Emmaus, Lehigh County
Plaster repair in Emmaus, PA.
Emmaus began as a Moravian village laid out in 1758, and its oldest walls carry lime plaster. Houses built as the borough grew after 1900 more often have gypsum, which handles water very differently.
Plaster repair for Emmaus homes
Some 1,300 Emmaus homes, about 27 percent, were built before 1940, while plaster was the ordinary wall. The oldest trace back to the Moravian village laid out in 1758, and one landmark from earlier still, the log house of about 1734 now called the Shelter House, was chinked with mud, straw and horse hair, close to what early builders pressed onto masonry as a first coat of plaster.
The borough's later growth changed its plaster. Emmaus nearly tripled in population between 1900 and 1920, just as gypsum was replacing lime, and gypsum behaves differently: it sets in minutes and dries hard, but it was always more vulnerable to water. That difference decides how a leak, a damp wall or an old patch should be handled in a given house.
Emmaus
Lime in the old village, gypsum in the years after 1900
Lime plaster, the kind on the village's early walls, was often laid straight onto stone without lath, holding by suction. It is relatively soft and porous and can ride out occasional damp, even water wicking up from the ground, as long as the wall can dry. What it handles badly is a wall that stays wet, or a hard patch or coating that seals moisture in behind it, so a repair begins by finding where the water comes from.
Gypsum, standard from the early 1900s, is harder and more uniform, but it softens and crumbles where a leak keeps it wet. In a house from the borough's growth years, a stain under a bathroom or below a roof valley calls for prompt attention, because gypsum that stays wet long enough loses both its strength and its grip on the lath.
Worth knowing
High or low tells you where
On a stone wall, staining near the floor points to ground moisture, while damp near the ceiling points to the roof, gutters or flashing. Either is fixed before the plaster.
The 1950s question
The 1950s were the borough's busiest building decade, and a house of those years may have plaster over gypsum lath or drywall. Find out which before a repair is planned.
Match the patch to the plaster
On soft lime plaster, a patch much harder than the wall around it tends to crack at its edges, so repairs to old work are chosen to suit it.
The work
How the work goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to plaster repair.
Find the cause
Every repair starts with why the plaster failed: a leak, a settling corner, a ceiling carrying too much. Randy walks the rooms with you, and the walkthrough and written estimate are complimentary.
Reattach what’s loose
Plaster that has lost its keys but is otherwise sound can be drawn back to the lath with screws and broad plaster washers. It doesn’t have to come down.
Bridge the cracks
Cracks are opened slightly, bridged with fiberglass mesh tape and filled with setting-type compound, which hardens by chemical reaction and shrinks less than ordinary joint compound. A finer compound goes on last, because setting compound is hard to sand.
Rebuild what’s missing
Where plaster is gone down to the lath, the old edges get a bonding agent and the hole is built back up in layers, each stepped over the last. Larger openings can take a piece of board shimmed to the plaster’s thickness instead.
Finish to the wall around it
The repair is feathered into the old surface, or the whole wall is skimmed so old and new read as one. On a wavy old wall, the patch follows the wall’s contour; a dead-flat patch would stand out.
Questions
Plaster repair, Emmaus.
Our Emmaus house dates from about 1910. Is its plaster lime or gypsum?
Most likely gypsum, or the two combined: gypsum came into use around 1900, and in the early 1900s plasterers often used lime and gypsum together in the same wall. Once cured they are hard to tell apart by eye, so the house's date and what shows at any opening are the surest guides.
A bathroom leak soaked the ceiling below in our 1920s house. Does all of that plaster have to come out?
Not necessarily. Once the leak is fixed and the ceiling has dried, plaster that is hard again and still tight to the lath can stay and be repaired. Areas that crumble, bulge or have pulled away are cut out and rebuilt, and the stain is sealed before paint.
Do you repair plaster in Upper Milford and Salisbury, too?
Yes. Randy serves the townships around the borough. About one Upper Milford home in six predates 1940, and about one in eight in Salisbury, so old plaster turns up there in the older houses rather than the subdivisions.
More in Emmaus
Other services here.
- Level 5 drywall finishA skim coat over the entire surface, for walls that hold up under raking light and dark paint.
- Skim coatingRough, patched or uneven walls resurfaced smooth, often after wallpaper comes down.
- Interior paintingWalls, ceilings, trim, doors and millwork, prepared properly and finished clean.
- Exterior paintingSiding, trim, porches, stucco and brick, prepared to stand up to Pennsylvania weather.
- Drywall installation & repairNew drywall hung, taped and finished; cracks, holes and water damage repaired invisibly.
- Drywall texture matching & removalTexture matched so repairs disappear, applied where you want it, or taken off for a smooth wall.
- Popcorn ceiling removalOld acoustic texture taken down and the ceiling finished smooth.
- Wallpaper removalOld wallpaper and wall linings stripped without tearing up the wall beneath.
- Wood stainingDecks, porch floors, doors and trim, inside and out, stained by hand.
Consultation
Request a private consultation.
Private walkthrough & written estimate, complimentary. Tell us a little about the house and the rooms, and Randy will be in touch to arrange a time.
- Hours
- Monday – Friday8:30 AM – 5:30 PMSaturday10 AM – 3 PMSundayClosed
- Service area
- Easton, Bethlehem, Allentown and the greater Lehigh Valley; Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Fully insured — proof on request. Residential and commercial.