Stucco Classico: Three Coat Gypsum New Work (Dome and Helical Ceiling)

New Work Example

Here is new work performed on a new house.  The spiral staircase has helical ceilings above and a dome with a circular splay at the top.  The dome is technically ornamental plaster, even though its styling is throughly modern.  The dome would have been too large (about 15 feet diameter) to run off site.  The walls were done by other workers using drywall, and have a somewhat irregular curve to them rather than a proper cylindrical surface.  There is really no alternative to installing lath and applying three coats as we did for these specialized shapes.  We could also have done these in lime stucco in three coats, but we chose gypsum since the surroundings were gypsum (drywall) and the surfaces were to be painted.  Below are some images.

This is the framing before lath was applied:

This is the dome showing the circular splay.  A specially-constructed tool was used to create the dome:

Here is the helical ceiling:

Here is another of the helical ceiling:

A second shot of the dome from below:

A further shot of the ceilings:

This shows the whole staircase: