Plaster Repair in Winnipeg
Interior plaster on lath is the same trade as stucco, and it is repaired with plaster rather than patched with drywall compound.
Stucco is exterior plaster, so interior plaster work belongs to the same trade. Winnipeg Stucco Works repairs interior plaster in Winnipeg homes, and older Winnipeg has a great deal of it.
What Lath and Plaster Is
Before drywall, interior walls and ceilings were built by nailing narrow wooden strips across the studs and pressing wet plaster into the gaps between them. The plaster that squeezed through and hardened behind formed keys, and those keys are what hold the wall up.
That construction is common in Winnipeg homes built before roughly the 1950s. It is more durable than drywall in most respects, harder, better at sound, and repairable indefinitely.
Its failure mode is specific. When keys break, the plaster loses its grip on the lath and starts to sag or bulge, and eventually a section lets go. That is a different problem from a crack, and it needs a different repair.
Why Compound Is the Wrong Material
The most common thing we are called to redo is a plaster repair made with drywall compound.
Compound is made for filling the seams between drywall sheets. It is soft, it shrinks as it dries, and it does not bond to plaster the way plaster does. On a hairline crack it may hold. On anything larger it shrinks back, cracks around its own perimeter, and leaves a soft patch in a hard wall that a paint finish will show up in raking light.
Plaster repaired in compatible plaster hardens to a similar density, sands to the same profile, and takes paint the same way. It is a small distinction that decides whether the repair is invisible or obvious.
Cracks, Sags and Water Damage
Settlement cracks in plaster get cut out and rebuilt rather than filled, the same principle as stucco crack repair outside. Where the crack is over an active movement line, the repair is detailed to allow that movement.
Sagging is a key failure and is dealt with by refastening the field and repairing the coat, where enough sound plaster remains to work with.
Water damage, usually from an old roof or plumbing leak, needs the source fixed first. Plaster that has been wet and dried can be sound or can be effectively gone, and we will sound it and tell you which before quoting.
Serving River Heights, St. Boniface and communities across Winnipeg.
What's Included
- Cracked, sagging and water-damaged plaster
- Lath-and-plaster walls and ceilings in older homes
- Repaired in compatible material, not filled with compound
- Flat and textured ceilings matched
- Free written quote before work starts
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Plaster Repair Questions
Why not just use drywall compound?
Compound is designed to fill joints between boards, not to replace structural plaster. It shrinks, it is softer than the surrounding plaster, and on anything larger than a hairline it cracks again along the edges of the repair. Plaster repaired in plaster behaves like the wall around it.
My ceiling is sagging in one area. Can it be repaired?
Often yes. Sagging usually means the plaster keys that grip the lath have broken, so the coat is hanging rather than held. Where the plaster is otherwise sound it can be refastened and repaired. Where the keys have failed across a large area, that section needs replacing.
Can you match a textured ceiling?
Usually. Older Winnipeg homes have a range of ceiling textures, some hand-worked and some sprayed. Matching is the same skill as matching a stucco texture. If a ceiling has been painted many times over, we will be honest about how close a match is realistic.
Is plaster work the same trade as stucco?
Yes. Stucco is essentially exterior plaster. The materials differ for the exposure and the interior work is finer, but the tools, the technique and the way the material is built up in coats are the same, which is why plasterers have always done both.
Get a Free Plaster Repair Quote
Tell us what the wall is doing and we will give you a written scope and price before any work starts.