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Sunday, August 30, 2009

The joys of plaster

One of the things we've discovered about the house we are living in is that the walls are made out of plaster. It looks exactly like dry wall, but don't let it fool you. It is a different breed of wall.

Typically, I wouldn't care about something like this, but I didn't realize how hard plaster is! It took us twice as long just to hang one thing on the wall. We weren't aware that you're not supposed to put nails into plaster, so we've run into several problems:

1.We nailed into the wall and the wall cracked. Solution: We have started putting tape on the walls first and then nailing into the spot with the tape. This minimizes cracking.
2. The nails will just not go into the wall! Solution: Move the nail over an inch or so and just hit it a lot harder.
3. Sometimes the plaster is so hard that the nail bends instead of going into the wall. Solution: Throw the nail away and use a bigger one.

As you can see, we have no idea how to deal with plaster walls. We're working on it though...and learning new things every day!

7 comments:

LA-jan said...

Plaster has it's negatives, but, oh, so much more character than drywall! I wish I still had all mine, it's just too expensive compared to drywall, but I had them try to mimic the look! I'm so glad I did! We use molly bolts(?) that spread out once you put them in for the plaster we have left. They are designed for plaster.

Patty said...

When you figure it out, let me know for Erika's walls!!

Elizabeth said...

i never would have known that. thanks for sharing!

Dorothy said...

You are suppose to hang your pictures on long strings and hook them into the molding that surrounds your ceiling. This way the plaster doesn't get crack and get holes. It actually is very easy to do!!! If you ask at a store they have the picture hangers to do it.

maggie said...

my walls are plaster too, and it took me a lot of trial and error to get stuff hung up. you guys had some great creative solutions!

jennie said...

wow i had no idea about all that stuff, sounds like tough work!

Megan the Plumber said...

Wow, thanks for the information