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NW Iowa | It depends on the quality of the plaster. Some of the old plaster guys would mix horse hair with the plaster to add strength. I tore down a house that had horse hair mixed in the plaster and it was harder to get the horse hair plaster to crack and break. When I wailed away at the plaster little chunks would be dangling by a strand of hair here and there. Never again will I do that job, by the way!
I always thought freezing did the damage, not just cool temperatures. Ironically this afternoon I was talking with a director at a local threshing show about freezing affecting the plaster in the house at the show grounds. He was talking about how well the plaster holds up in the old house on the show grounds after having endured well over 50 winters with no heat. The plaster in that house can be 100 degrees on a hot summer day and zero or below on the coldest winter day. That’s a 100 degree spread for a substance that doesn’t handle expansion and contraction all that well. Maybe the ceiling will be laying on the floor this spring but it has had a good track record so far.
I’ve been keeping a vacant house in town at 60 for three winters here in northwest Iowa and so far the plaster hasn’t suffered. The house was built in 1885. | |
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Older home with plaster walls/ceilings
