In an old home let's be sure to look past the "bones" and see that the plumbing is the circulatory system, the electrical is the nervous system, windows are the eyes, HVAC is the respiratory system, and the plaster and lath walls covering most interior surfaces, well, that plaster is your home's skin. The bones are represented by the framing and structural items, but one needs more than "good bones" to have a human who is worth anything. In reality, when you hear the phase "that house has good bones," it's giving a sense of humanity to a building. North by Northside, Jeff SkrenesNorth by Northside, Jeff Skrenes Before we shook off the propaganda I'm rather certain started with the gypsum board industry, much the same way vinyl window salesman have long peddled the theory that a home's 100+ year old windows should certainly be removed in favor of energy efficient gems that cost a pantload and "should last a good 30 years." Oh, what a bargain.right? When we started to think about our home renovation plans, the initial thoughts that our cracked, bumpy, and crumbling plaster was "too far gone" and the belief that we'd need to "gut every room" entered into our conversations quite frequently. Once secured, the loose plaster can be finished with a spackling compound.When we moved into our house we had been indoctrinated by countless television shows and contractor horror stories in dealing with the fragile, crumbling, dusty, and gritty mess that tends to represent old fashioned plaster. For smaller cracks, simply secure the loose plaster using a plaster washer and screw found at most home stores.
Then secure the cracked plaster to the adhesive using plastic washers and screws.Īllow the adhesive to set for a day or two, then remove the screws and washers and fill the cracks with a spackling compound.
The next step is to spray a conditioner into all of the unmarked holes.Īllow the conditioner to set for 10 minutes, and then apply the Plaster Magic adhesive through the unmarked holes until they are filled.
Later you will install a plaster washer and screw at the marked holes. If you drill into a piece of wood lath, stop drilling and mark the hole with a pencil for identification. Try to drill in between the wood lath strips. To make repairs, first drill several three-eighths-inch holes through the plaster on all sides of the cracks. You'll need plaster washers and screws from the hardware store, or you can use the washers and screws included in the Plaster Magic kit if there is wood lath supporting the plaster. One product you can try is Plaster Magic. There are do-it-yourself remedies for severely cracked and damaged plastered walls. The home's walls can be skim coated using quarter-inch-thick drywall, but you will lose some of the aesthetic appeal of the room's finish because the added drywall will cover a portion of the woodwork's exposed edges. There should be a minimum of one screw every 12 inches over the entire surface area of the drywall. The screws must be long enough to penetrate the drywall and plaster and then extend at least five-eights of an inch into the ceiling joists. Use screws, not nails, to fasten the drywall to the ceiling. If ceiling joints are 24 inches apart, use five-eights-inch sheets of drywall. If the ceiling joists are 16 inches apart, then I would recommend applying a minimum of half-inch-thick sheets of drywall to the ceiling.