shows I sometimes watch), they do skimcoat plaster on blueboard.
You're going to have to do some local research to see if anyone is doing plaster in your area. Check with mason and lumber yards, or look in the yellow pages.
Your alternative is sheetrock, which, if done right, can be as smooth as plaster.
Hey Shep, what brands of blueboard are available in your area?
Here in British Columbia the local yard gave me a blank look when I asked about the product. They said they have greenboard (the moisture resistant dw) and have never heard of blueboard.
I went to the USGypsum co site and found nothing there.
I've never seen blueboard around here.
There's a drywall dealer less than 2 miles from my house, and they don't carry it.
Thanks. Just found a blueboard product on the Canadian Gypsum Co site. It's called:
'Grand Prix' Veneer Plaster Base.
Now I have a product name to go back to the yard with. I need 6 sheets and they probably need to order a whole lift, so that's not going to happen.
Shep, do you know of an alternative to blueboard, or a surface pre-treatment that can be applied to std dw prior to skim plastering?
I wonder if D-mix might be part of the solution...though I recall that D-mixDino says that blueboard is the substrate to use.
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Huh? Is that a proven method? Sure would be cost effective.
Have you seen this done first hand...?
Done it myself with structolite, at the recommendation of an Architect.
It worked. Can't say I ever ran into any other first hand instances._______________________________________________________________
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Thx. I'll look into it further.
Heck
Why/how does that work, and hows it different then the right side out?
I'm puzzled
Doug
Doug, did this about 7-8 years ago, as I recall. The reasoning was that the non glossy, rough paper side of the rock would adhere to the structolite. Seems to me that we spray dampened the surface before troweling on the structo, but I can't remember for sure. Think we did, tho.
Seemed to be common knowledge kinda thing at the time.
It sure worked, we were turning an old farm house into a health spa. Some walls we left with the troweled structolite, some we finished with a hard plaster coat. Diamond coat or something, seems like.
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Edited 1/30/2007 12:14 am by Heck
How about using a treatment to the regular drywall to accept the skimcoat plaster....try Larsen Plaster Weld:http://www.larsenproducts.com/plasterweld.htm
My plasters' told me to do the same thing for a fix I had to do myself. The front face is too hard for the plaster to adhere. There is also rock lath which might be available in your area. It is specifically designed to be used as a base for a two coat system.I did the reveresed drywall on a ceiling with structolite, and had the plasters back to do the finish coat last year, and so far it is holding fine. It never hurts to add a bonding agent though. We used Acryl 60, which is added to water and mixed into the structolite. An alternative is a paint on binding agent, but you have to let that cure.
I see more and more veneer plaster like you're talking about. It's usually in high-end situations. But as a fan of old houses, I'm happy to see more and more interest. But I find it hard to find sources of information about products and methods. I have a lot of repair work to do on my house and also want some new walls to resemble the old.
You can do what Heck said and then use Plasterweld which is a paint-on bonding agent. Done it many many times. It's not kosher by USG and the plastering industry, but it works. The best would be to do a brown coat of structo then your white, but I have gone ahead and just done the white right on the board and plasterweld.
Blueboard is nothing more than a sheetrock that is treated with a bonder on the surface to accept veneer white plaster like Diamond mix. You do the same when you use Plasterweld. Follow the instructions.
Here in Central Jersey ... been designing (some) houses with veneer plaster for nearly 30 years. BTW it has something like 6x the impact strength of drywall.
Jeff
You're in central NJ? What town?
And I'd really like to know the contractor you have that will do veneer plaster.
I like plaster, especially when done over rock lath. I think it's both faster, and less dusty than sheetrock. But there doesn't seem to be much call for it, and I work in some high-end towns.
I have seen LOTS of super high end construction in MT where they use Diamond plaster right on regular drywall. Is this bad? Sure seems to work fine, from what I've seen.
I've done plaster on wood lathe (new construction -- don't ask <G>) and believe me you do not want to go there.
Shep is right, there are skim-coat systems commercially available (this is not thinned out drywall mud, but a proprietary setting type gypsum plaster) that is almost indistinguishable from a good three-caot plaster job.
You can even use metal lathe details to get bullnoses and other little visual cues that say "plaster" instead of "drywall."
DW and I have done the "Imperial One Coat" system with blueboard several rooms in our house - works fine, and you can push the finish to match the surface texture of whatever you've got.
Forrest