quattroworld

to make any free form curves or shapes imaginable.
I do lots of other work, mostly mechanical and electrical work to make the majority of my businesses money, but my passion sure is spreading and finishing plasters.

I always loved it, and over the years when I was younger I experimented all I could in my free time and taught myself everything I could about working the various materials. Very old technical manuals from plasterers unions were quite helpful in learning methods and techniques that are long lost. The closest things we have today are exterior stucco, and what remains of interior work with veneer systems, and historic restoration work. I have even used latex molds to copy and cast plaster crown, and ornamental work, and other features. Unfortunately I never had anyone to learn directly from, so a lot of that process was long and tedious, but at this point I would put my spreading and screeding skills up there with the best, certainly better than anyone I have ran into in real life. There are a lot of local masons here that will spread stucco, and some that try and plaster interior work, but what passes as a decent looking stucco job from any other masonry contractors I have seen is pretty nasty in my eyes.

When I scratch and brown coat anything, interior or exterior, the brown coat ends up perfectly flat, and floated to a dense but slightly coarse texture to have key for a finish coat. The idea is that the brown coat provides your substrate in terms of flatness, and square/plumb surfaces etc.. but not a finish or texture in any way. it should not be left any more ugly with the excuse that the next coat fixes it. The finishes are never meant to take up variation like that anyway. I see those brown coats, left nasty and lumpy, or "textured" as the other guys final finish! And in terms of developing a true and plumb plane or surface, forget about it. The rustic, lumpy adobe look is standard as far as anyone else knows what to look for. A brown coat like mine being left flat and plumb/square in all directions would be where I would leave a tile base, ready to receive a roll on membrane.

When browning out a room or surface of any kind, the correct procedure is to develop dots and then screeds of plaster ahead of the full coat, to provide a guide for your full coat ensuring an even thickness, and true and plumb surface. Just like you use a wet screed of concrete between your form boards when screeding a large area. You could also set a wood strip to be removed later, or a screed T to do the equivelant, but the result is the same regardless. A flat, square, plumb, etc.. surface, with as little variation as possible. It doesn't work to just "free hand" it and expect a true surface, that never works. Even the veneer systems depend on the flattness of your trowel developing a surface like this, and they must be guided accordingly even being so thin. Or they just take on the plane of your blueboard or drywall beneath.

Weather portland based mortar, or gypsum, they all spread and finish the same to me. Gypsum sanded base coats are actually stronger in terms of tensile and compressive strength than concrete or portland stucco, when proportioned for maximum strength.

When I tile, I can spread a stucco basecoat over metal lath, to form my tiling base, rather than use cement board. I find this kind of base much better to tile over and stronger than anything else as well, but it is a bit more work. Out west where there is a lot of stucco still, they do showers like this as a stucco contractors job, then it gets waterproofed in the old hot mop asphalt way. I use modern waterproofing membranes though instead of this though, as the bond to asphaltic waterproofing from the tile setting materials is questionable to say the least..

Best part is I can spread any basecoat, and then finish with any top coat, so regardless of the base, I can make the finish appear exactly how I want. I have spread walls of 1" of exterior stucco over metal lath on an interior room, but finished with a smooth gauging plaster white coat, so they are strong as shit, but appear just like any other wall. Real entertaining for anyone who thinks they are going to cut through a bit of drywall for whatever reason, or an angry punch from someone.

If anyone ever has any questions about plastering or stucco in any capacity, I always love to pass on what I know. I can fill in any area of the trade in terms of knowledge and details, even the most mysterious and forgotten.