Re-bonding old plaster

[Big Stewy]

Hi all,

I have a large are of old plaster that sounds hollow but is otherwise attached to the brick wall behind and seems secure. However, it has an inprinted pattern/border at picture rail level that would be difficult to match in and so I don't want to re-plaster it. I do want to somehow re-bond it to the brick subsurface and thought of drilling a number of small holes and injecting some form of resin in that would soak in via capilliary action and stick the whole thing back together.

Will this work, is it standard practice and can anyone recommend a glue/resin?

Thanks for your help guys and gals,

Big Stewy

 

[Richard C]

I’ve thought about this before but don’t know of any practical way you could do it; but perhaps others on here know different. Blown plaster has a gap behind & this can sometimes be up to 1mm; the plaster & substrate are both highly absorbent so anything thin enough to inject through a hole will be very quickly absorbed before it has any chance to fill & bond the 2 together. Anything thick enough to fill the gap & bond it will be difficult to inject & won’t flow out behind plaster so will have a very limited local effect.

On a positive note; if the plaster is not cracked & otherwise seems sound, the chances are it will stay up there for a good few years yet; if you want to keep that moulded pattern intact, I would be inclined leave well alone.