If you're repainting older plaster, take the extra prep time to make the effort worthwhile. Use patching plaster to smooth cracks and imperfections in the plaster before you paint. If there's an angle that's in bad shape, use corner bead to form a crisp new profile under your new paint.

The lost art of Victorian plaster details is making a comeback - in a new form. Modern manufacturers are finding ways to reproduce cornice moldings, friezes, corbels, brackets, rosettes, and ceiling medallions, using lightweight polymers. Less prone to damage than plaster, polymer details are flexible, paintable, easy to ship, and they come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

For a rich wall treatment that's truly unique, find out more about marmorino plaster. Developed in 16th-century venice as a lightweight alternative to marble, this mix of marble dust and plaster with custom pigments requires two coats, a waxy finish, and lots of elbow grease, but the results can be spectacular.

Chris Borovka from US Gypsum joins Bob explain about patching with plaster. The first job entails patching over an existing door opening. They've put some Imperial Gypsum base up to the existing door frame and patched the existing hole with diamond veneer base coat. Next they put pressure sensitive fiber tape, P-Tape, over it and bonded the entire existing surface. The use USG Plaster Bonder Pink as a bonding agent - it rewettens and re-emulsifies - and put the base coat of plaster over that. Where the wall meets the ceiling, they apply pressure-sensitive tape to the existing surface and butt it in while applying the first coat of base coat. The first coat provides a nice even scratch coat. The second coat should be applied while the first coat is still fully wet and serves to take out some the bad dips and dives and the trowel marks from the first coat leaving a nice smooth finish. The next day you they'll put the finish coat over it. Where the insulators drilled holes into the original walls, the plasters put the Plaster Bonder Pink around the inside of the hole and fill it in with the base coat. They've meshed over the top of that for extra security and then bonded over the whole surface. On the blue board, it's a different type of installation. Shreve applies one-coat over the joints to reinforce them and fill in the undulation that's left from the two end tapes from the butt joints. That sets up for about an hour and then it's ready for finish coat.

Bob checks out the plaster cornice in the project home. Water damage has ruined a large section of the cornice, and much of the remaining plaster is in need of repair. Bob discusses the various elements and construction process for this style of cornice.

The plaster crew is hard at work in the master bedroom, applying a coat of USG Diamond Veneer Plaster. Bob gets a demonstration of the plaster application process, and a few tips on the technique for a nice, neat plaster job. Starting with the walls first, the crew works its way around the room before moving on to the ceiling.

Bob interviews Mike Casas, a plastering contractor doing plaster repair over drywall and metal lath over wood lath.

Bob and Chris Vila visit the plastering contractor at the Waterfront Warehouse Rehab project, and get a lesson in plaster mixing. In order to have the plaster set quickly, the workman demonstrates a technique that involves mixing plaster and joint compound together. This cuts the drying time in half in a typical hot and humid New York City summer.

Bob and Chris Vila meet with Jonas Everets, one of the interior designers working on the Brooklyn project. Everets is using a traditional Southern European plaster application called Marmorino on some of the penthouse walls. Marmorino, also known as Venetian Plaster, is a mixture of limestone and marble dust. It is generally trowelled by hand using a stainless-steel trowel as they are more rigid and can provide a thinner application. It can be applied over prepared drywall or traditional lathe and plaster systems. The color is added using dry oxide pigments. After two coats of plaster dry, a layer of Carnauba wax is added and burnished for shine.

Bob meets with Richard Marks, the restoration contractor, to see how the existing plaster and cornice work is blended with the new drywall.