Plaster Repair
Interior plaster repair for older Southern Utah homes: cracked walls, sagging ceilings, and loose plaster reattached and finished to match.
01 / Plaster Repair
What interior plaster repair is
Homes built before the 1960s often have walls of true plaster: wood or gypsum lath with two or three coats of plaster keyed into it. Age, settling, vibration, and water take their toll in predictable ways: cracks that wander across walls, ceilings that sag away from the lath, keys that snap and let whole sections float loose. Plaster repair is the craft of saving those surfaces: reattaching what has loosened, rebuilding what has failed, and matching the finish so an old wall still reads as one surface.
02 / Plaster Repair
How we repair plaster
First we find out what is still attached. Loose but intact plaster gets reattached to the lath with plaster washers or injected adhesive rather than torn out. Failed sections are cut back to sound material, and we rebuild in kind: a setting-type basecoat to replace the scratch and brown, then a finish coat troweled to match the existing surface, whether that is glass-smooth or a period sand float. Hairline cracks get bridged, not just filled, so they stay closed. The goal is a repair that moves with the wall instead of fighting it.
03 / Plaster Repair
When plaster is worth saving
Plaster walls are quieter, harder, and flatter-looking than drywall, and in older St. George homes they are part of the character buyers pay for. Repair beats replacement when the majority of a wall is still keyed to its lath. Replacement makes sense when water has rotted the lath, when whole ceilings have released, or when a remodel opens the wall anyway. We do both, so the recommendation you get is based on the wall, not on the only tool we carry.
04 / Questions
Plaster Repair FAQ.
Can old plaster walls be saved, or should they be replaced with drywall?
Most can be saved. If the plaster is cracked but still keyed to its lath, reattachment and skim repairs restore it for decades. Replacement is the right call when the lath has rotted, large ceiling areas have released, or the wall is coming open for rewiring and insulation anyway. An honest assessment of what is still attached settles it.
Why do cracks in my plaster keep coming back after painting?
Paint and spackle only fill the surface of a crack; they do nothing about the movement that opened it. Plaster cracks need to be bridged with reinforcing mesh or tape bedded in setting compound, and loose surrounding plaster needs to be reattached first. Fix the movement and the bridge, and the crack stays closed through the next repaint.
My plaster ceiling is sagging. Is that dangerous?
Treat it seriously. A sagging plaster ceiling means the keys holding it to the lath have broken, and a released ceiling is heavy enough to injure someone. Keep people from working or sleeping under a pronounced sag and have it inspected promptly. Caught early, ceilings can often be reattached with washers and adhesive instead of demolished.
Need plaster repair done right?
We respond within one business day with a site walk, a sample, or a line-item estimate.