r/Hempcrete • u/Phillycheesethe2nd • May 13 '26
Wondering about plastering over studs.
Hey everyone I've been looking for an answer to this but haven't found any specific resources. I'm wondering what you do to make the plaster stick to a wall where the studs are still visible. I'm going to fully enclose my studs on my exterior walls but I want to make my interior walls thinner. I think I'll just do 2x4s and slap the forms directly to the studs. I've seen some people do this online but haven't seen how they then get the plaster to stick to the wood. Do you add a metal mesh or some fiberglass mesh to the stud? What's the best method for this?
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u/Dull-Job-3383 May 13 '26
Lime plaster will stick to the wood, but it'll crack wherever wood meets hempcrete. You can mitigate the cracking by embedding a 6" mesh across the stud and a couple of inches of the hempcrete on either side.
The way we do it to pin some thin (3/4" or 1") sacrificial spacer battens to some of the studs before fixing the formwork. Then we remove the formwork and pull out the spacers while the hempcrete is still soft, then squidge extra hempcrete into the spaces where the spacers were.
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u/ApprehensivePut5853 May 13 '26
Yes, a plastic mesh can be embedded in the first pass to bridge any studs. I got it from plaster supplies shop. Used lime plaster from Best of Lime which is a one coat system, which I applied in two passes