PLASTER REPAIRS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 65, 8 June 1927, Page 12

PLASTER REPAIRS

HOW TO EFFECT THEM. SOME HELPFUL HINTS. At some time or other many homeowners are faced with the difficulty of repairing plaster walls that may have become damaged. Everybody knows what a disfigurement a hole in the plaster creates, but not everybody knows how to repair it properly. When a pipe, wire or electric cable is chased in a plastered wall, or when hooks, nails or fixtures become loose, a certain amount of “making good” with plaster is involved. Many amateurs content themselves with filling the holes or channels, as the case may be, with plaster, without previous preparation or subsequent treatment, and the result, to put it mildly, is an unsightly repair. As the new plaster becomes dry. a certain amount of contraction or shrinkage takes place, leaving the surface of the repair somewhat depressed as compared with the surrounding surfaces. Now it should be borne in mind that, by adopting a few simple precautions, it is possible to repair a plastered wall without impairing the evenness or uniformity of its surface. In the first place, all loose or damaged plaster should be cut away, and the cutting should extend somewhat beyond the damage into the good plaster, so as to obtain a key for the new plaster. All loose dust and dirt should now be brushed away, and the damagtkl part made damp, if not wet. Sufficient plaster-of-paris should be mixed with water and applied to the damaged wall, but instead of smoothing the new plaster level with the old surface a crust of plaster or a certain amount of excess should be allowed to remain. When the contraction or shrinkage, due to the drying of the plaster, takes place a slight excess of plaster should be present. This slight crust should then be removed by judicious rubbing with glass paper until both the old and new surfaces present an even uniform appearance. A wall which is repaired in this manner will not appear wavy or in any way unsightly, and when the final decoration is completed it will be difficult, if not impossible, to detect the nature and extent of the repair.