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I have a house constructed in 1914. The plaster ceiling in the dining room (16′ x 15′) has a number of major cracks as well as normal wear and tear and paint chipping. One house painter is telling me that it really should be resheet-rocked with 1/2 ” and that you will never be able to tell that it is sheet rock if his guys tape it. would it bewould be foolish to use plaster washers to secure the stress points and the skim coat over mesh. We would really like to preserve the plaster look but if it will just crack in a few months we might just re sheet rock it.
-sam
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What kind of access do you have to the top of the lath and plaster? If it's an attic, you can stabilize the old plaster from above with yellow woodworking glue -- just squirt it between the old keys and the shrunken lath. I've had very good results with this method. If the plaster is starting to pull away from the lath, you can gently push it up and support it while the glue dries. I used plywood and a screw jack on a long pipe for that.
As to rocking over existing plaster, the added weight can be too much for old ceiling joists, and result in a major sag.
But if this is downstairs, the joists will be strong enough. And the glue injection trick gets a lot harder because you have to work thru holes. I've heard of that being done on really historic stuff where it's worth the major amount of labor required.
-- J.S.
If it's all coming apart and you want the plaster look, plaster it. Rip the dying stuff out, rock it with blueboard, and have your master finishing dude skim it with plaster.
"The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb " lyrics by Roger Waters