Repairing plaster coving

[JohnArmer]

Over the last month I've been painstakingly stripping the paint from the plaster coving which runs around the top of the walks in our 19th C Victorian house. It had been originally painted in red and green distemper but had been helpfully (!) gloss painted by a previous owner 40 years ago. A mixture of poultice, a wallpaper steamer and little wooden kebab skewers have succeeded in getting back to the original plaster, which is in pretty poor condition. There were loads of cracks and the surface was very friable and crumbly in some places.

The cracks were old as they had old filler and distemper in them... there is no movement now.

Here's a pic:



Despite there being loads of cracks it's actually all quite sound and I want to have a go a repairing it. I'm not going to get perfection I don't think, but if I can smooth over the gaps and replace the small missing bits, I think it will be ok when recoated in distemper.

I have a couple of questions: how much coverage does distemper give? I'm thinking that if it flows quite well, it would hide some of the surface imperfections, particularly on the larger curved section in the middle which has a rather orange-peel like surface in some bits. Or should I try and smooth the surface over with a filling material and sand down?

I will need to use filler in some places, what is recommended? I've used easy fill in the past for some applications (flat walls) which isn't very period but has given good results.

It's a shame it's so poor, I was massively careful getting the old paint off, it's just the surface was really weak. I did get the details of our house from Kew (The Lloyd George Domesday survey), and even in 1910s it was described as being "only in fair condition"), so I suppose I'm lucky it's still here!

Here's a final pic to give a bit more context of what I've got in store for the coming months:



Thanks!

 

[88v8]

Persistence is a great quality. Kebab skewers. Excellent.

Non-smokers?
So whatever you do won't get dirty. And won't need redecorating.
I hate redoing things. Our previous house, I decorated each room once and never again. We were there 30 years. It matured a little, like a National Trust house.

Not very Period, but where there was any chance of movement I used paintable flexible filler from a gun. Where no movement was likely I used Polyfilla. Rip out the fine cracks a little so the filler can adhere.

The ceilings I papered, of course, with Anaglypta. The worst cracks I pre-covered in scrim tape. Some bad ceilings I used the tape, then papered with scrim paper, then Anaglypta on top of that, criss-crossed.

And I painted with emulsion. Use a brush to apply thinly into the detail. Two coats. As I never painted again, it didn't fill in the detail. Smokers... white paint... frequent repainting with a roller... fills in the mouldings. But you won't be doing that will you...

If one uses a satin finish, defects will be less apparent, and anyway after a few months one isn't peering at it all the time. If any residual crackiness is not quite to your taste, choose period light fittings that cast their illumination predominantly downwards.

Distemper ... dunno... nice to use a period finish
https://www.edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk/sites/default/files/fileman/oil-bound-distemper.pdf

Ivor

 

[steveb]

I'd use "Red Devil Onetime" as opposed to polyfilla - quite remarkable stuff. You'll get the pot and think they have sent you an empty one it's that light. Consistency of whipped cream and can be squished in with a thin or a broad knife and made virtually flat in a single pass. Never had to do anything more than a "wipe over" with a flexible sanding pad to make it vanish entirely which can be done an hour later, and then painted in another hour.

Wickes I believe do something similar, go round looking for the filler pot that when you lift it up you think it's empty - that'll be the right one

-Steve

 

[Feltwell]

I'll be interested to see how you get on because I reckon our lounge coving & ceiling are in about the same state, underneath the gloss & anaglypta that's there now. The coving in the bay is particularly bad, from where the roof must have been leaking long ago.

My preferred filler is Gyproc Easi Fill - comes in big bag, keep it somewhere dry in a polythene sack after opening and it lasts for years. Cheap & works well I find.