Hi, an update on how the plastering has been going. I let one side of lath and plaster wall dry out slowly for the past two weeks, and yesterday applied the final coat. This is on the side facing into a room where most of it will be hidden behind furniture anyway, that's why I was brave enough to tackle the job in the first place. Looks reasonably smooth and level if I may say so.
View attachment 1
The other side was more fiddly, as due to uneven walls to start with a difference in thickness of some 50mm had to be gradually smoothed out. Did this by building up three layers of the rough coat, slowly and with plenty of time to almost-dry between coats. Now looks like this.
The proper plasterer is going to put the top coat on, as this wall will actually be seen...
Gareth - no, plaster does not stick any better if it flops down at least twice, but yes, the neat and tidy person in me meant I took three times as long, because I did scoop up everything that fell down and bunged it back in the mix again. Unless you put too much 'muck' back in I found lime plaster is much more forgiving than the modern stuff, and will happily adhere.
And why did I do it? Because I can be fairly obstinate and pig-headed and just wanted to see if I can do it. Everyone has been singing the praises of working with lime, here and on the eco build sites. But I just haven't found anyone local who will do lime plastering. So in the end I decided to try it myself. Now I have hopefully proven to my regular plasterer that if any idiot (me!) can do a lath and plaster wall, then surely a professional like he can give it a try, too. He has now started mumbling something along the lines of going on a course, since apparently a number of his customers have been asking about lime work... That in itself will have been a worthwhile achievement.
My only concern is that lime as a material does not suit the modern 'faster, more, for less' attitude. It is a very sloooow material, and your conventional plasterer will either have to get smarter in juggling different jobs, or spend a lot of time watching paint, oops, plaster dry. Our house project is proceeding at a snail's pace anyway, what with the usual other commitments (like family, day-job, sanity breaks) probably familiar to most people on this forum, so for us 3 weeks to plaster a wall is not the end of the world. That sort of timescale would put my plasterer out of a job, though. So my conclusion from this little exercise: unless more people are going to demand professional lime work it will remain a luxury niche market. Or you have to do it yourself.
View attachment 1
The other side was more fiddly, as due to uneven walls to start with a difference in thickness of some 50mm had to be gradually smoothed out. Did this by building up three layers of the rough coat, slowly and with plenty of time to almost-dry between coats. Now looks like this.
The proper plasterer is going to put the top coat on, as this wall will actually be seen...
Gareth - no, plaster does not stick any better if it flops down at least twice, but yes, the neat and tidy person in me meant I took three times as long, because I did scoop up everything that fell down and bunged it back in the mix again. Unless you put too much 'muck' back in I found lime plaster is much more forgiving than the modern stuff, and will happily adhere.
And why did I do it? Because I can be fairly obstinate and pig-headed and just wanted to see if I can do it. Everyone has been singing the praises of working with lime, here and on the eco build sites. But I just haven't found anyone local who will do lime plastering. So in the end I decided to try it myself. Now I have hopefully proven to my regular plasterer that if any idiot (me!) can do a lath and plaster wall, then surely a professional like he can give it a try, too. He has now started mumbling something along the lines of going on a course, since apparently a number of his customers have been asking about lime work... That in itself will have been a worthwhile achievement.
My only concern is that lime as a material does not suit the modern 'faster, more, for less' attitude. It is a very sloooow material, and your conventional plasterer will either have to get smarter in juggling different jobs, or spend a lot of time watching paint, oops, plaster dry. Our house project is proceeding at a snail's pace anyway, what with the usual other commitments (like family, day-job, sanity breaks) probably familiar to most people on this forum, so for us 3 weeks to plaster a wall is not the end of the world. That sort of timescale would put my plasterer out of a job, though. So my conclusion from this little exercise: unless more people are going to demand professional lime work it will remain a luxury niche market. Or you have to do it yourself.
