It makes it very likely you will have to paint the trim.

I would have held out for a single piece casting.

I don't think the joint will be apparent in the medallion.

drewem, actually the crew on this project is doing a certain amount of stuff for the first time. Not exactly the first time ever but the first time in this way.

They are used to building McMansion style houses where variations in detail don't make all that much difference because it is all about general impressions.

This house is being built with a fair amount of historical accuracy in detailing, and in that sense there IS a right and wrong way, even when it comes to methodology, sometimes.

I don't know that Bondo vs. patching plaster is a big issue to be concerned over, but with a crew that has worked a lot with Fypon and very little with genuine plaster ornament and genuine built up wood cornices with site applied dentils or modillions, I think threeapples has some genuine basis for questioning details, particularly given some of the issues that have happened in this build from the very beginning.

I had a whole renovation project stall for an entire year because of a plaster restorer whose work not only had to be removed from the original work but whose work Damaged the original work. It took that long to find someone who was capable of doing the work, would undo someone else's work and then they needed to be available.

Brickeye, they don't make the medallion that goes on this ceiling in one piece, it's too big. (They being one of the few companies in the US that still makes plaster ornament). Neither of the two companies that I have worked with make something this big in one piece, and I've not seen this offered by anyone else.

My first contractor came with rave reviews, I saw pictures that looked good. The person who recommended him said "He can take a sketch from a napkin and build it!"

Unfortunately, that was true. The translation of detailed drawings was as loose as if it had been a sketch on a napkin. If you had a vague idea of what you wanted he could build you something nice. He could not, however, follow a plan, or maybe even really read or understand a complete plan. I went for four years without a kitchen unraveling the mess.

I definitely think there are some trust issues in this case as well, but generally, not unwarranted.

A crew can have lots of experience, but there's always some detail or details they will not have seen before, especially in a custom house's finishing details. There's little you can throw at the structural crew they haven't seen before because it's standardized and has codes, but interior finish has a gazillion variations.

Based on work I did in a house with real plaster molded details (fun to cast and apply and mold new ones!), I would use real plaster with a bonding agent to seal the gap.

Thanks.

Just don't decide that something else will work because you saw it on Pinterest.

We used a company that made the medallions as well as installed them.

Several years later and no problems. You can not see where they were joined.

We used a company that made the medallions as well as installed them.

Several years later and no problems. You can not see where they were joined.