Wayne Mays of Price Masonry applies lime wash to a brown coat of plaster at Montpelier. Mays and his crew are doing the re-plastering portion of the Montpelier restoration project using traditional materials. PHOTOS BY PETER CIHELKA/THE FREE LANCE-STAR View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

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Lost art of plaster back at Montpelier

Plastering crews using tons of material at Montpelier say old ways may be better

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By Rob Hedelt

Date published: 3/23/2008

By Rob Hedelt

THERE ARE FEW people on the planet more passionate about lime-based plaster than Wayne Mays and others at the unique business in Amherst that he represents.

With only a glance, Mays can tell what has been used to bind and thicken the final coat of a historically correct plaster--horsehair, goat hair or hog hair.

"Goat will be silkier, while the hog hair will be much coarser," said Mays. "In the restoration here at Montpelier, we're using horsehair."

Mays is heading up a team of highly skilled plaster and masonry workers who've been putting in long hours at the Orange County estate since January of last year.

When they've finished the lion's share of their plaster work next month, the team that's the construction arm of Virginia Lime Works will have gone through some 85 to 90 tons of plaster.

It's all part of the restoration that's taking the mansion back to the size, form and finishes that Dolley and James Madison--the father of the U.S. Constitution--knew in the 1820s.

The restoration project, which kicked off in December of 2003 and removed whole sections of the house added after Madison's time, will cost some $24 million.

A restoration celebration is set for Sept. 17, Constitution Day, to mark the completion of the architectural restoration.

It will be followed by a period when the house will be furnished and experts will use other historical research to make decisions about wall coverings, paint and more.

Mays and his crew have been living at the estate not far from the town of Orange four days a week for more than a year now.

From stripping away layers of modern plaster to installing scratch and then final coats of the historically accurate lime-based plaster, they've slowly given the living spaces in the re-emerging home the look and feel of its day.

While historically accurate for Montpelier, the lime-based mortars and plasters are what Mays and Virginia Lime Works manufacture and passionately believe in--for both restorations and new homes.

Between plaster coats in a second-story Montpelier room on a recent morning, Mays ticked off the advantages of the lime-based products that are Virginia Lime Works' niche.

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Date published: 3/23/2008