11 Comments
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Dan Hawley's avatar

I video would be great!! I’m interested in how you acquire and mix the plaster.

Duane's avatar

Enjoyed the exposition on plastering and it’s relationship to planing wood. Would not have thought of that relationship!

I would note that while restoring our 1863 house and removing multiple layers of wallpaper and paint and wallpaper and more paint I was struck by 2 things. First, the walls had 7+ layers and the ceilings ~5.

Second, once I got down to the original plaster the formal room ceilings were finished with marble dust in the final layer. It was as hard as rock (duh!) and flat and smooth. So flat you’d think it was done by a machine. When scraping off paint and wallpaper I never hit an imperfection.

I’ve done a fair amount of Sheetrock work and I cannot imagine the learning and skill it took to plaster our ceilings. I’m ashamed to say I covered them in a skim coat but the decades of coal dust and kerosene lamp black made it necessary.

Pete, I hope your neck and shoulder muscles are surviving!

Caleb James's avatar

Very cool. Thanks for sharing!

Tim's avatar

Hi Pete, keen to have a video on this. Is there a recipe?

Peter Galbert's avatar

I’ll shoot one soon

John G's avatar

Very interesting method, is blue board the same as the moisture resistant green board for sale in most home centers? Also are there any adhesion problems getting the plaster to adhere to the blue board?

Love your Chair Notes blog.

Peter Galbert's avatar

Blue board is made for bonding with the plaster, I’m not sure how green board would do but you can always paint it with plaster weld first to ensure adhesion

Alex Moseley's avatar

I’ve spent the past twenty four years in homes with plaster walls, and you made me want to learn to plaster.

Michael O’Brien's avatar

Thanks Pete for that very succinct, yet clear explanation of the differences between mudding drywall ( have done that) and plastering ( have not done that). I was never aware of these differences and your words have clearly informed me . That was a good respite from woodworking, and your analogy between it and plastering was very good.

Cheers,

Michael

Tyrel Bleifus's avatar

After talking through this with you and now seeing it in your home, you have this son of a drywaller pretty inspired to carry it out on my own remodel

Joe Bass's avatar

Wow Pete- the contrast between the plaster and the beams is gorgeous. Your place is really shaping up!