Veneer and Ornamental Plaster

Here are some of the marvelous and unique things you can do with plaster:

plaster 'tent' first coat

plaster 'tent' final coat

fine plaster ceiling

For those of you who are not totally familiar with plaster, we would like to provide you with a short tutorial of plaster methods and materials:

Traditional three coat plaster

Traditional three coat plaster was usually applied over wood lath in earlier homes. The lath was then exchanged for expanded metal lath in more contemporary projects followed by a product called rock lath in some of the newer applications. Three coat plaster (as its name suggests) consists of two gypsum base coats followed by a top finish coat of a lime putty/gauging plaster. This forms a combination that allows the creation of various surface textures. This method is almost endless in its possibilities of textures, colors, and shapes.

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Veneer plaster system

The modern alternative (and most frequently used) to three coat plaster is a veneer plaster system. This system begins with a base, which is most often a substrate of a sheetrock-type material with a special bonding paper. Upon the base, you have a choice of the following two methods.

Single Coat Method

The most commonly used method is a single top coat applied directly over the substrate. This method is less durable and has less top coat finish choices than the three- or two-coat methods. It is also typically less expensive than the other two methods.

Two Coat Method (Housewright's preferred method)

The two coat method consists of a base coat with one of top coat applied over the base coat. We prefer the two coat method for durability and resistance to cracking and blemishes. We also like the fact that this plaster system also enables us to employ a wide range of color, textures and integrated shapes into ceilings and walls.