"Chris" wrote in message
...
I am removing wallpaper in an 80 year old house. Underneath the
wallpaper is plater walls. In many areas, the top coat is cracking, or
buldging away from the horsehair base. The base is still solid and
intact.


The areas that are bulging - how big are they?



I had a guy over to see about restoring the walls. He said he will
hammer out the buldges, tape cracks and then go over the walls with
two coats of joint compound and sand.

Is this a standard procedure? I was just reading an article on line
saying that joint compound is meant for drywall, and the real way of
dealing with plaster repair is to use plaster products.


For cracks which you feel are minor, especially around windows & doorways,
joint compound will work fine as long as there's no bulging, which indicates
that the plaster's separated from the backing. For anything bigger than a
dinner plate, plaster's the way to go.


The thing is, I asked him this, and he said that he doesn't have
experience with plaster, all he knows is that a plaster person is alot
more expensive than he is, and a plaster project is not a DIY project.
but, his procedure will still work..


Plaster can be a DIY project, but it depends on your patience level, and how
long you're willing to put a wall/room out of use. In places where the old
stuff's been removed all the way to the backing, the new plaster should be
applied in layers so each layer has a chance to dry completely. Depending on
climate and time of year, that could take a couple of weeks, especially on
chilly exterior walls.

Also, you can't mix large batches of plaster because it begins to set up in
the pan pretty quickly. It's much more involved than working with drywall
compound. If plasterers are more expensive, that would be one reason why.

Good luck finding a plasterer, too. About 15 years ago, I was acquainted
with an architect who was involved with constructing a new office building
here. The lobby required some sort of fancy plaster work. They had to import
plasterers from Austria. Nobody here knew how to do whatever it was they
needed done.