TIL my old adobe wall has exactly 47 layers of plaster on it

I was fixing a crack in my living room wall over in the North Valley and decided to see how deep it went. After chipping away for what felt like forever, I started counting the different colored plaster layers. I hit 47 distinct coats before I got back to the original adobe brick. My house is over a hundred years old, so I guess every owner just slapped on a new layer instead of stripping the old stuff. Has anyone else in town found something this wild when doing a simple repair?

2 comments

2 Comments

alex_hall911mo agoTop Commenter

That's a lot of layers, but honestly, it's just how old adobe houses are built up. Not really a big deal for a place that old.

nancy8241mo ago

Wow, that's a perfect example of how we just keep adding new stuff on top of the old... I see it everywhere, like how my phone has layers of old apps I never delete, or my closet is just new clothes piled on top of clothes I never wear. It's easier to cover something up than to deal with the mess underneath.