How to join old “plaster and metal lath” wall to blueboard ceilings?
Hi. My 1952 SoCal bungalow house caught on fire and got heavily smoked as a result. The insurance company has agreed to replace the roof and ceilings. Blueboard core panels will be used to rebuild the ceilings. The walls are plaster over metallic lath and the insurance does not see the need to replace the plaster walls since they assume the smoke did not go into the wall cavities.
My general contractor says that there is NOT a clean way to join the old plaster walls and the new blueboard ceiling panels and therefore is pushing me to ask for more money to the insurance company the remove the walls plaster, clean cavities and install drywall. The insurance company however does not give me the money for this. My question is: Is this really necessary? Does this joint really need to be so robust?
Thanks for your professional advise
Replies
How about putting up some crown molding to hide the joint
Just curious why you are hanging blueboard and not drywall on the ceilings. If It were me I'd go around the room with my hatchet and chop a groove in the top of the wall so the drywall can slide in. I'd hang drywall on the ceiling, then I'd mix up a bag of 20 minute mud stiff. Go around the room and mud the gap between the top of the plaster wall and the ceiling. Let that dry and corner tape the wall and ceiling joint. If the corner tape doesn't cover the hot mud to wall seam, flat tape over it. Done. While you're at it use hot mud or ready mix mud to repair the walls. This is an easy job, No way I'd rip out all the walls unless they had smoke damage.