Trying to capture this plaster damage in photos proved more difficult than I anticipated. Anyways we removed the loose plaster, and the rotted out metal lath from a previous repair

 

 The metal lath is from a another plasterer (probably my dad) from a long time ago (decades). Looks like they forgot to load basecoat on his truck, because the previous plasterer did the entire repair with finish coat plaster. That is why the wood lath is white.

 

 

We had to be careful as there wasn’t much holding up this ceiling. Most of the plaster keys were broken, and the lath nails rotted away. This was obvious due to the movement of the previous repair. Plaster isn’t supposed to move when you push on it.
Once the old plaster was removed, we installed metal lath directly to the existing wood lath. Almost all of our competition will either install thin drywall over the wood lath or worse- remove the wood lath to install drywall.

 

 The pink stuff is special plaster glue. Its called Plaster-Weld. You would think after 50 years they would include handles on their 1 gallon cans!

 /end rant

 

The next photo shows the basecoat. We applied this directly over the metal lath. 

Here is a progression picture. I stopped at this point to ensure both angles were set prior to finishing the ceiling – about 30 minutes. In this photo, the dark brown on top is basecoat, and the white, is plaster finish.

Finished.

 

We noticed some cracks, that weren’t originally in the bid directly to the left of this damage, that we just went ahead and repaired as well. Why not we are already on site, and its not that much.

 

Next step is to apply texture, and then in 2 weeks, we will prime and paint the foyer. The homeowner is trying to restore the home to its original condition, so they opted to keep the heavy texture that is on the walls. Its easier, to re-texture the surfaces once the patchwork is completed.

The white borders around the patches is dried lime-water. Its from using a large brush with water to finish the plaster patches. After this stage, next step is texturing. No more dust and dirt. No sanding. If we weren’t adding texture, the next step would be to prime and paint it once its dry..

Update 3-25-24:

Patch has been drying for 2 weeks. We primed the patch with oil base primer and then applied (2) coats of paint to the ceiling and walls.

Ceiling was painted with PPG Speedhide UltraFlat
Walls were painted with Behr Scuff-Defense Cinnamon Tea Eggshell

 

 

To repair this with drywall, would have taken 2x as long with a lot more dust and dirt.

We offer free quotes to repair this kind of damage all over western NY. (except the City of Buffalo)
If you would like to schedule a quote, give me a call or shoot me a text! 716-697-3560

 

We repair plaster with real plaster unlike any other painting company in Western New York!

Our website has even more information on the services we provide:
Carrigan Painting

Or if you would like to read more about plaster repair in WNY, go here:
Plaster Repair