Welcome to the sixth edition for 2007.

As you noticed, you didn't get this newsletter in June. I took an early summer break. Now that Independence Day has passed, and multiple family celebrations, I am back in the saddle.

I hope you will find this issue helpful or at least instructive. Please pass it on to friends who may be contemplating a big work at home project. Okay?

Features:

--- 1. Sagging ceilings - 50's Style

--- 2. Tools of the trade

--- 3. No cost e-course: HOW TO REPAIR YOUR PLASTER RIGHT

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l. 1. Sagging ceilings - 50's style

Somewhere around the late forties and early fifties of the last century, there occurred in the US a major shift in the way interior walls and ceilings were plastered. In some parts of the country, this happened earlier.

This new way of plastering was definitely an improvement over the old wood lath backing system. Now we had a new product called "rock lath plaster" or something similar, depending on where you lived.

Gone were the wood strips. Now we had rock lath, essentially a sheetrock product in narrow pieces, usually 16 X 32 or 48 inches and 3/8 inch thick. These were nailed over the ceiling and wall framing in staggered fashion and finished with two to three coats of plaster. In Oregon where I live, there were usually three coats of sanded plaster trowelled over the rock lath.

My first summer out of high school, I worked as a framing carpenter - waaaay back in 1961. We were setting up and pouring concrete foundations and framing a whole house (small, three bedroom, single car garage) in five days flat, with a crew of 7 men. No nail guns, and we stick framed the roofs (no trusses).

We would hardly finish one house and move to the lot next door when the plumbers and electricians and insulators were right behind us. Then the plasterers came in to do their thing. The lather guys were nailing up the rock lath lickety split and the plaster applicators were right on their tails.

To save time and money, the base coat of plaster was shot onto the ceilings and walls of rock lath through a rubber hose from a large stationary mixer out in the yard. The plasterers trowelled it flat and used darbies to get it more or less level across the surface.

I would poke my head in once in a while just to see what the guys were doing. I had never seen plastering done before and I was curious. I remember the wet plaster had a strong sweet smell, like cake frosting. The house interiors generated very high humidity and on warm days these interiors were like a sauna. I felt sorry for the guys working inside. Needless to say, I had no envy for these guys and their job.

Flash forward about ten years or so, and now I am encountering similar homes with the rock lath plaster and they have problems!

I am training with a drywall guy and we sometimes have to deal with old plaster on the job. You would expect lots of cracks with the old wood lath and plaster, and we repaired those. But the rock lath and plaster - well, that was the "new" stuff to us, and it was disconcerting to see problems showing up there also.

CRACKING. SAGGING. WAVY CEILINGS.

What was happening? As we thought about it, thinking in terms of our experience with drywall installation and finishing, we came to some conclusions.

First: no reinforcement of the rock lath seams. The plaster was applied in every case without any tape reinforcement. We knew what would happen if you just filled drywall seams without taping them first. Cracks everywhere.

The plasterers were counting on the thickness and superior strength of plaster to hold everything in place. But a house where the framing is drying and curing in place for years after the house is finished is a house that moves, however subtly. Enough, anyway, for cracks to show up - following the seams. You had long straight cracks, and you had el-shaped cracks. Not pretty.

When the sunlight came throuh the windows at just the right angle, we could see waves in the ceiling plaster, too. The plaster over the seams would dip in and you had a series of "swales" that gave the ceiling the wavy look.

So what we had to do was to get the ceiling level again. You can attach 1 X 4 nailing strips across the ceiling, spaced 16 inches apart. Put up and finish drywall and texture it to look like the original plaster if the homeowner wanted that.

Or .... work with the existing plaster in place. This involved taping cracks with drywall tape and filling the low spots with two or more coats of hot mud, then trowelling the remaining areas so all the plaster is now covered.

Both ways are labor intensive, and I tended to lean toward the second option. I was concerned about adding all the additional weight of sheetrock to those already heavy ceilings. A new skin of joint compound over the plaster was a lot lighter than a layer of drywall.

I have done acres (so it seems) of such ceilings over the years. It is hard but satisfying work. And the clients are happy.

Oh ... the unanswered question. Why the sags in the ceiling?

Like drywall, the long edges of the plaster lath are rolled down, making them thinner. The plasterers should have at least prefilled these areas and let them harden, before applying the whole base coat. Then these "swales" would not have shown up in the final product.

Another contributing factor. In many cases, it might have helped if each individual coat of plaster had been given a little bit more time to cure before the next coat is applied. The thin rock lath is supporting a lot of weight, and the moisture from quick successive wet coats could cause the lath themselves to droop a little before the plaster hardened.

Now homebuilders have a better plaster system to choose - veneer plaster. Big sheets of plaster board (fewer seams), fiberglass tape over seams, and thin tough new plaster formulas make the modern plaster job more reliable in the long run.

2. Tools of the trade: Which is better for coating taped plaster cracks and drywall seams - wide knife and pan, or hawk and trowel?

If you are new to doing your own plaster repair or drywall, you most likely will find the pan and knife (knives) easier to master. Using a five or six inch knife for taping, and wider knives - maybe 8 and 10 inchers - for top coating and for skimcoating old plaster will do the trick nicely. But you will find that using these tools will tire your body in unexpected ways.

Part of the do-it-yourself project when it comes to plaster repair is the physical conditioning that goes with it.

Handling unfamiliar tools and materials will put some stress on muscles you didn't know you had. It's okay. Your body will adapt quickly as you move ahead. But be patient with yourself. Do the work in manageable periods so you don't wear yourself out.

I can use pan and knives just fine, but for topcoating and skimcoating, I prefer the plasterers' hawk and trowel. My boss had me learn to use these very versatile tools right from the beginning. It was awkward at first, of course. But I picked it up doing garages and closets and after a while, my boss turned me loose in the main parts of the house. At that point, I appreciated his vote of confidence.

I like the hawk and trowel because with these tools I can go FAST! I have worked side by side with union drywallers (many years ago) who liked the pan and wide knives for topcoating. These guys had a lot more experience than I did, and they had mastered the tools, but I ran circles around them when it came to production. And that was possible only because I was using the hawk and trowel.

For newcomers to the plaster repair/drywall stuff, I would recommend the pan and knives route, unless you have a LOT to do and you are willing to submit to a little longer learning curve with the hawk and trowel. By the way, the tools are quite a bit more expensive than pan and knives.

But ... try what you like. If your first choice is not to your liking, you can always change.

3. No cost e-course: HOW TO REPAIR YOUR PLASTER RIGHT

I offer this as a good way to get an overview of some of the issues involved in plaster repair and renovation. I have had a nice number of people sign up so far.

If you have a friend who needs some pointers, refer them. You will be doing us both a favor.

Send them here. Send them here.

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This would appear to be a good place to stop. I hope you will let me know if there are things you would like to see in the newsletter that haven't appeared so far.

Really, I am open to suggestions. Use the contact form on the website.

Until the next time, the best of luck on your home projects.