The Historic District

Lime plaster has become preservation-only in Europe too (and amazingly quickly, in the early 80s even young farmers would still slake their own lime in a pit and build their entire house with that lime and sand, only buying bricks from the store, heck, I watched the same farmers slake lime in that pit and whitewash the walls probably around 1995!) but I don't think any plasterer waits for 4 full weeks between coats, more like a few days and then 2 weeks from the finish coat until painting, unless whitewash is used, which is always applied to the still-wet plaster as soon as it's become solid enough not to be marred by the brush.

The real disadvantage of gypsum in old houses seems to be that it isn't moisture-resistant at all so it fails quickly when the walls get even a little damp. Stone walls tend to have few problems with rising damp but they do occasionally get condensation issues in humid summers. For a perfectly smooth finish a mix of lime putty and fine marble dust is used but that's really rare even here. We had to live with a somewhat rough finish coat, the whitewash smoothed that out to some extent anyway and future coats will eventually make the plaster perfectly smooth.

WildGeese, I didn't go to Bryn Mawr but a couple friends have, and I think if I were doing it again that's what I would do and then actually go to grad school. I ride, though, so we've got that in common instead.

For your plaster question, you might want to call or email the people at Limeworks. They're local and although I haven't gotten around to contacting them myself I've heard they are really helpful. Reminds me I really should email them to see what they suggest I do about my poor powerwashed bricks (before I got the house).

Thanks for the info Texas-Ranger. Yes, I think my Oma and Opa in Germany had lime plaster walls redone still in the 80s. I had an architectural historian out yesterday, and she recommended some names of plasterers who did work on her old home and other historic houses. It sounds like I will have to end up with a compromise, given the time/rarity of older methods.

Sepvivia, I did take a look at the limeworks website, and they seem promising. Powerwashed bricks--yikes!

We were fortunate to have a local retired mason who learned from an even older experienced mason back in the 40s and early 50s so he knows a lot about traditional techniques. He did all our plastering using pure lime plaster. The supplies are still easy to find, he just had bagged lime and sand delivered from a nearby store and mixed on site for the scratch and base coats. The finish coat was something pre-mixed from the store but also lime-based.

Edit: everyone else considered us crazy for even plastering and suggested dot-and-dab (plasterboard sheets on brick walls, held in place by large dabs of gypsum plaster). However, I once watched a crew dot-and-dab in an old house and saw how they ran through the plaster by the wheelbarrow (almost a full wheelbarrow for ONE sheet!) trying to get the wall plumb and straight! You're also likely to end up with damp problems in an uninsulated house.