Plaster walls and ceilings preserve the historic integrity and beauty of these old houses, and stand up to the abuse that stairways receive.
More details about the stairway here:
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A new plaster stairway in
an old house in Old Town Alexandria. Plaster walls and ceilings preserve the historic integrity and beauty of these old houses, and stand up to the abuse that stairways receive. More details about the stairway here: |
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| Ceiling has started to set and is ready for it's first troweling. I wanted a smooth trowel look. Venetian plaster and Marmorino tend to be a rough surface. What is Marmorino? Find out here: |
Finish plaster is mixed with
color in a garbage can. |
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| Finished room. No need to paint. | Keene's cement and finish lime are used for the finish coat. I used Keene's because it sets slow and can be mixed with a drill. It really is more of a plaster than cement, and gets super hard. |
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| A real colored portland cement finish is put on the
addition of this old house. I mixed paint tint in the mortar forthe color. |
Brown coat has set for over a week and is ready for the finish. Brown coat is straight. Note how the windows are straightened to allow the same margin around each window. |
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| Metal lath finished waiting for scratch coat. | We used a plaster stop at the bottom of the wall at the deck to define a bottom edge. We left a slight gap to prevent water from wicking up behind the wall and damaging the stucco. |
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| Here is the bottom edge of the stucco on the old house. | We duplicated the bottom edge by nailing a wood strip around the bottom of the addition. When the brown coat sets we take the strip off. |
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I left a gap of about an inch over the roof for
drainage and for relief from building movement, due to
snow loads, etc. I made a kickout flashing (not shown). I'll have a detail on the next update. Time flies- We're putting on the finish coat tomorrow. |