Help with oldish plaster

[wbgould]

I need some advice on a house that I just bought. It was built in 1938 and still has the original plaster walls and ceilings. Some walls are fine but others and most of the ceiling has hairline cracks all over. I love plaster and want to repair it as cheaply as possible while keeping the original charm of the plaster.
My wife would like to just prime and paint but I don't think that will take care of the cracks. I am wondering if I can just do a skim coat with USG diamond veneer?
I am a historic mason in America so I've only worked with 18th century lime plaster and the plaster jobs I've done were repairs of major cracks and delamination where I just took the walls done to the wood lath and started over. I've never had to repair these hairline/ spiderweb cracks. Thank you guys for the help this is my favorite forum by far!

 

[Nicm]

It's hard to say without actually seeing the job.If it was my house I would say I want to repair or replaster my house and I want it done properly and I don't mind paying for it.Surely such an important task should not be undertaken "as cheaply as possible".You get what you pay for.

 

[wbgould]

Thanks for the reply. That's basically what I told my wife about painting over it. I'm leaning towards covering the whole wall and ceiling with plaster bonder and doing a simple 2 coat veneer plaster over everything.

 

[Loren]

Thanks for the reply. That's basically what I told my wife about painting over it. I'm leaning towards covering the whole wall and ceiling with plaster bonder and doing a simple 2 coat veneer plaster over everything.

Not how I'd do it. Won't be long before those cracks show back up again. I fix any loose plaster by removing localized loose areas & patching with Structolite. Then I take 38" wide rolls of fiberglass screen the type used on EIF's (google it). Roll out the fiberglass the length of the room, re-roll the fiberglass back into smaller rolls. Skim on a thick coat of Beadex All Pourpose mud the width of the fiberglass roll from one side of the room to the other. Roll the fiberglass onto the ceiling into the bed of mud. Trowel the fiberglass into the bed of mud with a 12" trowel and then hit it with a 22" trowel to lay it down proper. Repeat process overlapping each roll a few inches until you've covered the ceiling. Let it set over night and skim on a second coat of all purpose over the whole ceiling. Next day sand and coat it again, repeat until you have the smoothness desired. If the ceiling is textured less coats are needed. It's going to take longer and cost more, but I never get any call backs or have to worry if I'm going to get any call backs. ($4.50 - $5.00/ sq. ft.+ cost of repairing loose plaster if there is any). If you happen to have any crown moulding this won't bury any of the profile to any extent.

 

[scottie5]

I love reading your posts loren you lost me at mud though

 

[theclemo]

Airless plaster ? @Curry

 

[Loren]

I love reading your posts loren you lost me at mud though

Here in my part of the US the Bricklayers and the Plasterers generically refer to our materials that get troweled on as "mud". In my reference above the mud I was describing is All Purpose Taping Compound, it sticks well to the surface it's applied to as it has a certain amount of glue in it and it also stays workable long enough to put on a bed of mud the length of your ceiling (and 38" wide) and still get it all troweled down and also trowel the over lapping next roll if you don't poke around.

 

[scottie5]