Wood glue, for example, is great for carpentry but won’t be effective on metal. Adhesives are chemically designed to work with certain materials. In addition to the paint possibly preventing a good bond, the patches in sections where we used drywall to repair large missing portions of plaster needed to be prepared in order to ensure a good and solid surface that would accept the plaster.One formula definitely does not fit all when it comes to glues for your DIY projects. The paint beneath the drywall is missing in large sections, but it was intact enough to act as a barrier that could prevent the new plaster skim coat from really adhering to the walls. This paint last saw the light of day in about 1992, and even then it was looking rather defeated, much like 14 year old Alex of the same era when he realized he possessed far too much inherent fear and not nearly enough athletic ability to become the next Tony Hawk. Our walls in this room have a very old coat of paint on them. But before we could launch into the actual plastering process, we had to make sure our plaster had something to really hold onto. They had been plaster buttoned, scraped of liquid nails, and patched with drywall where necessary, At that point we were ready to begin putting everything back together again and making our walls smooth and solid. In our last post on our work in this room, we described how we had painstakingly prepared our walls. The missing plaster was patched in with drywall against the wood lath. And most importantly, we're making updates that will hopefully stand the test of time and will preserve our home for many generations of future owners. In our dining room plaster repair project we're applying the skim in multiple coats and eliminating sanding as a part of our process (which is seriously cutting down on the mess and, as a result, improving spousal approval of the technique). When it comes down to it, we must challenge ourselves to grow and learn, evolving in our approach to plastering, much like our distant ancestors discovering that a sugary drink and a little added yeast allowed to sit for long enough in the right conditions turned them into delicious alcoholic beverages, which after sufficient chilling, can be used to celebrate the completion of a plastering job well done. This doesn't mean we were wrong in what we did, simply that there's a better way for future work. Primarily, they were a real mess to create, and they tend to ding and chip far easier than we'd like. But when it comes down to it, even though our walls and ceilings look rather lovely, smooth, and like beautiful old plaster some 15 years removed from the original work, there are problems. Not only did I learn this flawed technique, for years I peddled it as the righteous path forward as I shared our progress. Oh, and we've even been featured in a published guide on how to attempt some DIY plaster repair (that makes some in the historic plaster repair community cringe because it used joint compound as an ingredient)! See '90s Alex, all that time spent memorizing the lyrics to Rapper's Delight and figuring out how to dance like MC Hammer have paid off, now you're a pseudo plaster expert and can grow a semi respectable yet unreasonably creepy looking mustache. Along the way we've picked up tips and tricks, we've made plenty of mistakes, and we finally feel like we're starting to get the hang of this whole plastering thing.until we learn more that makes us second guess what we've done in the past and we begin to think we're actually just total crap at plastering. In our 15 years we've learned more about plaster than we ever expected when we first bought our historic home. Go ahead and play another game of Joe Montana Football on your Sega Genesis and call me when you're less obsessed with Andre Agassi. Don't worry 13 year old Alex, you're even more lame at 13 than 40 year old you, you just don't know it yet. My teenage self of the early '90s just read that statement and cringed at what his life has become. At this point we have over 15 years of amateur plastering experience in repairing anything from small sections of cracked or missing plaster, to complete room overhauls.
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