I have a house that was built in 1901 and needs a lot of plaster work. I've tried both Structolite and Gypsolite as a base coat over bare brick. Both of them crack as they dry, less than an hour after the structolite starts setting They look like a dried up lake bed. I've tried wetting the substrate before applying it but it doesn't help. Could this be that it's not packed tightly enough and it shrinks when it's drying? It seems solid enough, even with the cracks but I've seen pros using it without the same problem, so I know it can be done. Unfortunately the pros didn't do a good job of spreading it flat, so I'm redoing it myself.
Plastering Tips – How to Prevent Structolite From Cracking as It Dries
lath-and-plasterplaster
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Best Answer
The Structolite is drying out too fast, because the bare brick is wicking out all of the moisture.
You need to use a bonding agent and possibly add some sand to your base coat, as well as scarify it, for any successive coats.
If this project is going to have any substantial thickness, it probably wouldn't hurt to also add some kind of structural support, like wood and/or metal lathe.
I use the latter all of the time, when doing repairs where the plaster has fallen completely off sections of wood lathe.