Your great-grandfather’s walls could stop a cannonball. Your walls? They get dented when your roomba bumps into them. Welcome to the great architectural downgrade nobody talks about. Here’s a fun fact that’ll ruin your day: We had nearly perfect wall technology in the 1800s. Then we threw it away because… checks notes… it was too […]

Ah, plaster walls—the grand dames of home construction. Elegant, durable, but also a tad dramatic. Enter 3M Command Strips, the darlings of renters, dorm-dwellers, and anyone who’s ever sworn at a hammer. For those wondering how to hang things on a plaster wall could they be the silver bullet you’ve been looking for? When these […]

Old houses get cracks in their plaster walls and ceilings there is just no denying it. Some of those cracks are a sign of trouble brewing while others are completely innocuous. So, how do you know which cracks are which and when you need to take action? In this post I’ll help you diagnosis plaster […]

Years ago houses were built with plaster walls that were typically hand troweled 3-coats thick, required a skilled plasterer, and took up to 30 days to cure before being ready for painting. They were slow and expensive to install, but extremely durable and beautiful. Why did we ever stop using plaster you may ask. It’s […]

An old-fashioned plaster ceiling can be a long lived and beautiful thing or it can look like a train wreck depending on how your old house has been treated over the years. The reasons to keep your plaster are numerous and may surprise you. Over time everything needs a little maintenance and that includes plaster […]

Lath and plaster walls are a part of life in an old house. Depending on your situation they can be both beautiful and annoying. Plaster was used for centuries as a wall covering and it wasn’t until the mid-1940s that it began to be replaced in favor of newer and faster option, drywall. Whether it […]

Plaster is one of my favorite features in an old house and one that is easily overlooked. After all, how much do you really notice a wall or ceiling unless something is wrong with it. That being said, I think I can convince you to keep your plaster. You may notice cracks in you old […]

I posted a while back about my aversion to drywall and how I feel it has absolutely no place in an old house. I mentioned a technique that my company uses called ‘Modern Plaster’ to repair and re-coat old plaster walls and new sheetrock to make them look and perform like a brand new old […]

After a century or so, plaster walls and ceilings can develop a variety of problems from neglect or abuse. Your plaster can tell you a ton about issues that may be developing around your house if you know how to listen to what it is saying. In this post, I’ll show you how to diagnose […]

A lot of folks confuse plaster and stucco in old houses. While they are similar in a lot of ways, they are different enough that understanding when and where to use them, especially in renovations, is imperative. Their differences are not readily apparent to the naked eye. Plaster and stucco can both be applied much […]

Most of the handy devices for hanging things on our walls were designed for drywall, not plaster. Everything from how to find a stud in plaster walls to what type of fasteners your should use is different. Everyone wants to decorate their walls, so learning how to hang things on plaster walls is important for every homeowner […]

I’ve written about repairing plaster walls before, but sometimes there are sections of plaster that have been removed or are missing and you need to fill in the gaps. I’ll show you how to easily fill in these missing sections. This repair also works on drywall for all you new house folks too. When you […]