I will soon need to undetake repairs to a plaster ceiling in my family room. The damage was done by a leak in the roof (attic above the family room) and this will be fixed with the new roof that’s going on in a week or two.
The house has radiant heat with copper tubing imbedded in the plaster ceilings in some of the rooms, including the family room. The house was built in 1962. From some other adventures I’ve had with this ceiling it looks like there are two layers of plaster. The first one is composed of blue board and then plaster and has the heating tubes. The second layer is thinner and is just plaster.
Where the leak is there is about a 4 ft square are where the plaster has discolored and in the middle of the square there are cracks and it looks like the second layer of plaster is delaminating from the rest. The rest of the ceiling is in pretty good shape.
Can I just knock down the loose stuff and trowel on some new plaster? I watched someone do plaster work in the past, but have never done it myself. I have tackled some fairly complex remodeling and have some experience with drywall taping and finishing. I’ve done some concrete finishing too.
Thanks for any ideas including where to get plaster.
–Tom
Replies
"including where to get plaster"
At a real lumberyard.
Rich Beckman
Do yourself a favor and locate Fine Homebuilding #103, July 1996, which features Mario Rodriguez's "A New Way to Repair Old Plaster".
He talks about using sand fortified joint compound and fiberglass mesh as a repair base coat and then finish coating with several thin layers of joint compound. (There is no sanding involved.)
I am about to venture into repairing ceiling and wall cracks in a 1950's era ranch which has scratch coat plaster.
Amazingly, the original owner never painted them.
One ceiling crack and stain is a major one from a chimney flashing leak down to the livingroom fireplace.
Tom - One of the most important products to use here with a multilayer ceiling application is called a "Bonding Agent."
T. Jeffery Clarke