These videos are relaxing. It's as if Bob Ross were a contractor.

I love your videos. I want to thank you for allowing me to feel good about my skills. Please let me explain. I spent 16 years as a painting contractor and worked on a lot of old houses. I also did some rehabbing where I had to repair old wood lathe plaster with dry wall and tie it all together to get a nice finish. After watching several videos of professional drywall crews doing production work, I feel like I can't hold a candle to those guys. I felt quiet inadequate in my skill set, and my speed. After watching your videos like this one and that nasty 70's renovation, I realize that I am trying to comparing apples to oranges. I never was a production guy. I did stuff similar to what you show in these videos. I always got very good results. Although I have done some rehabbing since, my time as a painting contractor which was from the early 80's to the mid to late 90's. The materials were different. But a lot of what you do is what I did back then. All that being said, I have learned so much from you. I have the utmost respect for you and your skills. So I feel like you have validated me. I just finished a rehab. I don't know if I have another one in me, but I am still learning things for the next project, if it comes. Thank you for all that I have been able to learn from you.

Excellent Video !! This is THE way to handle this tricky transition to plaster, in Canada. In this particular location , you could use plywood instead of drywall if you want a solid surface to withstand the banging the wall may get next to the stairway. You can then mud over the plywood as normal. Smooth plywood or sanded works best to avoid covering the wood grain. If there is baseboard going on after the repair, the installer will Love you. Structilite works very well, but it is installed via plastering technique, no sanding. I use the corner tool for this as well, I know many drywallers don't like this tool. I find it very valuable to shape a corner like Ben is in this video. Vancouver home owners living in older plaster homes, will learn a TON from this. Thanks Ben !!

Ben, it’s so great to see a plaster repair video by you and Kirk Giordano basically side by side in my feed! Two of the greats!

Ben, I have been watching your skateboarding videos since 2020 and never realized you had another channel dedicated to your carpentry. I recently just purchased my own home, and have been doing research about repairs for my home. You've been a huge help to me and it's so cool to see your profession.

Lath and plaster has always been more harder to repair. Nice to see the tips on how to proceed with repairs, what works and why.

Always learn a lot from your videos. I am a homeowner in Denmark and even though the availability of materials (especially mud) is different, the principles still hold up. I’ve performed a similar repair to this job on my girlfriends apartment which is from the 1800s. ✌️

Very cool to see how to fix up previous work with new materials. Always enjoy your tips and advice!

I just realized I've been watching both your drywall videos and skateboarding videos. Looks like we have a lot in common!

Hey Vancouver Carpenter, what is different between the Concrete fill you used in this video and USG (brown bag) Durabond?

Nice ! I'm sure I'll have many such repairs on my 100 year old house ( assuming i don't have to gut everything) Thanks for explaining why NOT to use quick setting mud ( that woulda been my guess!)

I don't know why the sound of you scratching your 5:00 shadow made me crack up, but it did 🤣 that's a good mic 🤣

Always good to see your videos. I like learning how you get through weird situations like the plaster to drywall.

Great video. Love you’re attention to detail and and just how you explain it all. And you do make it look easy, have a great day!

Looks awesome! In Victoria i usually cut out the lathe with an osc tool and make 1/4” furring strips. Then 1/2” board goes on easy!

On a venetian plaster job myself. Great job Ben

Ben I can't fill air..... I like that first taper of yours

Super awesome Ben! I've definitely struggled with multiple coats o setting compound, and that explanation makes sense of it! I usually just use 210 with it, that way it's for sure good to go the next day. Sure do wish we could get confill here in MPLS, but I've done well enough pre filling with 20 min for the last 27 years.🤪

I still want to take a trip up to Canada and work with you for a week! Lol Good video!

G'day Ben, This Fibre Fuse looks like a good product to have in your kit, especially to get you out of a jam. I've just looked it up here in Australia and is fairly inexpensive. So thanks for sharing man ✌️ Peace from Melbourne Australia.

The house I'm working on was built in 68 and is plaster but not lath backed, it has some kind of board. I tore out the bulkhead and scabbed in drywall then used mesh tape on the seams. I wish I would have had this video a year and a half ago lol.

I have learned a lot from your videos man! All the way from Tucson Arizona.

screwing the drywall to the lath also helps stabilize the existing wall. in my house, many of the old lath strips have loosened from the tiny nails that secure them.

I stopped doing any kind of drywall mud awhile back. Plaster is SOOOOOOO much nicer. NO SANDING. Ya just have to be a decent taper ( and VAN Carpenter clearly is). It's so nice doing finish with a damp sponge instead of a dusty piece of paper. My 2 ( for what its worth)

I hope you are charging a pretty penny to do that work. You do an excellent job and I really doubt they could find anyone else to touch it.

Man your like the Steve McQueen of drywall mud 👍👌 very good work

You need to change your channel name to Vancouver master carpenter!!! That’s some freaking awesome work🤯

I have this problem in my house, I never looked into how to fix it since there's an ugly board of trim hiding it and I'm doing other stuff first. But then this video showed up. Dammit now I have to fix it

Great work as usual Ben👍🏻

Last year I skimmed out a 4 bedroom house, lath and plaster walls and ceilings using Fibafuse, it worked out beautifully but you have to be really careful with the product. If you're doing long sheets cover up, hat, gloves, long sleeves long pants, because if those glass fibres get into your skin you'll be in all sorts of trouble. The fibres are much finer than normal fibreglass, after a week I ended up with excruciating ulcer like sores on my knee and one arm, also shower as soon as you finish work. Next time I'm going to go with the full paper suit.

Thank you Ben.

Amazing work and keep up the amazing job Ben.

Finally a use for the lowly corner trowel!

Please make a video teaching GH basic carpentry skills!

Ben, did you do a tutorial on how to deal with tape bulging out where settlement has caused two horizontal sections of drywall to compress against each other? The same goes for old water damage that causes the same problem? Thanks 🙏

I do a lot of jobs just like this one. Nightmare scenarios that run and gun guys won’t touch.

awesome work adam corolla

Hello, I am getting confused. I saw a bunch of videos priming their drywall without mudding the whole entire wall or room but just mudding the joints and nails. Pls let me know if u made a video about this. Thank u!!!

Imperial all day long 🇨🇦👌🏽 I have no idea what the actual metric nominal size of a 8’2x4” is. Guessing like 223cm long and who knows the cm/mm = 2’4” makes my head spin

I’ve had very good success using the paperless type of drywall. The product I’ve used is DensArmor Plus but I think they’ve changed the name since. It is basically a fibreglass impregnated drywall with no paper at all and it DOES NOT soften when wet at all and therefore mold and mildew don’t start on it. It’s heavy and hard for cutting and gives you a rash from the fibres and you need to roll on a thin skin coat of thinned out (water) general purpose compound to seal it for the fibres. It does though produce a very very tough smooth surface. I used it in our basement and it takes quite a lot abuse without marking. I am not any type of skilled drywall guy but it has worked just as advertised to me. I learned how to mud and tape from your videos BTW. I think it would be very good along those stairs like you are showing. What was explained to me it is basically an exterior grade drywall for stucco on commercial buildings. I’m very pleased with it, I’ve tested soaking pieces in water for days and it won’t soften. Cheers!

Love the plaster videos! I appreciate the tips!

Doing my first remodel ever on my first home. Walls have mostly painted wallpaper, which has seen at least 2-3 coats. Would you recommend skim coating over it or attempting to remove the old paint/wall paper?

I remodel old buildings like this allllll the time with plaster and lathe and it's interesting to see how other people solve the problems.

Nice to see a cameo appearance from your 'plank shim'. 😀

I thought that corner trowel was only good for shimming scaffold? 😂

Your method is certainly a good technique. Never used fiberfuse tape, but looks perfect for jobs such as this. if you have "lifted" sections that are still OK to work with, manually (or slow screw) install some drywall screws into the piece. It gives it some extra strength and saves you a lot of work. If it really old and crumbly then do remove it. I normally apply mesh tape during the prefill stage with Durabond (Or concrete fill I guess on the west coast) is a good substitute for plaster work, wet sand it then skimcoats with your product of choice. And some glue helps, either on the bare lath or plaster edges to prime it. General PVA watered down does the trick.

This hodge podge of a remodel is exactly what i am used to ... lotsa floating ... i do it all w 8 n 10 inch knifes i should dlook into some darby like techniques but i do pretty well ... try for 2 coats settle for 3 usually on tough stuff

Can you make a video about patching drywall that's already been installed over lath? Like, what you would do if a year from now you punched a big hole in these pieces of drywall you added? I own a Frankenhouse with some walls that are 1/2" drywall over wood lath, and am trying to patch holes from electrical re-wiring, and I'm having trouble cutting out the drywall because, with the lath backing, you can't just score it and snap it off, or cut directly through without a saw. So it's going very slowly...

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍. Good tip on patch work

Great content. Keep them rolling! I just got a 120 year old house and all the walls are plastered. Some walls and ceilings are cracked or the plaster is chipping. Ive never worked with plaster and cant wait to try out your recommendations.

Good drywall skills thank you for your video

2:36 I think I'd be inclined to back-butter that drywall, probably with pre-mixed mud, and also put a bead of construction adhesive on the border between the old plaster and the bare lath. It may be paranoia on my part, but I've seen so many patches like that go crunchy when the weather changes, or when someone bumps the drywall as it sits on all that springy lath, that I'd want it as solid as possible. The risk of that happening probably depends on a lot of variables, like the wood used for the lath and the mix of the original plaster, but with plaster on wood lath, or even rock lath, bordering on a patch with drywall, I'm inclined to assume the worst.

I love your work!…your experience really shows!…

Top job ! Always such a nice finish a real trades man

I'd be interested in more videos on how to shim walls that aren't super straight. I've often had issues where my drywall is flush at the top of the wall but short at the bottom by up to 1/4 inch.

Very helpful as always! Q: If ceiling lath is cut back to the center of a joist and some don't have a nail supporting that edge what specifically would you secure them with? An air compressor is available. Is splitting the lath end a big deal?

We have durabond on the east coast, seems like the same as confill.

Just what I need for a repair on an older house.

You are the man!

how in the world are you making the skim coat so smooth? tried mixing it with an electric drill but I always came up with some small chunks of powder.

Labor intense, a lot going on, drywall fairy needing. I come across this a lot, but still not sure what to charge. Any suggestions?

When I was adding layers of mud to try to correct the crooked wall installed by the drunk guy the biggest problem I had was adding wet mud onto dry mud. As soon as the wet mud touches the dry it starts to dry almost instantly. You have a second or two to get it right before you have to stop and just sand whatever went wrong later. All kinds of weird humps and valleys formed that I just ignored and sanded and filled on the next pass. The end result is all that matters.

Great video Ben. What is the difference between Concrete Fill and Durabond?

Great video, along with your other lath & plaster repair/reno videos. If this was a personal project for you (instead of a job for a customer with a set budget/schedule) would you have taken a different approach? (e.g. taking the time/effort to remove more/all of the old lath & plaster, or gone the easier/faster route of just putting a a veneer of 1/4" or 3/8" drywall sheets over all the old walls)

Another great video. I still get confused on Mud: which mud for which purpose. Perhaps a list of mud types and brand names with a paragraph description of the best use. Here I learned of Concrete Fill or Confill as you said, and also air dry mud. Any help with a comprehensive list of muds, trade names, and uses?

You made it a little more difficult brother. Use 3/8 over lath. Shim the board so not so much filling. Done a lot of plaster repair over the years. Just try to shim to do as little fill as possible but you do good work bro.

Learning a lot!

Looks good, makes me miss working, I miss it

What mud are you using? Dry mix or pre-mix?

Please help me out in this one: how do you choose between repairing plaster walls with drywall vs mud (like in your other video)?

Hello! I really enjoy your videos.

Hi Ben, love this video. I live in an older home with lath plastered wall and ceiling in Rhode Island, USA. My walls are covered with old ass wallpaper over the plastered wall. Do you think its a good idea to remove the wallpaper down to the lath and drywall everything? Looking for some suggestions please and thanks for your help.

Nice puzzle ... always gret work

Fiba fuse is the best I use it for everything besides corners

Do you have a recommendation for a US product for this application? I need to do this at my house

Hi Ben. What type of mud are you using in your second coat on those stairs?

My best fix for plaster is.....dynamite. lol j/k . I truly like your informative videos as i agree with pretty much everything you say.

Nice NOFX reference.

No fiberglass tape? Is that the patching from a blue lid bucket? Why not the powder form you mix with water?

20:00 holy how mnay LED pot lights does the owner of this house want?

Would it be advisable to use the fiber fuse tape (instead of paper) on the ends of the drywall boards (when joining the non tapered edges)?

whats the purpose of fibre fuse and what happens if u didnt use it?

Is that first mud coat product similar to durabond?

That old house is just like mine... it's just a hodgepodge of drywall and old plaster everywhere

Love your videos. When do you need to use that fiber roll that you applied at around 10:07? I know the paper tape and the mesh tape but this is the first time I am seeing that kind of fabric/fiber roll

It's a shame that the skirt and base boards were removed, that's the character of an old house.

Kirk says that setting type drywall mud is plaster.

So i don't have access to concrete fill and im wondering what you suggest as an option we can get in the states. i see other plaster repair videos using USG durobond in varying speeds as a base fill. Do you feel that is an acceptable base fill? im always worried about how things bond and whether there will be cracking down the line due to improper products used.

No scrim cloth??

Send me a couple bags of that synko

Do you mean Durabond

Mix up the metric and Imperial measurements all you want. It will help us measurement impaired Americans to catch up to the rest of the world in terms of a measuring system that makes sense and is easy to use.

👍👍

No no no!!! You should be using a mix of hydrated lime that has been soaked in water, sand, animal hair or other strong fibre, and a bit of pozzolana substance like washed wood ash. Lime plaster only gets stronger with age and hardens by ABSORBING carbon dioxide from the air. Lime plaster doesn't grow mold and can regulate moisture, unlike modern gypsum and portland.

man, one more time. can i work 4 u

Varial heeflip

🙏👏👍💪

Repairing plaster with drywall is blasphemous First this, next thing you know, Ben will start riding Braile boards.

I'm so late to the usefulness of this channel god dammit

Parlez vous Español? How's that for adding confusion for fun? 😉