Patching and Plastering - Repairing/Skimcoating Plaster - best methods?

Hello, I'm helping a friend work on his lathe and plaster kitchen walls. We just took off 3 original layers of wallpaper dating back to the late teens early 20's. The walls are in pretty good shape, but I'm wondering what the best methods are for repair from here?

We'd like to be able to paint these walls, but I don't think that's going to be an option without texturizing first. Is that a safe assumption?

There are a few holes here and there and some bad crack patch jobs. Should we just fill the areas with drywall compound (mud) and then do a skimcoat or two across the entire walls? I read that somewhere online. Then I'm assuming you can sand it down and put a sealer on it and paint it? If it's not smooth enough should you then texturize it?

Also, when it comes to putting up photos later on a plaster wall, is it safe to just hammer in a nail to hang something, or will it crumble the wall?

Any thoughts/opinions are appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help!

You can use a drywall compound, I would get a 40 or 20 minute mix for filling big holes. You can get this from home depot or lowes. It comes in a bag and you just add water. If you just use regular drywall mud it will take forever to dry and it will crack depending on how big the holes are. You can use all purpose joint compound to skim over the walls for smoothin them out.

I agree that using a setting compound like durabond would be better than ready mix joint compound although the 90 minute mud might be a little easier to use [doesn't set up as fast] Durabond is a bear to sand so apply it neatly. If I expect to do any sanding, I'll use ready mix j/c for the final coat.

Did you get all the wallpaper adhesive off?

Personally, I wouldn't texture over plaster except as a last resort. Plaster is almost always nicer than drywall, so it would be shame to make it look like drywall.

As for hanging pictures, I expect it depends on what shape the plaster is in.

Thanks for your responses. Actually, we were able to get off all of the paper and the adhesive.

This plaster has a lot of cracks and areas where they tried patching it back in the 50's probably and did a horrible job. So that's why I was concerned about whether we'd need to texturize the walls or not.

So the joint compound is completely different than the drywall mud, correct? For some reason I thought they were the same things...:rolleyes: We would prefer to be able to make it look nice and smooth and then just paint it.

So basically, joint compound would be the best option and we can then smooth a thin layer over it, and sand it(?), and then paint it? Does the joint compound have to be sealed?

Thanks again for your help. I appreciate it.

Joint compound = drywall mud. :)

The 2-part powder (Durabond) uses a chemical reaction to dry, it is really strong, and hard as heck to sand - perfect for tough spots like holes and bad cracks. Regular joint compound (mud) air dries and is sandable. That's what you'd use to skim coat after the repairs are made. The 40 or 90 minute Durabond types that you mix with water have the strength needed to do repairs, where joint compound to me is more about getting things smoothened out.

Primer or sealer seems to protect the difference of coverage from drywall to the mudded areas, but I'd recommend it for the skim-coating too. Your skim coat will soak up so much paint otherwise. And if there are any trouble (stain) spots your primer should seal it all off.

Best of luck with your project. I'm working with plaster over "rock lath"... what a pain! And it's like nailing into concrete to put up a picture! :p

This plaster has a lot of cracks and areas where they tried patching it back in the 50's probably and did a horrible job. So that's why I was concerned about whether we'd need to texturize the walls or not.

Mudding over these bad areas may make them disappear. Even if you do wind up texturing the walls, you want all the repairs to be as smooth as feasable or they may show thru the texture.

Drywall/plaster repairs should always be primed prior to painting.