Ceiling Plaster

With the Durabond on all of the ceiling cracks, I start off by putting on a coat of Master of Plaster lime plaster on the ceiling. This first coat will be 1 of 3 I do. The first 2 will be the fine plaster and the 3rd coat will be extra fine. It’s tricky to get this first coat down because it’s just hard to work above your head instead of on a wall and then with the lumps from the washers, it’s hard to get a smooth trowel. I try my best and I’m hoping with the next 2 layers things will start to fill in. The plaster lessons stressed not to make the initial coats too perfect.

First coat of plaster. Still a little lumpy.

On the walls I still have more Durabond and plaster washers to install. I’m finding that covering the washers with mesh tape helps with covering up the screw heads. I think going foward I need to rely on the mesh tape more.

Durabonding the walls.

Durabond over the washers with mesh tape. Scraping away some joint compound on a previous repair.

I also mix up some basecoat lime plaster to repair one of the HVAC holes. I have the lath attached and I run a coat of PlasterWeld around the edge to give a little adhesive to the existing plaster. The basecoat is mixed up with the goat hair so it holds together better. I put that repair in place and then scratch it to prepare for the 2nd coat next week.

Basecoat repair before scratching.

With the plaster work done for the week, I go back to the doors. For the closet door I do some sanding of the CitriStrip stains to see if I can get them out. I use 60 grit and it does help, but it does look like I’ll need to keep applying more elbow grease. My shoulders are shot from plastering so I can’t do too much sanding. I go to the entry door and use some oxalic acid to bleach the wood to match some of the light spots that occurred from the KleenStrip I used on the door. After I bleach the door I wash it down with TSP to try to remove the last remaining white paint/stripper haze. This is coming up pretty good. I need to hit the other side of the door and I think this will be ready for sanding next weekend.

Bleaching the wood.

Trying to bleach to match the lightened wood from the stronger stripper.