In the past, when French lace textures or heavy grit sand finishes were popular, preparing the brown coat was a matter of rodding a wall, knocking off the clinkers and curing the heck out of the plaster.
I’ve been in the plastering industry for almost 50 years. I started out as a hod carrier, worked for 18 years as a journeyman plasterer, served as the Executive Director of the Sacramento Valley Bureau for Lath and Plaster, and served on the Northern California Apprenticeship Committee.
Structural engineers and plaster bureaus that have tried to define the forces that impact the performance of Portland cement have had challenges, particularly when investigating why the cement stucco has developed cracks. This article is a collaborative effort of a structural engineer and plaster bureau representative who met and decided it was time to work together.