looking for a plaster professional

We have noticed that our ceiling started cracking in some areas possibly due to the incorrect prep work from previous jobs. Our coop is built in the 50s and possibly has some lead paint. Now that we are expecting, I’m concerned about lead exposure and would appreciate recommendations of EPA certified contractors you’ve worked with to do the skim coating for our 2 br apartment. If you were happy with your contractor, please share their information; if you had horrible experience with someone, we’d appreciate knowing who to avoid as well. Any information would be helpful. Thank you!

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

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Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

string(1) "3"
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Thank you so much! And thank you all for your feedback and information; I really appreciate it! We have already made contact with Roger that carriagehouse99 suggested. We just need to figure out the logistics issue and do some cost comparison (wishing that we had done the skim coating before we moved in ugh). Hopefully we get to do this project soon and share back to the community on the lessons learnt!

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

string(1) "3"
string(6) "202220"

Thank you so much! And thank you all for your feedback and information; I really appreciate it! We have already made contact with Roger that carriagehouse99 suggested. We just need to figure out the logistics issue and do some cost comparison (wishing that we had done the skim coating before we moved in ugh). Hopefully we get to do this project soon and share back to the community on the lessons learnt!

restorationcontractor | 5 years and 2 months ago

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Any older apartment is going to have paint issues. Simple sand and skim coat will take care of that.
Not to be discouraged, new buildings have their problems as well. As long as you are happy with the location!

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

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Thank you restorationcontractor for all the good information! I think you are right – it could totally just be a temporary fix-up done by the previous owner before the showing (we just bought this place last year). It definitely has layers of paint slathered on top of each other and that is why the wall feels/looks bumpy- that is the other reason that we wanted to do skim coating. I feel like I am having an uh-huh moment right now; that is why people say old building comes with more problems. I wish I had known this when we bought the place- smh first time home buyer!

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

string(1) "3"
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Thank you restorationcontractor for all the good information! I think you are right – it could totally just be a temporary fix-up done by the previous owner before the showing (we just bought this place last year). It definitely has layers of paint slathered on top of each other and that is why the wall feels/looks bumpy- that is the other reason that we wanted to do skim coating. I feel like I am having an uh-huh moment right now; that is why people say old building comes with more problems. I wish I had known this when we bought the place- smh first time home buyer!

restorationcontractor | 5 years and 2 months ago

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It looks like a patch that was filled in with just joint compound and cracked accordingly. It could be bad prep, work also, hard to tell from a photo.

I would test the apartment for lead paint so you know what you are dealing with. The law is you either have to test or work under the assumption that it is lead, so it make sense to test.
You very well may be in for good news, contrary to the epa’s findings that as high as 92% of certain housing units contain lead based paint we have actually found very few locations with lead paint in NYC and we test all the time.

Not that anyone wants to read it but here it is;

https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/r95-003.pdf

I would ask the contractor to use a negative air machine. They are basically big hepa filters that exhaust clean air to the outside through a large hose to a window adaptor. They create a slight negative pressure in the work area so very little or no dust will escape the work area. Airborne particles are trapped in the prefilters or main hepa filter itself.
We have been using them for years and they work great.

SteveCym, completely understand about home projects, my wife has threatened me with bringing in another contractor to do work I have put off!

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

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Thank you for the recommendation. I will get in touch with him as well!

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

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Thank you for the recommendation. I will get in touch with him as well!

patrickburnsjr | 5 years and 2 months ago

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J Ye, check this lic & ins plaster’er and skim coater out. I’m not sure he is making commitments, as the virus spread is still to be noted regarding interaction in private residential indoor spaces where you have to feel safe and the trades contractor has to feel safe. Talk to him. [5B8F4673-8D3B-4620-9FA3-F1F1ECF6EE80](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s2/:brownstoner:kzhC:5b8f46738d3b46209fa3f1f1ecf6ee80.jpeg.jpg) [9714747E-66CC-49A0-914A-D7049D09F2EC](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s3/:brownstoner:aEgk:9714747e66cc49a0914ad7049d09f2ec.jpeg.jpg)

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

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Thank you so much stevecym for your feedback!! I really appreciate it!

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

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Thank you so much stevecym for your feedback!! I really appreciate it!

stevecym | 5 years and 2 months ago

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J: i am not the person to ask. you need a realistic homeowner to chime in. i am a contractor and much to my wife’s chagrin i do things in and around my own house that no customer would tolerate in theirs.

i skim coated my own ceiling myself by renting a baker (rolling scaffold) and moving the furniture around as i wheeled the baker around. it can be done if everything is covered and people are willing to move things. take smaller stuff and put it elsewhere.

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

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Got it thank you stevecym! I saw bestwall plastering was recommended (also found Raul Agrippa, EG painting and Jamie Grubb painting were recommended in other forum discussions so we will have a couple of quotes yay). First time homeowner here, I felt that I found gold when I discovered the brownstoner forum. I have literally been going through the forum discussions for hours by now and I wish that we have found it sooner. While I have you, in your opinion, how realistic it is to have the whole apartment (including the ceiling) skim coated while still have all the furniture in here or I will need to move them into storage? Thank you!

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

string(1) "3"
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Got it thank you stevecym! I saw bestwall plastering was recommended (also found Raul Agrippa, EG painting and Jamie Grubb painting were recommended in other forum discussions so we will have a couple of quotes yay). First time homeowner here, I felt that I found gold when I discovered the brownstoner forum. I have literally been going through the forum discussions for hours by now and I wish that we have found it sooner. While I have you, in your opinion, how realistic it is to have the whole apartment (including the ceiling) skim coated while still have all the furniture in here or I will need to move them into storage? Thank you!

stevecym | 5 years and 2 months ago

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yes, urban dad. but look under the post from the other day about a ceiling coming down. someone reco’d a plaster person on there yesterday.

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

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And this is what the crack looks like and you can see there are some areas (on the right side of the photo) started bubbling up [IMG_20200718_090139626](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s3/:brownstoner:by9J:img_20200718_090139626.jpg.jpg)

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

string(1) "3"
string(6) "202220"

And this is what the crack looks like and you can see there are some areas (on the right side of the photo) started bubbling up [IMG_20200718_090139626](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s3/:brownstoner:by9J:img_20200718_090139626.jpg.jpg)

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

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Thank you stevecym. I saw a post by Urbandad back in Dec 2019 asking for skim coating recommendations and someone mentioned that there are plasterers being recommended many times on this forum. Not sure whether it is because I didn’t go back far enough, I don’t seem to find the recommended plasterer. Appreciate it if you can let me know what is the name. Thank you!

Guest User | 5 years and 2 months ago

string(1) "3"
string(6) "202220"

Thank you stevecym. I saw a post by Urbandad back in Dec 2019 asking for skim coating recommendations and someone mentioned that there are plasterers being recommended many times on this forum. Not sure whether it is because I didn’t go back far enough, I don’t seem to find the recommended plasterer. Appreciate it if you can let me know what is the name. Thank you!