Starting the Plastering in the Landing
The HVAC holes are plugged up but there’s still plenty of basic plaster repair needed in the landing. There’s a bit of cracking in the ceiling that needs some securing with with plaster washers. I also plug that electrical fishing hole back up with more foam sealant. Once the washers are in place and taped up, I mix up the Durabond90 and apply a few coats of that. I’ve been having more success with multiple coats, each building up and feathering the previous one. I also like smoothing the Durabond out with a damp sponge before it dries. I also seal up the electrical hole with Durabon over the foam sealant.
The stairs have a bit of cracking in their plaster. It makes sense since the stairs get so much traffic. I’m able to secure a bit with the plaster washers and start Durabonding it. At the corner there’s a big chunk that fell off. It looks like that’s where a smoke detector was and maybe screwing that in weakened the plaster. This repair is a little too big for Durabond, so I attach some metal lath and use Structolite to fill this hole.
I keep making passes back around the walls and ceilings looking for cracks to tape up. There’s a few that cracked but also the plaster is really firm, so I don’t bother putting in washers and instead just tape it up and Durabond over it. One huge crack is on the back wall of the landing where the thermostat is. The wall is very uneven with lots of the veneer coat plaster coming off. But the wall is also rock solid. This part is actually the chimney so I think they just plastered over the brick because it doesn’t feel like any of the plaster moves even though some has fallen off. There’s a huge crack running down the middle of the wall with about 1/2” difference between them, so I start slopping on the Durabond to smooth out that discrepancy.
Next up I start putting down coats of plaster. The landing is disjointed enough that I can work in small portions since every wall ends with a corner after a short run. I start with doing the ceiling, some of the stairs, and the back and side walls.
