Finding plaster.
Hello Mr Bullard! My name is Jeremy Ames and I am a drywall contractor in maine. Well I should say I was. My dad owned a drywall business and I have been working for him since I was 16 I am now 41 and have been running the business on my own for 7 or 8 years.
It always drove me crazy going into these old historic homes and seeing how flat the ceilings would be, how hard the plaster was, how mysterious it all was and how we were skim coating these walls with durabond and joint compound. It seems like the old timers must have been magic.
About 5 years ago I got really sick of not understanding The Pinnacle of interior finishes, Plaster. Thus began a long process of learning. I'm even at the point now where I bought a 1700s farmhouse. I'd say 60% of it has the original Three coat plaster and the rest has been mutilated over the past few hundred years and has something resembling sheetrock.. well it did I've ripped it all out and I'm restoring it properly.
I went down the rabbit hole of Mill mixed plaster finishes but it seems like even that wasn't up to snuff with the old timers that used to build these houses in my area of Southern Maine. That's when I found your video mixing lime putty and gauging plaster.
After so much experimenting and trying to connect dots with no proper plastering contractors in the area it was a revelation. I have been slaking my own lime and I feel like I am finally working with the right material.
I do have a couple of questions for you, but I want to say thank you first. The time that you have put in to your website has helped me enormously. I have printed out basically every article you have written on interior plastering and refer to it constantly. The only thing comparable are the YouTube videos on plastering in the UK which has some resemblance to what I am trying to do but it's all gypsum finish.
My question is about gauging plaster. In my area gauging and or molding plaster is very hard to come by. Some drywall supply companies will carry molding plaster from time to time but I think it gets shipped up here at the end of its shelf life, the bags are ripped up in old and the material sets inconsistently and is quite clumpy. Plaster of Paris however is widely available even at Ace hardware. I have read that the chemical composition of plaster of Paris is different than molding or gauging plaster, I was wondering if you could tell me your thoughts? Also it is near impossible to find a mill mixed gypsum base coat. Would I be better off mixing sand with durabond or plaster of Paris for a first coat over lath? Or should I buy something like a Mill mixed veneer plaster and add sand? That sounds like a Frankenstein solution to me, but I'm not certain what else to do.
Once again thank you for imparting your knowledge into the void, it is impacting people like me more than you know.
Thanks so much for the great question and accolades. A response like yours makes me feel like I am not just imparting wisdom into the void.
You may try White Cap Construction Supply, also known as HD Supply. They sell molding plaster here in the Washington area and can ship from one location to another. Another good supplier is L&W supply, which has branches in Maine. They sell a lot of plaster in some areas and probably can ship to you. Lately, we just use mason lime for finish lime, because finish lime is harder to find.
Building supplies that carry concrete products sometimes carry molding plaster. Molding plaster is frequently used as an accelerator for pre-cast concrete.
If molding plaster is stored inside in the winter, it usually gets knotty. I have stored molding plaster inside in a heated house and it lasts for years. Gauging plaster usually knots up when it sets, but molding plaster should thicken as it sets. Molding that sets up real knotty usually is an indicator the molding is old or stored inside in cold weather.
There is one Home Depot in the Washington area that stocks gauging plaster. Before easy sand was invented, drywallers used gauging in drywall mud to set up the mud for a patch.
When we were working in Pittsburgh, I found Home Depot stocks plaster. They had every kind of plaster- hardwall, veneer basecoat, finish lime, etc. There still are a lot of people in Pittsburgh that still use plaster. The reason we were there, is there is nobody to do pebble dash stucco.
Thanks so much for visiting my site and the question !!