Patching Plaster Walls . The walls have small to medium- sized areas where some of the plaster is missing and there are numerous jagged cracks in the walls. In some areas I can see down to a rough, sandy brown- colored plaster. Do you think we can repair these defects on our own using skim coat plaster or other tools? All of the paint came off the walls easily to expose the original white- plaster walls. How hard is it to work with plaster? How to Patch and Plaster Walls in Your Old House. How to Repair Hole and Cracks in Plaster Wall (step by step, start to. How to Patch and Plaster Walls in Your Old House. Amy C., Brooklyn, NYDEAR AMY: My biggest concern at this point is that you may have created a serious health issue in removing the paint from the walls. Because of the age of the building, I would be willing to wager significant money that the paint you removed contained lead. If this is so, there may be significant amounts of small lead paint chips in the rooms and significant amounts of visible or invisible lead dust in the rooms. Before you do any plaster patching, I urge you to rid the rooms of any residual lead. If you try to vacuum up chips or dust, you must use a special HEPA filter- equipped vacuum cleaner. Some tool rental stores rent these. Change and wash the filter regularly and dispose of the wash water down a toilet. Mop the floors and wash down walls making sure to change the wash water regularly and dispose of the contaminated water down a toilet.
Obtain all approved cleaning procedures and cleaning products from the EPA's website: http: //www. Because of the depth of this hole, it will require two or more applications of patching plaster. PHOTO CREDIT: Amy Caroli. I think you can successfully patch the plaster if you have some patience and a fair amount of hand- eye coordination. To obtain professional results you will need to practice and use the correct products. Many old plaster patching jobs fail because people use the wrong materials for the job. Do not use the common drywall joint compounds you often find in home centers. These products are only meant to be used with paper- faced drywall. They bond poorly to traditional plaster. Plaster patching must be done with patching plaster and sometimes plaster of Paris for the best results. You can achieve moderate success with setting- type joint compounds and these might be a good product to use to practice your repair techniques. Setting- type compounds are powders that mix with water. Patching Large Cracks. Patching Large Cracks And Holes Filling in large cracks and holes is multi-step process. Fill in gap half-way with patching plaster 2. Fill in gap again with patching plaster 3. Finish filling in gap. Repairing Damage to Plaster Walls. Hairline cracks in plaster walls are too thin to actually be remedied. Plaster walls are thicker than drywall and have better insulation and soundproofing qualities. Plaster has an extremely hard surface that is less likely to dent or have holes knocked into it. Plastering walls is done by. Plaster walls look great--until the moment they start developing cracks. What can you do about cracked plaster? Repair Cracks in Plaster Walls With This Easy Method. Repairing Plaster Wall. The water starts a chemical reaction that causes invisible crystals to begin growing. These crystals interlock within the coarse open plaster to create a strong bond. The advantage to using this material is that it is often sandable. If you make a finishing mistake, you can sand down any excess material. Traditional patching plaster and plaster of Paris are not sandable. Before applying any product to the walls, they must be clean and free of any dirt, grime or grease. All loose plaster must be removed and all cracks should be enlarged so that the top of the crack is at least one- quarter inch wide. If at all possible, try to make the bottom of the cracks wider than the top. This will take extra work, but the patching compound will interlock into the old plaster like a dovetail joint once it hardens. Slightly dampen the areas to be patched with water just before applying any patching compound. The trick to patching plaster is to start with small holes that are no bigger than two inches in diameter. If the hole is deeper than one- half inch, then only fill the hole halfway with patching material. The patching material may harden within several hours and then you can mix new material to finish the job. Use regular drywall finish tools to work with the patching materials. I prefer to use different knives, my favorites being five- inch, ten- inch and twelve- inch flexible broad knives. These tools held at a 3. Both the setting type compounds and the patching plasters can be finished with a sponge as they harden. Professional plasterers will often use a small amount of water on their trowels to make the setting plaster slick as a piece of glass. It takes great skill to perfect this method. You can try to do this as the compounds set, but you have to time it just right. The best way to practice is to mix some of the patching plaster and use it to fill a small hole that might be hidden behind a piece of furniture once the remodeling is complete. Use your drywall knives to apply the compound and get it as smooth as possible with little or no excess on the wall. Make sure you use a knife whose blade is longer than the hole is wide. With the blade spanning the hole, make repeated light strokes over the wet patching compound until no excess material collects on the knife blade. If you press too hard, you might create a slight depression in the patched area. Use the sponge to wipe any excess patching compound off the adjacent, sound plaster. As the patching compound gets quite hard, gently stroke it with a damp sponge to make it smooth. How to repair cracks in a plaster wall. Q: What is the best way to repair cracks in plaster? A: It depends on the type and size of the crack. Hairline cracks take only a little patching plaster. Larger cracks require reinforcement with mesh tape. Cracks larger still, where the plaster keys are broken, require reattaching with plaster buttons. To repair a hairline crack, . Once the crack is open, remove loose debris from the crack with a vacuum cleaner. Use patching plaster to fill it. Patching plaster is the same material used as the finish coat on a lath and plaster wall. It's sold in powder form and dries very quickly and hard. It sands easily and makes a seamless repair for small cracks. Fill a spray bottle with water and give the open cracks a good spritz to make sure the patch doesn't dry too quickly. Mix a small amount of the powdered plaster with water. Use a 3- or 4- inch drywall knife to fill the cracks. Allow the patch to dry and sand it smooth. It may require two coats to get the patch perfectly smooth. Then you're ready for paper or paint. Sometimes when you start to vee out a crack, it expands like mother's homemade bread. If the crack becomes more than 1/4 inch wide, simply filling it with patching plaster may not be enough. In this case, use mesh drywall tape and quick- drying drywall mud to give the best chance of a lasting repair. Preparation for filling these larger cracks is the same as for hairline cracks. Scrape out the debris from the crack and spray it with water before applying the first coat of mud. Don't worry if the mud doesn't fill the void, but try to keep it level with the existing surface. After the first coat is dry, give the patch a light sanding to ensure that the edges of the patch are even with the wall. Next, put a piece of mesh drywall tape over the crack. It reinforces the crack and will lessen the chance that it will reappear. Apply a coat of mud over the tape. Let it dry and sand smooth. You'll probably have to repeat the process one more time to get a seamless repair. Reattaching plaster with broken keys - the plaster that squishes through the cracks in the lath and then hardens to hold the plaster in place - is a multistep process. You'll need a cordless drill and bit, a wet/dry vacuum, adhesive and some drywall screws with plastic washers. With a 3/1. 6- inch carbide- tipped masonry drill bit, bore holes through the plaster. The masonry bit will move through the plaster but won't easily penetrate the wooden lath. Drill evenly spaced holes - about every 3 inches - around the damaged wall area. If you happen to hit one of the gaps between the lath, mark it with a pencil. Remember, lath runs horizontally, so when you hit a gap, drill the next hole a little higher or lower. Clean dust from the holes with a wet/dry vacuum. Use adhesive that will bond the plaster to the lath. Adhesive should come in a tube to be applied with a caulking gun. Check out the local paint store for its recommendation, and follow the manufacturer's instructions. Trim the adhesive tube's nozzle to the size of the holes in the plaster and inject the adhesive into each hole. Immediately after squeezing adhesive into the holes, use the drill equipped with a Phillips head bit to screw drywall screws with a plastic washer into as many holes as necessary to pull the plaster tight against the lath. Wipe away any adhesive that oozes out of the holes. Allow the adhesive to dry, and remove all the screws and plastic washers. If necessary, scrape the rings and any high spots of adhesive from the wall with a putty knife. Fill the holes with patching plaster, spackle or joint compound. Let the wall dry overnight and sand the surface lightly with 1. If necessary, apply a second compound coat, let dry and sand.
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