Dang it Bob after reading your post and thinking back to the good and some bad times as a Kid with my Dad. I thought I would tell a story of what one of the skills that he taught me.
As I stated in Bob's post about my Dad who was a Lath and Plastering Contractor. He and my Grandfather had their Company in Mid. Ohio. Dad was just getting started when WWII started and he joined the USAAF as a B-17 Ball Turret Gunner. After his discharge he went back to plastering. Plastering was doing good in the late 40s and 50s because very few houses used sheetrock at that time. We called that stuff G-Damn drywall. Most of the higher end houses used plaster. But later most all houses were using sheetrock.
Now my part of being in the plastering business began when I was in grade school. On a lot of the Saturdays Dad would go to the jobs to do patch /repair work or build scaffold for Mondays. Now you might ask what did I do. Well it was a job I absolutely hated. It consisted of removing the dropped plaster from the floors. Concrete slab wasn't to bad BUT a WOOD subfloor was a real high grade of sh!tty. To do this task you get on your hands and knees with a concrete/plaster trowel in hand and start scrapping then sweep the crap up. Yep as you scrape the damn trowel hits the uneven floor boards and sends a shock up your arm.
As I got bigger and older my jobs also got bigger, during the summers. I mixed the plaster in both the mixing box and with the mixer. Carrying the hod, which is a V-shaped open trough on a pole, full of plaster wasn't to bad except when you had to go upstairs.
When I caught up on these jobs Dad would show me how to use a hawk and trowel to apply brown coat which is the first layer of plaster. When doing commercial buildings most had sprayed on ceilings of plaster asbestos mix. Yep I was spray guy. Dad also built 3 houses and I also learned how to apply Stucco on two of them. For finnish coats one was sprayed on and one was California style which is troweled on.
Now when did all of these fine skills pay off you might ask.
Well let me told you.
When I was 14-15 and in the 9TH grade of our small town school there had been a water leak in the ceiling which caused 3' +- square area of the plaster to fall down. This just happened to be outside of my science class. After a few weeks I asked my science teacher if he wanted me to fix it. He looked at me wide eyed and asked "You can do that" I replied "sure no problem" The teacher and I had gotten along very well in the past and both of us had respect for each other. So he gets principal's approval. The next Saturday I brought my hawk and trowel, some Zonelight and brown coat plaster to fix it after I mixed it up. The lath was metal so I didn't have to fix it.
Sorry this was so long just one of many stories growing up in a small town in the 50s.
I had great times with Dad while working our arss off and playing hard.
As I stated in Bob's post about my Dad who was a Lath and Plastering Contractor. He and my Grandfather had their Company in Mid. Ohio. Dad was just getting started when WWII started and he joined the USAAF as a B-17 Ball Turret Gunner. After his discharge he went back to plastering. Plastering was doing good in the late 40s and 50s because very few houses used sheetrock at that time. We called that stuff G-Damn drywall. Most of the higher end houses used plaster. But later most all houses were using sheetrock.
Now my part of being in the plastering business began when I was in grade school. On a lot of the Saturdays Dad would go to the jobs to do patch /repair work or build scaffold for Mondays. Now you might ask what did I do. Well it was a job I absolutely hated. It consisted of removing the dropped plaster from the floors. Concrete slab wasn't to bad BUT a WOOD subfloor was a real high grade of sh!tty. To do this task you get on your hands and knees with a concrete/plaster trowel in hand and start scrapping then sweep the crap up. Yep as you scrape the damn trowel hits the uneven floor boards and sends a shock up your arm.
As I got bigger and older my jobs also got bigger, during the summers. I mixed the plaster in both the mixing box and with the mixer. Carrying the hod, which is a V-shaped open trough on a pole, full of plaster wasn't to bad except when you had to go upstairs.
When I caught up on these jobs Dad would show me how to use a hawk and trowel to apply brown coat which is the first layer of plaster. When doing commercial buildings most had sprayed on ceilings of plaster asbestos mix. Yep I was spray guy. Dad also built 3 houses and I also learned how to apply Stucco on two of them. For finnish coats one was sprayed on and one was California style which is troweled on.
Now when did all of these fine skills pay off you might ask.
Well let me told you.
When I was 14-15 and in the 9TH grade of our small town school there had been a water leak in the ceiling which caused 3' +- square area of the plaster to fall down. This just happened to be outside of my science class. After a few weeks I asked my science teacher if he wanted me to fix it. He looked at me wide eyed and asked "You can do that" I replied "sure no problem" The teacher and I had gotten along very well in the past and both of us had respect for each other. So he gets principal's approval. The next Saturday I brought my hawk and trowel, some Zonelight and brown coat plaster to fix it after I mixed it up. The lath was metal so I didn't have to fix it.
Sorry this was so long just one of many stories growing up in a small town in the 50s.
I had great times with Dad while working our arss off and playing hard.
