We all put so much effort into it but the cracks kept on appearing… Several times chunks of plaster were so much on the verge of falling away we had to tear them off and patch in with new clay. You can see some of this process taking place in the picture above.

Every week we put in at least two days work filling cracks, wetting the plaster down, putting on extra slip coats, and readhering it onto the laths. The plaster was crazing, cracking and starting to delaminate from the laths. It was mucky work, but everyone got stuck in, and for a while it looked like it was going really well. I don’t know how many people helped us with the earth plaster, but there were a lot. We have been really lucky that so many people have been prepared to come and help on the project, that is part of the reason I have been dreading having to write this post. The laths were visible again all too soon. It was something along the lines of not expecting them to see the light of day again for about a hundred years or so.Īs it turned out nothing could have been further from the truth. I remember, as it turned out rather foolishly, a remark being made just before we started plastering over our hand cleaved chestnut laths. The plan (and and awful lot of work went into it) was to use earth plaster on these walls. The internal partition walls of the building are of a lath and plaster construction. Between that and christmas I’m afraid I couldn’t really face the blog.īut, the decorations have come down, its a new year, and I think its about time I told everyone what has been going on at Speckled Wood.

Hi everyone, sorry to have been so quiet for the last month or so, I think the whole project was starting to wear me down a bit towards the end of last year, and we have had quite a lot of problems with our internal walls.

Plaster on wood lath