![]() ![]() Before the advent of large convenient sheets of drywall, walls were hand plastered. A Quick Study in the Anatomy of the Plaster & Lath Wall:Ī very brief summary of the construction of plaster walls & ceilings helps give some background to the situation. If those bits of plaster haven’t actually fallen off the wall yet, it will be easier to fix now than in a little while, when they have actually fallen off. This is a situation that is best dealt with sooner than later – it’s not going to improve by itself, and it’s quicker and easier to deal with at an earlier stage. Why does it feel that way? Because they are! When you gently push on those areas, you find ‘soft spots,’ where sheets of plaster seem to be floating independent of the rest of the solid wall below. You can tell when sections of your wall or ceiling are about to fall off when you see areas that are protruding or bubbling out from where they were, sometimes with cracks or ridges along the outlines. That’s not what we’re discussing here – we’re talking about when big chunks of plaster have either become detached from the lath, or are about to fall off altogether. can all be mended in a similar fashion to your now-standard drywall walls. Standard little nicks, picture hanging holes, small holes etc. So, what gives with this gravity challenged plaster & how do you deal with that? That’s the focus of this tip. The question of how to repair plaster walls tends to arise, nervously, around these times. Sometimes a section of the plaster has fallen off completely. Sometimes this exhibits itself as a section or sheet of the wall / ceiling loosening from the underlying lath. Again, skim with Polyfilla afterwards.After numerous decades of faithful service, the old lath and plaster walls and ceiling in your home have started to fail. Result is stronger than plaster or PVA/plaster, but it doesn't penetrate. You can fill like plaster, just injecting the cracks until you can tell you've pushed adhesive right through. If it's just a bit cracked rather than completely decaying to dust, use 'No More Nails' or similar high-grip/rapid dry adhesive instead. The size of the syringe & blunt needle will dictate how thin the PVA needs to be. Injection for small areas can be done with a blunt syringe - these days you can get them from shops that sell 'vape' accoutrements as well as chemist/pharmacists. There's no way I'm going to re-plaster the lot, so I've injected much of it with thinned PVA & can report that the result is considerably more stable, sufficient that I can now drill through it into the brickwork behind without it feeling like I'm drilling dry sand. I live in an old Victorian pile with plaster which has aged to little more than hairy dust these days. Soaked-in PVA & filler will both take paint well. DIY plaster patching in a tube, with flexible plasticisers to make it very sticky & resilient. Once done, give the top a light skim with 'Polyfilla' or similar. ![]() Leave each 'coat' to dry before going again, rather than trying to get it all to stick solid in one go. ![]() Use too much, too thin & catch the drips/spills, for maximum penetration. It's much harder to deal with it on ceilings compared to walls, so you need to prepare for some spillage & dripping until you can get a good penetration & time to set, but it will work to an extent. Unless you're planning on re-plastering the whole lot & so long as you don't expect it to hold up that light fitting then sure, PVA is a pretty good semi-permanent strengthener. That doesn't look like the world's oldest plaster, but you don't really know whether that's just an isolated patch or the rest is just held up by the the top skim. It's neither sticky enough nor penetrative enough. TL:DR - don't faff about with real plaster for such a small repair… plaster is great for large open surfaces, but rubbish for patching tiny cracks. ![]()
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