Hi All,
I am about to begin removing lath and plaster from the ceiling and walls of two bedrooms and a hallway of my 1923 house. I plan on rewiring, reinsulating and sheetrocking all of it.
Just wondering if anyone had any tips or advice that will make the job easier.
Thanks,
Steve
A pro painter evaluates a variety of drywall sanders and dust collection systems for quality of finish, user fatigue, and more.
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Replies
Knock the plaster off first, then pull the lath.
No fun cleaning up a mixture of the two.
use fans !! buy some cheap ones and hang them in the windows . when i remove plaster i put spackle buckets along the wall they catch so of the plaster
Smack the walls with the back side of a shovel to loosen the plaster. Use a flat shovel, or spade, and run that between the lath and plaster to pop the plaster off. Clean up the plaster, then pull off the lath.
Protect the floors with 1/4" ply or masonite, taped together. I like to put drop clothes under the ply, to keep from scratching the floor.
Wear a good dust mask, figure on getting very dirty, plan on cleaning every surface in the house, no matter how well you have things sealed.
And don't worry mummified rats are good luck!
Wear a good mask and have good ventilation.
Plaster on lath is my favorite demo. Its too fun smacking the wall and watching all the plaster unlock from the lath.
I guess i'm easy to please.
Do you have to remove it? Drywall is an inferior product.
Jeff
You wouldn't say that if you saw the old plaster in my house.
Including the thickness of the lath, its only about 1/2"-5/8" thick.
Plus sheetrock is , IMO, much easier to repair.
You know, I don't know if I have to. The plaster is old, cracked and has layers of wallpaper that don't want to come off. Not to mention, the ceiling is textured to the point that skimming it flat would take a level of skill that I don't have.
I figured with updating the wiring, adding outlets and putting cans in the ceiling the easiest option is to pull it all down and start over. I also like the look of new, crisp drywall.
You can laminate 1/4 or 3/8" DW to existing plaster walls, jambs and trim will usually need to be replaced.Otherwise, hire some laborers, get a dumpster, and get it done in one day.
The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.
- Fyodor Dostoyevski
Edited 7/10/2008 4:51 am ET by FNbenthayer
Yes, lose the plaster!And yeah, smacking it is the way to break it off from the keys holding it to the lath. I was demo-ing a ceiling with some other guys who were trying to pull it down with prybars, etc. Instead of coming across as a know-it-all, I didn't say a thing and started leisurely slapping it with the flat side of my hammer head. By the time they noticed how I was doing it, I had 80% of the plaster down while they were struggling with the first little patch.
Edited 7/10/2008 7:02 am ET by Biff_Loman
You are going to find that your trim will no longer align properly with the drywall. The frames of the windows and door trim, plus the ground blocks for the baseboard, act as grounds to ensure that the plaster is flush with the frames. Then the trim will fit properly.You could remove the plaster from the walls,, and leave the lath. Then replaster.On the ceiling you will not have the same issue. There using drywall makes sense. But on the walls, you will probably end up with an inferior result. Plaster is much harder than drywall, and frankly looks much better.
Now I'm definately not one of those 'tear it out just cause its old types' but really you can tell just by looking if a wall is plaster or if a wall is sheetrocked?
I agree that plaster is harder and a quick rap on the wall with a knuckle will tell me if its plaster or drywall...but just by looking?
How does a plaster wall look different than a drywalled wall?
Daniel Neumansky
Restoring our second Victorian home this time in Alamdea CA. Check out the blog http://www.chezneumansky.blogspot.com/
Oakland CA
Crazy Homeowner-Victorian Restorer
I'm going to put in another vote for drywall. After 120 years of paper and paint, the plaster surfaces in my house just don't look any different than the drywall.What I've been doing is patching and skimming plaster at the exterior walls and walls with door casings. Any wall without casings gets new drywall. I've furred my ceilings with 1x3s and put in new 1/2" ceiling board (glued and screwed). Cannot tell the difference between drywall and plaster.Anyone want to chime in on the difference in "feel" between regular rock at Type "X" fire rated rock? The Type X is denser and I've heard it's enough to feel more substantial. Cost difference is not much, IIRC.Next house I remodel, I'm definitely tearing out all of the plaster.For those concerned about door and window casings, I've been surrounding all of my plain casing with what my lumber yard calls a "back band" trim peice. It's kind of a "L" in profile and it butts up tight to the wall and covers the joint between plaster and casing. A little bit of caulk in some places and a little creativity with the block plane in others, and I get a very tight joint. I wonder if this would solve problems with installing new drywall to existing casings...
<<really you can tell just by looking if a wall is plaster or if a wall is sheetrocked?ABSOLUTELY.Stand at the end of the wall, sight down it with rake light. You will see the flatness and the seams on drywall. Plaster is a monolithic surface.
Yup. Ceilings are usually worse - especially on a snowy day (polarized light).
Jeff
One nice thing about smashing it all down with a shovel is that you don't have to worry about those darn college tuition costs for your kids-- a chunk of lead paint the size of your thumbnail (= about six inches of a saw cut) can cause a measurable drop in IQ for kids 8 and younger, if ingested. And it screws all of us adults up, too, just not as bad. Of course, nobody picks up chips and eats them as those 60s-70s TV commercials suggested. It's the crawling around, the dust on the floor, the snacks eaten without washing the hands... And don't think the old Sears Shop Vac will help-- it's just a glorified leaf blower!Carpet mask can help-- cover the wall, score it into sections, and peel it off as gently as you can. Use only HEPA vacs, take them far away from everything/everybody to empty them/change bags/filters carefully by yourself, and wash the work area down with TSP. Throw away the rags.Wipe the washer down with TSP after you've washed your work clothes. And the shower, too. ********************************I know, I know, it's much more restful to not worry about this stuff, and it feels good to dismiss the alarmist cranks as wimps, unlike us tough guys.But remember, the Marlboro Man was a tough guy, too, and he died of lung cancer. His widow was mighty pissed at the way the macho man had been suckered and buffaloed. And tell Cedar Rapids that global warming is a Commie scare plot, too. AitchKay
That 'splains all MY problems!
"And don't think the old Sears Shop Vac will help-- it's just a glorified leaf blower!"
Not with the $45 HEPA filter I have in it!
Jeff
I grew up in a house that was half plaster over blue-board, half drywall.I never noticed the difference. And I hate the plaster over gyp lath in my house, which is looking pretty #### after 40 years of damage and patching.
"I grew up in a house that was half plaster over blue-board, half drywall. I never noticed the difference."
The veneer plaster system is much stronger and smoother.
Jeff
It just doesn't matter to me, much.
My thing is that after you go over a surface with latex paint and a roller, the slight texture it leaves looks the same whether you're painting over drywall or plaster or whatever...
I've always thought so. Of all the things I'd upgrade in a house, the big flat latex-paint-covered parts have to be at the very bottom of the list.It's just a friggin' wall. It's not inherently decorative.
Edited 7/11/2008 12:36 pm ET by Biff_Loman
I agree. In this room I just finished with a mix of old plaster (repaired) and new drywall, all painted the same, what my guests (and the wifey) notice are the incredible new crown molding and chair rail that I put in. No one mentions the wall...Therefore: drywall it is. I'd rather spend my time and energy getting a nice class 5 finish on the drywall then fighting plaster cracking and patching...
Its not that big a deal to shim the studs so the new sheetrock meets the door and window jambs. I've done it many, many times. And it doesn't take a lot of time, either.
I'll used strips of plywood, 30# tar paper, even strips of sheetrock. Plus I can straighten the wall as I go. I usually staple the strips on with a narrow crown stapler.
I'm with ya, pull it down and sheetrock.
No excuse but laziness not to clean it up and do it right.
Leave the trim proud the way it was meant to be.
Insulate properly.
And leave it proper for the next guy.
Understood.
Watch the thickness if you go over it - 1/4 and 3/8 will take on every wave and dip. Better to take it down or laminate with 1/2".
Can't stand cans (recessed lighting) in most applications, particularly older houses.
We all seem to have become *afraid* of real light fixtures.
Jeff
The suggestions for taking the plaster off are good.
For prying off the lath, I like to use a mattock or grub hoe==something that I can hold with two hands and monster it off. They also make a prybar that rides on the joist that looks pretty slick, but I haven't added it to my arsenal yet.
If you end up using a shop vac to suck up the dust, use two hoses.
On the outlet side, run the hose out a window. Then and dust that gets by the filter ends up outside.
Leave it up and 1/4" drywall over. No mess!
Shep and Boss Hog have given you tips on how I've done it before. Get a good rubber respirator if you don't have one, the paper masks are useless, and at only $20 or so it's a no-brainer.
I bought 4'x8' sheets of Masonite, had them ripped into 2' sheets before I left the Depot. Easier to handle when moving around the house, IMO.
After the demo, I ripped some of the 2' sheets to use as shims to bring the walls out to line up with the window and door frames.
For the ceiling, pull it down if it is in bad shape or sagging. Otherwise, open up what you need to rewire and then just drywall over it. Nice thing with lath is you pull down 2 strips off the ceiling and you have an easy path to drill and run wire.
I rip 1/8" masonite strips and 5/8" drywall to match the original wall depth, makes re-using the old trim or leaving the old baseboard in place much easier.