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Most contractors walk away from serious plaster work. Repairing a lath-and-plaster system, recasting destroyed ornamental motifs, or extruding a custom cornice profile requires knowledge that isn't taught in standard trade programs — and getting it wrong on a historic property is expensive and irreversible. Dream Team Finishes has done this work on Chattanooga landmark buildings.
Proof of concept: the full historic plaster restoration of The Waymark Hotel — the 1927 Chattanooga Bank building. Delaminated horsehair plaster rebuilt, destroyed ornamental ceiling motifs recast from silicone molds, custom cornices extruded, period textures applied by hand. Read the full case study.
Plaster Work
Old-world craft. Real project experience. Built to last another hundred years.
Venetian Plaster
Burnished lime plaster applied in multiple thin layers to produce a polished, marble-like surface with depth and luminosity no synthetic product can replicate. Applied to feature walls, columns, and accent surfaces in high-end hospitality and commercial interiors across the Southeast.
Services
What We Paint
Historic Plaster Restoration
Repair and rebuilding of original three-coat lath-and-plaster systems using compatible materials — Struco-lite base coats, USG Red Top Finish Plaster, and Sherwin-Williams Extreme Block where masonry moisture is a factor. This is preservation work, not patching. Every repair decision has to honor the building's architectural integrity.
Plaster Installation
New plaster systems for interiors where drywall won't meet design or acoustic specs. We frame in aluminum, apply metal lathe, and build up plaster systems to produce seamless, monolithic wall surfaces with durability and sound performance that drywall simply can't match.
Veneer Plaster
A thin, hard plaster finish coat — typically 1/8 to 3/16 inches — over a prepared gypsum board substrate. The result is a significantly harder, smoother, and more durable surface than standard drywall finishing, with better sound resistance and a finish that takes paint beautifully.
Plaster Molding & Cornice Restoration
Original plaster cornices and period moldings don't exist in any catalog. We custom-fabricate jigs to extrude exact historic profiles, and recast ornamental elements using silicone mold techniques applied to surviving intact originals. At The Waymark, we recreated motifs destroyed by water and fire — achieving fidelity to the 1927 original.
Do you work on historic preservation projects?
Yes. We have direct experience on historic buildings including The Waymark Hotel — the 1927 Chattanooga Bank building. We understand the material standards and documentation that preservation projects require.
What's the difference between Venetian plaster and veneer plaster?
Venetian plaster is decorative — burnished lime applied in thin layers for a polished, marble-like finish. Veneer plaster is a structural finish system — a hard plaster coat over gypsum board for durability and smoothness beyond what drywall can achieve.
Can you recast destroyed ornamental plaster elements?
Yes. At The Waymark Hotel we recreated ornamental ceiling motifs completely destroyed by water and fire damage, using silicone molds taken from surviving matching originals and plaster of Paris with burlap reinforcement.
What makes historic plaster restoration so specialized?
Pre-1940s plaster systems fail differently than drywall — delaminating in sheets, crumbling at ornamental details, separating from the substrate. Proper restoration requires matching original materials and techniques, not covering damage with modern compounds.