Regluing Solid Plaster .... hear of it?

seriph1 · #1 11th Dec 2004, 01:32 PM

Hi all

When I lived in Perth in 95/6 I met a couple of blokes who had a system for repairing solid plaster walls and ceilings..... they wouldnt tell me their exact technique but I "believe" it may have been as follows:

brace the walls/ceiling with large rigid panels, like 38mm particle board - with PLENTY of supports

...then, in the case of the ceilings, get up in the roof space and soak the entire area in (probably dilluted) PVA glue - once the glues has set, presto..... ceiling is refixed and can then be repainted

Unsure what the process would be for the walls though

Anyone have any experience/knowledge of this kind of issue? I would be keen to know, as I have a project on where the client doesnt want to destroy his original (yet quite damaged after restump) ceilings.

echnidna · #2 11th Dec 2004, 02:15 PM

I have done ceilings a couple of times. Dunno about using pva though.
As you suggest you need good support not only to hold them up but also to take any sagging out.
Then I just scrimmed up with plasterers sisal soaked in a runny plaster mix. Scrim over each celing joist at every foot or so. Where there was sagging between joists just cut and drop in short 2 x 1 1/2" battens making sure to scrim these full length and scrim the ends over the joists.

Very messy process but works extremely well.

Not a job for a hot day!

craigb · #3 11th Dec 2004, 07:39 PM

We have decorative plaster ceilings in our house. When we first bought the place they were sagging badly but we didn't want to rip them out because they are very attractive and a period feature of the house (20's Cal Bung).

We managed to find a bloke that specialised in re-attaching them.

What he did was similiar to what Bob describes.

First he thoroughly vaccummed the roof side of the ceilings to get rid of 70 years of dust.

Then he screwed battons to the room side of the ceiling to take the ceiling back to the rafters and remove the sag.

Then he draped plaster saturated pices of hessian (I think) over the rafters and onto the top of the ceiling.

When this had dried, he removed the battens, filled the screw holes and voila, job done.

This was about 11 years ago and the ceilings are still attached.

HTH

Craig