plastering

I've got a lunch meeting with a prospective client today so I'll dive into the first priming of the master bedroom project this evening. This gives me an opportunity for some virtual renovation this morning: reading the Houseblogs sites and posting to my own.

Bill over at Enon Hall posted a cool Top Ten list. There are some good tips there. Ya'll should check it out (although my lumberyard likes to see double-spaced, typed materials lists with product codes and a letterhead, preferably faxed in advance).

Since I'm in "wall prep mode" I thought I'd post my own Top Ten in that area. So without further ado...

You DIYers know what I'm talking about. A friend comes by to check out your latest completed project and goes "ooh! ahh!" over the paint color and asks where you got your terrific door knobs. You modestly thank him for the compliment. But, deep inside, you feel like Michelangelo after hearing, "Hey, nice paint colors. Where'd you get the cool frame?"

You shed blood on this room for... what?... three months and that's all he can see? Paint color and door knobs?! Is he blind or just clueless? He doesn't see the five hundred feet of mesh tape you skillfully buried in the wall to fix the broken plaster and the hours you spent scraping and spitting out paint chips? He doesn't appreciate the week you spent getting the squeaks out of the floor or the rerouted heating or the four independent lighting circuits or the door it took two days to get plumb and level or the brazillion trips you made up and down a ladder till your quads burned, the scraped knuckles, the twisted elbow and the bottle of Costco ibuprofen you've swallowed over the past 12 weeks just to dull the pain enough to get some sleep?

Perhaps that's why we blog. It documents proof that we did more than just roll on some paint and screw on a door knob.

I'm at that stage of the master bedroom rehab now. I've worked on it for the past five days. Last night I broke out the Canon to take took a "progress shot". Then I compared it with one taken last Saturday. I was crushed. The only thing that looked different is that I had more tools in the room. I know I did something in that room because I've got a blood blister on my thumb, "plaster hair" and a pile of filthy clothes that says I did.

Most people seem to like the flat, clean effect of drywall. Drywall is cheap, goes up easily and doesn't take much acquired skill to learn how to tape, mud and finish the joints. Even drywall repairs are relatively painless. So what's not to like?

Maybe I'm just weird (well, there's probably no contesting that regardless) but I like plaster. I like the way side lights create shadows and textures over the natural unevenness of a plaster wall, giving it density and bulk.

The problem is that I absolutely suck at plastering. My plaster work usually looks more like adobe, with half of it winding up on the floor and the mix setting up before I can work it. What I used to do is use plaster to get the wall in the ballpark then add a finish coat of joint compound with a 12" blade, followed by copious sanding that left me, the room, and much of the rest of the house, looking like the set of The Polar Express. It was a tedious, laborious and dirty business.

Then I ran across a tool with the dubious name of Magic Trowel.

I watched a demonstration at a woodworkers show and it looked so easy. But I've been burned enough times by affable salesmen selling miracle niche market tools to know that my mileage may, and probably will, vary. I've got a box full of Magic Planes and Magic Coping Tools and Magic Drill Bit Sharpeners to attest to that.

But I knew enough about joint compound to know that the concept seemed solid: a wide squeegee blade instead of a hard-edged metal taping knife. It was worth a shot.

The verdict? It works very well! After extensive plaster repairs to my living room I skimcoated it in about two hours. Even better, I only had to give the 200+ feet of mesh tape I used to fix cracks just one coat of compound before skimming the wall with Magic Trowel. The compound lays down so thick that it sinks the exposed tape. It didn't completely eliminate the need for, or the mess of, dry sanding but it reduced it considerably.

So why not just use a garden-variety squeegee? Magic Trowel is different than a squeegee normally used for cleaning windows. The long flexible blade floats over the surface pushing down on high spots. The 30-degree angle on the outside edges reduces tension on the ends of the blade leaving minimal trowel lines. Those that it does create are easily sanded off later.

There's a technique to using Magic Trowel but you pick it up pretty quickly. Texmaster has a how-to video on their web site demonstrating the technique (Windows Media Player only).

Use long strokes, top to bottom. Don't obsess on small divots or gouges. Those can be easily patched later. Instead, work quickly and use consistent pressure.

The video advises adding 8 ounces of water to a five-gallon bucket of joint compound to thin it out for rolling. I found that mixture to be a little too thick. In fact, I experimented with the mix by replacing one gallon of compound with a slightly soupy mix of plaster of paris and a couple of ounces of white vinegar to retard the plaster from hardening. It worked but you have to work even faster.

(Click on the photo to expand it). You'll need a painter's paddle and a torquey, variable speed corded drill to mix the compound. Warning: I damaged the collet on and practically overheated my Milwaukee drill mixing joint compound. Use a sustantial drill for this, not a cordless, not a Target red dot special! And do it at slow speed unless you want to be scraping compound off the dog.

If you do this over an existing old plaster wall, make sure it's clean and degreased. If the wall has anything other than a flat paint on it, scuff it up with an orbital sander. Wash it down with TSP twice and rinse it down thoroughly. I lay down a plastic sheet and cover that with a cotton dropcloth.

Work on vertical sections and don't let the edges dry out. As I said before, don't obsess with making the wall perfect at the expense of letting the compound get crusty. You can always fix it later. Also, keep your compound, the blade and the wall clean! Any foreign matter will create long gouges in the finish.

After the wall has dried, dry sand any high lumps, fill any gouges with a taping knife and give it at least two coats of primer/sealer. The compound will really suck up the paint so you need to seal it well before you roll your finish coat.

I had concerns about the softness of joint compound as a skim coating material but after four years in my entry hallway the finish still looks like the day I primed it. My guess is that the primer sucks into the compound, making it more durable. But that's just a guess.

Just keep your eyes on this tool because once your fellow tyromaniacs see the results they're going to want to borrow your Magic Trowel. Mine has done five houses. Unfortunately, they were casualities in one those houses, which had a bad basement fire. Gotta order some new ones.