Mount Vernon Drywall Co. restores the original plaster-and-lath ceilings found throughout the older homes of Westchester. Plaster fails differently than drywall, going hollow and dropping keys as the bond to the lath breaks loose over decades, and a bowing plaster ceiling should never be ignored. Rather than tearing out a ceiling that can be saved, we re-anchor the loose field, stabilize the cracks, and skim the surface back to smooth. It is preservation-minded work that keeps the character of an original ceiling intact.
When plaster pulls away from the lath overhead, the keys that once held it have snapped and the ceiling sounds hollow when tapped, a condition that only worsens under gravity. We reattach the loose field with plaster washers and screws that draw it back tight to the lath before any surface work begins. This stabilization is what stops the recurring cracking, and the real falling-plaster risk, that surface patching alone never addresses.
Settling cracks in an old plaster ceiling reopen if they are simply filled, so we treat the movement rather than the gap. We rout out the crack, bridge it with mesh or paper tape set in setting-type compound, and float the area wide so the repair flexes as one with the ceiling. Feathering the compound well past the crack keeps the fix invisible once painted.
Once the ceiling is anchored and the cracks are stabilized, we bring it back to a modern smooth surface with a full skim coat, bonding, floating, and sanding the plane flat while preserving the original plaster. Where old plaster meets newer drywall in a renovated room, we tie the two together with proper taping and a continuous skim so the transition disappears. The finished ceiling reads as one uniform plane, its character kept and its life extended.
In Mount Vernon, NY and the older neighborhoods of Bronxville, Scarsdale, Larchmont, White Plains, Pelham, and Tarrytown, Mount Vernon Drywall Co. restores plaster-and-lath ceilings to a smooth plane.