4 Simple Tips for Plaster Patching
With Big Wally’s specially formulated patching plaster now on the market, we thought we’d offer some special patching tips. It wasn’t easy, but we’ve pried these ultra-useful tips from Rory’s “bag of tricks”. These are some simple methods he’s learned from over 25 years experience in the plaster repair field.
Most of these tips come from those “ah ha!” moments during a plaster repair job, when you say out loud, “why didn’t I think of this before?!” Simple. Effective. Easy.
1. Use a screw as a holder. Some plaster repair jobs require you to repair the lath behind the plaster before you can even get started with the patching. Anyone who’s struggled with getting a length of repair-lath in place knows that human hands were not meant to fit into those tiny spaces. The solution? Turn a drywall screw into the piece of repair-lath, leaving about an inch for use as a handle. It works like a charm.
2. Soak the rough edges of the old plaster with Big Wally’s conditioner. This easy but important step often gets overlooked. Obviously, you need to spray into the holes you’ve drilled in the existing plaster, and you need to spray the exposed lath. But DON”T FORGET to spray the rough edges of the existing plaster that surround the hole. It’s essential to create a solid bond between old and new plaster.
3. Clean your Big Wally’s Conditioner spray bottle nozzle. The conditioner does an amazing job of prepping dry, ancient surfaces for proper adhesion. But the special formula can clog your spray bottle’s nozzle if left to dry. After each use, unscrew the spray handle from the bottle, dip the tube in water and spray it through. This will clean out the residual conditioner and assure free-flowing conditioner for many more uses.
4. When mixing Big Wally’s Patching Plaster, add water to powder. Not vice versa. It’s much easier to control the ratio this way. In the end, you want a nice peanut butter/toothpaste consistency.
Have any other tips for us? Fill us all in in the comments below. As always, you can email us at info@plastermagic.com as well. Happy plastering.
