Vasari

Archive for September 23rd, 2007

• September 23rd, 2007

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.

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