I‘m headed to farm today to further evaluate my list of projects in the restoration of the farmhouse and repair a plaster ceiling in one of the upstairs bedrooms.
The house, built around 1820, needs work. Structurally it is sound except for the porch which needs to be rebuilt. Eventually the vinyl siding will come off and the clapboard restored. Luckily the original molding is on the outside of the windows and doors. I have also discovered that the vinyl siding is hiding some other interesting wood work details and a window in the gable.
Throughout the inside the plaster walls are in good shape– smooth and solid with very few cracks. Some of the plaster ceilings have been covered with ferring strips and fiber ceiling tiles which will all have to come off.
Stabilizing, preserving and restoring the original plaster ceilings is my first order of business. I picked up plaster washers also called ceiling buttons. these will help to reattach and stabilize ceiling plaster that is sagging or cracked. Where the ceiling plaster is sagging the sagging is a result of the plaster keys being fractured thereby separating the plaster from the lath.
Reattaching the plaster to the lath I’ll be using these plaster washers. They are perforated so that they readily accept a skim coat of fresh plaster.
The plaster washer is installed on either side of a crack or along a sagging area and affixed using dry wall screws. The screw grabs the lath and pulls the plaster washer supporting the plaster back to the lath.
I use a large diameter washer – the more surface area of plaster supported the better in my book.
It was no easy task locating these washers but I found an excellent site. Wm A. Killian Hardware Company at www.kilianhardware.com is an excellent source for these and other historical restoration needs. Please visit their site and check out their extensive inventory.
I’ll take pictures of the process here at the farm and post them in a step by step.
An excellent article: Repairing Historic Flat Plaster Walls and Ceilings
is well worth your time to read.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
So, what is the correct way to attach these washers–concavely or convexly–to the plaster?
Forgot to tell you…our local hardware stores carry those plaster washers, maybe because there are so many old homes around here, maybe because us Yankees like to fix things ourselves!
Chris W.
Hi there! I found your site by searching for info on how to use these plaster washers. I too am restoring the upstairs bedrooms of an old farmhouse (circa 1830′s-40) in New Hampshire. Unfortunately, my husband is not a “fix-it” guy, infact, he hardly knows how to hammer a nail! I’ve been tackling some of the work myself over the past 28 years and it seems endless. My question was which side of these washers do you place against the ceiling?? I know that sounds dumb, but I’m assuming it goes with the curve against the old plaster. I want to make sure. so that’s how my search began and how I found you. Best of luck with your restoration work, looks like a great old house!! Now I’m off to do some more plaster repair work upstairs, mostly on a wall this time, along with 5 layers of old wallpaper that have to be removed. We have company coming from England on Aug. 15th and I’m going crazy trying to get this done in time so they have a decent room to sleep in. Wish me luck….my husband isn’t doing any of this!!
regards
Chris Wittmann
http://www.catsinthecradlesoap.com