Geri R. Introduction

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GeriR

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Hello all. I am from Illinois about an hour west of Chicago. I own a home that was built in 1921. I just completed my bachelors degree in business administration and I am searching for a job. In the meantime I am tearing apart my house. I have thick plaster walls on top of thin plasterboard. I have been curious as to what this stucco surface is made of. I recently found what I feel is a recipe for it on the inside of one of one of the opened walls. I’m not sure what you call this stuff.... Venetian plaster? I know that it had some type of silver or copper flecks in it that made it hard to paint.
 

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Does that say Oleam? What is that? Just googled it. Found oleum which is oil or an oily corrosive/acidic substance...... anyhoo!

Welcome!
 
Hello Geri,

Another guy from IL. I used to live in Peoria until about 7 yrs ago. That doesn't look like Venetian plaster. The silver/copper flecks you talked about, did they look like little rust spots? A lot of older plaster used sand that wasn't washed well and often came straight from a riverbed. Depending on what was in the sand/soil you get some staining that would bleed through when the wall was finished. A good quality stain blocking paint should take care of it. Schellac or an oil based primer usually do the trick for more stubborn stains.

As for the 'recipe' you saw it's hard to get in the head of the guys who wrote it. A common mix from the old time plaster guys would have been 3:1:1 sand : Portland : lime. Cream could be the color of material used or even for Cream of tartar that was sometimes added to slow down a set, or it could have been the sand color, or something totally different. The buff part of anyone's guess. Rather than trying to figure out and duplicate what they did I'd go with stuff you can get ready made now.

For anything that needs to be 3/8+ I'd use Structo-lite or gypsolite. On that I'd use diamond or imperial veneer base and finish coat with diamond veneer or Kal-kote smooth.

Hope your project goes well.
 
Hello Geri,

Another guy from IL. I used to live in Peoria until about 7 yrs ago. That doesn't look like Venetian plaster. The silver/copper flecks you talked about, did they look like little rust spots? A lot of older plaster used sand that wasn't washed well and often came straight from a riverbed. Depending on what was in the sand/soil you get some staining that would bleed through when the wall was finished. A good quality stain blocking paint should take care of it. Schellac or an oil based primer usually do the trick for more stubborn stains.

As for the 'recipe' you saw it's hard to get in the head of the guys who wrote it. A common mix from the old time plaster guys would have been 3:1:1 sand : Portland : lime. Cream could be the color of material used or even for Cream of tartar that was sometimes added to slow down a set, or it could have been the sand color, or something totally different. The buff part of anyone's guess. Rather than trying to figure out and duplicate what they did I'd go with stuff you can get ready made now.

For anything that needs to be 3/8+ I'd use Structo-lite or gypsolite. On that I'd use diamond or imperial veneer base and finish coat with diamond veneer or Kal-kote smooth.

Hope your project goes well.
Great to have such a wealth of knowledge on here
 
Hello Geri,

Another guy from IL. I used to live in Peoria until about 7 yrs ago. That doesn't look like Venetian plaster. The silver/copper flecks you talked about, did they look like little rust spots? A lot of older plaster used sand that wasn't washed well and often came straight from a riverbed. Depending on what was in the sand/soil you get some staining that would bleed through when the wall was finished. A good quality stain blocking paint should take care of it. Schellac or an oil based primer usually do the trick for more stubborn stains.

As for the 'recipe' you saw it's hard to get in the head of the guys who wrote it. A common mix from the old time plaster guys would have been 3:1:1 sand : Portland : lime. Cream could be the color of material used or even for Cream of tartar that was sometimes added to slow down a set, or it could have been the sand color, or something totally different. The buff part of anyone's guess. Rather than trying to figure out and duplicate what they did I'd go with stuff you can get ready made now.

For anything that needs to be 3/8+ I'd use Structo-lite or gypsolite. On that I'd use diamond or imperial veneer base and finish coat with diamond veneer or Kal-kote smooth.

Hope your project goes well.

Nice answer
 
Hello Geri,

Another guy from IL. I used to live in Peoria until about 7 yrs ago. That doesn't look like Venetian plaster. The silver/copper flecks you talked about, did they look like little rust spots? A lot of older plaster used sand that wasn't washed well and often came straight from a riverbed. Depending on what was in the sand/soil you get some staining that would bleed through when the wall was finished. A good quality stain blocking paint should take care of it. Schellac or an oil based primer usually do the trick for more stubborn stains.

As for the 'recipe' you saw it's hard to get in the head of the guys who wrote it. A common mix from the old time plaster guys would have been 3:1:1 sand : Portland : lime. Cream could be the color of material used or even for Cream of tartar that was sometimes added to slow down a set, or it could have been the sand color, or something totally different. The buff part of anyone's guess. Rather than trying to figure out and duplicate what they did I'd go with stuff you can get ready made now.

For anything that needs to be 3/8+ I'd use Structo-lite or gypsolite. On that I'd use diamond or imperial veneer base and finish coat with diamond veneer or Kal-kote smooth.

Hope your project goes well.
Just what I was going to say
 
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