Venetian Plaster Tips

There’s a lot of talk about ‘green’ building and the environmental aspects of home or commercial building. There are several large companies that produce environmental wall finishes. There are many great products to choose from. There’s green clay based plasters, green paints, clay paints, etc. Most of these products are indeed very green. Some are greener than others. Some are green when applied, but they don’t really act green in the long run. For example most green paints don’t really actively protect mold and mildew and they don’t actively protect against other negative atmospheric conditions, like excessive carbon dioxide or high humidity.

We make the most natural and environmentally friendly plaster available. Our tints are environmentally the cleanest available. So what makes our environmental plasters better than other green plasters? …Vasari’s is leaps and bounds better looking, infinite possibilities in texture and sheen, easier to use than most other plasters, infinite color selection, unmatched prices, easy fix ability, and always the best service and assistance.

Most homes have floor trim / base board (the wood that is between walls and floors). This is done for looks and durability. If you’re doing a Venetian Plaster house, you can skip the trim and save lots of money, and it looks pretty cool, too.

If you are doing wood floors, you can plaster the wall all the way down to the floor, and then run ¼ baseboard / trim (it’s not really baseboard) to hide the slight imperfections of the wall meeting the floor.

If you have tile or concrete floors, rum the plaster right into the grout or concrete. It’s a very nice clean look.

For durability moppinh the floors, and not getting dir on the plaster, use our sealer, ‘Miracle Sealants Impregnator Porous Plus’, to seal the bottom 4 inches of your wall. That way it will be cleanable. For nicks from vacuum cleaners, or other, fix it as described in ‘Maintenance’ section of our website (spackle with plaster and sand when dry).

Yes, you can Venetian Plaster your shower instead of tile or fiberglass. Shower stalls are exactly like doing exteriors, except you have a few more options when it comes to backing. The only limitation we have is the shower floor, or any floors for that matter. Please see the application description in exteriors for some more ideas. Plaster is much cheaper than tile, and in most cases looks much better.

So, the best way to do it is to mud the walls (lathe and cement), 2 coats of Marmorino (and sealed) or add another 2 coats of Veneziano for a super slick look (and then sealer). The thicker the walls, the better the durability and moisture build up resistance.

The edges of the shower, where the venetian plaster stops against the walls, and where the plaster meets the floors are the most important parts. We will not advise exactly how to do this because as on exteriors, we recommend professional installation. Basically, prep the shower walls the same exact way you would if you were going to tile it. Remember that the floor is most likely going to move independently from the walls, so make sure that it’s done however a professional would do it. There are also many books and online resources that should help you do it yourself.

Always seal shower stalls. We recommend ‘Miracle Sealants Impregnator Porous Plus’ it’s expensive stuff, but goes along way and you have to reseal it about every 5 years. There are many other sealers on the market. Make sure that they are rated for exteriors and that they don’t change the color of the venetian plaster and don’t have a plastic-like sheen.

What’s the difference between stucco and plaster? They are the same thing. We have a hard time trying to figure out who means what. In the US, stucco often refers to one part cement and three parts sand. Elsewhere it doesn’t have to be cement. There is lime stucco (like Vasari), there is gypsum stucco and there is a whole bunch of other products called stucco made from all kinds of stuff. So, choose your own term. You call it Venetian Plaster.  I think plaster sounds a little fancier.

Venetian Plaster ‘Tuscano’ is perfectly applicable for exteriors. This is also perfect for interiors if you want a heavier look than Marmorino. We recommend that exteriors are done by professionals as there are potential water issues around windows, doors, etc. If you are an ambitious ‘do it yourselfer’ you should consult various plaster / stucco books on the subject. There is really only one good book that we’ve found on the subject -  BUILDER’S GUIDE TO  STUCCO LATH & PLASTER and there is a nice 4 page explanation from the ‘QUICK CARDS’ – STUCCO ESSENTIALS. All can be bought online (not from us). Don’t get ‘The Stucco House’ – it’s a novel. Well, I guess get it if you like 1920’s era English drama.   There are also some great websites on the subject under ‘do-it-yourself’ searches / stucco.

There are many different ways of applying exterior stucco (Tuscano), but there are basically 2 types of substrates:  the first being a surface where no lathe is necessary –brick, cement, stone, E-Crete, Duracel, and any other cementatious hard surface , the second where you have put up lathe. There are three coats minimum in any case. The first  coat is called a scratch coat. This is usually 1 part cement, 1 part lime and two or three parts sand and water. This is important – DON’T ‘SCRATCH’ THE SCRATCH COAT. The texture of the ‘scratches’ can come through on the last coat. The polymers in the plaster will easily adhere to the cement, or whatever you choose for the first coat. The second and third coats are our Tuscano Venetian Plaster. Then, if you want, you can Lime Wash the house every 5 years or so change colors forever very easily, cheaply and enjoyably. ‘Miracle Sealants Impregnator Porous Plus’ If you live in a winter or super wet climate, we recommend that you seal it with Miracle Sealants ‘Porous Plus’. If you do this, you can’t Lime Wash. Seal it because the water and ice can take its toll pretty quickly.

The advantages of Tuscano over regular cement stucco:

- looks beautiful
- change color easily with Lime Wash
- 3000 color options for the plaster
- fix easily
- more breathable
- self healing for small cracks
- more flexible
- much easier to apply than cement – like all of Vasari products, it doesn’t go bad in the bucket
- used in shower stalls – with sealer
- mildew / fungus resistance
- and looks beautiful
 
Disadvantages:

- product is a tiny little bit more expensive (but so worth it!)
- not as super durable as cement if not sealed like cement (cement is only really weather resistant when sealed or painted)
 Tuscano is easy to install, interior or exterior. Again, for exterior, make sure you know what you’re doing, especially with the waterproofing. Read books, get advice. We take no responsibility if the house isn’t prepped correctly.

If you are considering Venetian Plaster as a business or if you need some practice for your own project, you should know how to make sample boards. You can make sample boards on virtually anything as long as it’s primed and not flexible. Some other plasters out there are quite flexible when attached on bendable substrates, like paper. That is usually because they are synthetic or have great amount of acrylics.

The easiest thing to make sample boards out is ¼ inch drywall. You can usually only get this in drywall supply stores. Home Depot and alike usually carry only ½ or 5/8 inch, which is still perfectly usable, but it gets very heavy very fast if your are making a presentation with many possibilities. It’s easy to cut drywall, and if you don’t know how, someone at the store will help you. The problem with drywall is that it’s not very durable. The corners tend to chip off if dropped and there is raw gypsum coming off the edges, making a messy floor. Sheets come in 4×8 feet, which means that you can get 8 2×2 feet sample boards. The best size by the way is 2×2 feet. Anything smaller is sometimes very difficult to tell what it’s going to look like and also it’s a good practice size.

The other option for samples is MDF board which is available at the major home improvement stores. These are sheets sold in large sizes, too. MDF is made of wood, so you have use a saw tool to cut it. The stores can do that for you. It’s a little more expensive, but worth it, as these boards are more durable and cleaner.

All sample boards should be primed with any good latex primer from any good paint store. You can remedy the messy drywall edges by priming the edges. Lastly, if the edges of the board are messy, you can always frame them in a cheap raw wood frame (which you can wax, stain, etc) or you can use a neutral or black tape to wrap the edges.

Vasari Venetian Plaster provides any color in any paint fandeck. The only slight limitation we have is to make ultra deep burgundies because of the extreme amount of tint needed which can degrade the structural integrity of the venetian plaster. Reds are easy, but the burgundies can turn hot pink in unburnished areas. Although with our reddish brown waxes, those lighter areas can disappear. So, it is possible, but you need wax. Other reds, such as your typical red oxide aren’t a problem. Incidentally these colors are fantastic with brown waxes.

Ok, as far as other colors. If you are mixing something yourself from our white base, the first thing you should know is that our venetian plaster, because it has such a high lime content, will lighten up by as much 60% when dry. So your deep colors have to be saturated with lots of color.

We now use zero VOC universal tints (ones to tint paint). These tints are made with the same natural powders that are sold in Italy. Our tints are more consistent and easier to mix than the individual powders. The powders in fact, are usually only good for Lime Wash. Some powders, as certain colors, are difficult to exactly reproduce with tints, such as some burnt siennas. In general though, 98% of all colors can be easily matched. Also, some natural powders radically change the consistency of the venetian plaster. In Lime Wash, nothing happens. Most colors for most projects seem to fall in range with golden ochre / nutty brown tones. These can be achieved with 3 primary tint colors that can be purchased in most paint stores. These are Yellow Oxide (C), Raw Umber (L) and Brown Oxide (I). So for example, say you want a nice warm ochre yellow. Assuming your mixing a 5 gallon bucket, it would be 5 ounces (about ¾ of a cup) of Yellow Oxide, 1 ½ ounces of Raw Umber and a little less then 1 once of Brown Oxide. If you want a nutty neutral light brown, it would be about 5 ounces of Raw Umber, 2 ounces of Yellow Oxide and 1 ounce of Brown Oxide. A sage green would 11 ounces of Yellow Oxide and 2 ounces of Thalo Green (D) and 10 ounce of Raw Umber. A deep red color would be 2 ½ quarts (yes that much) of Red Oxide (F). Sky light blue would be 5 ounces of Thalo Blue, ½ ounce of Violet (V) and ½ and ounce of Lamp Black (B).

Vasari Venetian Plaster also provides custom tint mixes and primary colors.

Burnishing Venetian Plaster is probably the most important step of your job. There are few ways to burnish. With Veneziano, on the second coat, when you apply a thin tight layer, it sucks up and almost dries immediately, right after put on another coat in the same fashion. This layer doesn’t dry so fast. When it’s not tacky wet, which should be soon, take your clean trowel and at a 5 degree (or so) and go over the ready spot with some moderate force like your ironing a shirt, except at an angle. AGAIN, BURNISHING IS LIKE IRONING CLOTHES EXCEPT AT AN ANGLE. If this doesn’t polish out, do a third super thin layer (not a third coat, just a third pass on the second coat), then burnish. It is always done to some degree or another. Burnishing ensures that you have sheen and variation on the wall. You can burnish (especially Veneziano) to a high glass like sheen or very subtle pockets of sheen and color variation. Marmorino, the sandy ‘rougher’ plaster also needs burnishing for the variation and some smoothness. Sand sponging Marmorino is a must to get all the color variation. Marmorino can get shiny but not like Veneziano.

Burnishing is not only necessary to get bang for your buck but also to compact the plaster and make it literally harder and more durable. Also, the more a spot is burnished, the more resistant it becomes to absorbing things like Lime Wash and wax. Since the pores of the plaster become tighter, it rejects the wax and alike and the rougher left alone areas pick up the superficial layers better. When burnishing, make sure, really really sure that your trowel is clean and has no nicks, otherwise your going to get scratches which are generally bad, although it’s amazing how many jobs look like a mess because nobody takes care of their trowel. If you forget and you do get a scratch, take a little plaster and go over it and burnish again.

The most popular form of Veneziano, and quite possibly of Venetian Plaster, is what we call ‘unburnished’ Veneziano. This is when on the second coat (as there is always one), instead of doing successive tight coats then evenly burnishing everything, instead, you plaster a single tight coat (on the second coat), then immediately afterwards plaster a slightly thicker fluffier layer, but not full coverage. When this starts to turn into a clay like consistency (it’s drying, not dry, but not wet) you can give it single light stroke of burnish from your trowel. When it is completely dry the next day, take a worn sanding sponge, which we can provide, and sand the wall. You’ll notice that the thinnest places of application and the areas which were lightly burnished will ‘pop’ the most with color and sheen. Lastly, to get a high shine, you can spray a little water on the wall and burnish (don’t let it streak down the wall), you can buff out the wall when dry with a #0000 steel wool, if you’re looking for complete flatness, do 3 (instead of 2) coats burnishing only the last one, or if all else fails, you can wax it with our beeswax (clear for no color).

Venetian Plaster comes in any sheen or texture giving any possibility to your customer or yourself.

After you finish your Venetian Plaster job, there is a 95% chance that you will do touchup. You or you clients should expect perfection in the work. The variation in color, movement, sheen and texture should be consistent. The edges, where the wall meets the ceiling, corners or where it meets the molding or baseboards, should be razor sharp without a mess. The best way to prevent lots of touch up is of course to do a carefully executed job in the first place. This includes the right preparation like masking.

Masking is almost as important as the venetian plaster job itself. It saves time, money and a headache. The basic order of masking is first mask the floor, then cabinets, then crown molding / ceiling, then baseboards. If you are doing the ceiling, which is quite common, then mask off the doors, sinks and well, everything else.  Now, for the touch up: first make sure your walls are where you want them to be- no weird trowel marks, nicks, blistering, cracking. There are numerous ways to fix these problems. Sometimes a little extra venetian plaster, a little sanding, a little wet sanding, rewaxing, polishing with finer sanding paper will work. There are numerous ways of fixing plaster. Sometimes it just takes a little experimenting, but everything is fixable.  The sheen (or no sheen) should be uniform, the wax (if there is any) should buffed out without streaks.

BEFORE OR DURING YOUR SECOND COAT, RUN YOUR FINGER WITH PLASTER BETWEEN THE WALL AND THE MASKING TAPE (wear gloves). This will hopefully leave a nice sharp line when you unmask. If there is too much excess venetian plaster on the tape and there tape is ripping when you pull it off, you can spray it with water, which softens the plaster and makes the unmasking easier. If there is still a problem, gently score / cut along the tape line then unmask.  If there is an uneven line, you can wrap a wet cloth around a putty knife and scrape / clean along the edges where the wall meets the trim. You can even scrape with a dry knife.

Venetian Plaster is much easier to clean off lacquered wood (it just pops off), rather than a painted surface. Venetian Plaster sticks much more to a paint than an oil based surface.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. If you need products, be sure to visit our Venetian Plaster ordering page.

There are lots of fancy Venetian Plaster trowels available on the market. They are often expensive and unnecessary ($30 -$50). They are often a limited size, like 8 or 10 inches, which is useless unless your doing a very small area or looking to do a highly intricate pattern. UNLESS YOU’RE DOING A TINY JOB OR A DETAILED AREA, ALWAYS USE A 12”-16” TROWEL. IT MAKES YOUR VENETIAN PLASTER JOB MUCH FASTER AND EASIER. Trowels often fall and get easily dinged which could mean the end of the trowel. It is often much cheaper to buy your own trowel at any standard hardware store, like Home Depot or Lowe’s. ($14-$20). The difference between these and the fancier trowels is that the other trowels have slightly rounded edges. By the way, pool trowels work, except they don’t get into corners. The rounded edges insure that there are no lines left over when you make a trowel stroke. With the unrounded trowels, this only happens when the trowel is fabricated with a slight bow which makes the trowel uneven. So, if you buy a trowel, just carefully look down the edges to make sure it’s straight, or at least bowed the other way so the corners don’t touch the surface first. If you have a mechanical grinder, you can grind down the corners a bit. Then take a sanding sponge/paper (even if you don’t round the corners) and sand the edges of the trowel to get rid of any minor imperfections. Feel the edges to make sure it’s perfectly smooth. This is most important especially when you are applying Veneziano Venetian Plaster with a high burnish. Every imperfection in the toll can show. There are some trowels, like Kobalt brand that are terrible, because the are made in such a way that has a very rough edge which makes sanding it down very difficult. Remember, you always want a bigger job and you always want to do it fast. A larger trowel will make that possible. Typically 16” for men and 12”-14” inches for most women (no offense to anybody). Vasari Venetian Plaster can provide you with trowels. The right tools will ensure a better, easier, faster and more profitable Venetian Plaster job.  

Welcome to the Vasari Venetian Plaster blog. We intend this blog to be a forum for those interested in all things Venetian Plaster. Please feel free to post any and all questions about products, application tips, troubleshooting problems, etc. We here at Vasari Venetian Plaster will be happy to offer any assistance that we can. Others that have tips and tricks can also chime in to this open forum discussion.

Be sure to check out our application tips and our project gallery for some ideas.