Once upon a time, when someone would mention “plaster” or “plastered”, my tail would wag and I’d anxiously wonder what bar we were heading to and what marvelous hijinks I’d find myself regretting the next day. Now when I hear “plaster”, I think about the skills needed to apply gypsum smoothly to a wall. Oh, how fun this maturing thing is.
However, if you’re a homeowner, there’s plenty about plaster that you can get excited about and the InsOwall Eco Insulating Plaster is one of them. [click to continue…]
We were very excited to see a product called Erase-A-Hole on the market. Could it really be so easy? This thing looked like a stick of deodorant, which means you could pretty much carry it anywhere.
Dude butts in line at the grocery store: Erase-A-Hole. Woman steals your parking spot: Erase-A-Hole. The intern eats your Activia from the office fridge: Erase-A-Hole. Rush Limbaugh opens his mouth: Erase-A-Hole. Oh, the possibilities.
Then we realized the “A” in Erase-A-Hole wasn’t standing in for a naughty word. Sigh. At least we managed to tag various jerks with streaks of plaster. [click to continue…]
Plaster vs Drywall, which is best? As many of you know by now, I’m a stickler for historic accuracy when it comes to remodeling. Some might describe me as obsessive or possibly deranged, but they’re just haters. I prefer to be described as “particular”, or “having high standards” – that just sounds less likely to get me locked up in a padded room. My “particularities” led me to choose plaster instead of drywall when we had to replace several walls in our 1930′s vintage home. Sure, drywall guys will tell you they can match any texture, but drywall is still very different from plaster. Before you dive into hanging drywall in a vintage or high-end home, consider the alternative of plaster.
These days you have two general options when it comes to finishing walls: the first is standard drywall, which we’re all pretty familiar with. It’s everywhere, and so is the dust from installing, sanding and finishing it. Drywall consists of gypsum sheets (sheetrock) screwed or nailed to the studs. Drywall compound and tape are applied to the seams between boards, and the compound is also coated over the fasteners to cover up the heads. A high-end level 5 drywall finish includes a final skim coat similar to a plaster job, but most drywall jobs aren’t done at that level. Even when they are, the finish durability is still underwhelming when compared to cement-like plaster.
Modern plaster, on the other hand, is typically applied over a special type of wall board referred to as blue board. The old style was usually applied over lath, but that method is exceedingly rare these days. [click to continue…]
