sheetrock/plaster walls
We just moved into our new row house in Windser Terrace that needs work! Anyway first I want to address the walls – they are plaster that has several layers of paint cracking – cracks in the plaster – and textures that I cannot live with – so I wanting to put sheetrock up. My…
We just moved into our new row house in Windser Terrace that needs work! Anyway first I want to address the walls – they are plaster that has several layers of paint cracking – cracks in the plaster – and textures that I cannot live with – so I wanting to put sheetrock up. My question is should I remove the plaster walls and then put up sheetrock or just put sheetrock over the plaster walls? thanks Could you reccomend a sheetrock person?
Is there any way to remove sheetrock that has been placed over a plaster wall and ceiling. The geniuses I bought my house from sheetrocked over some of the plaster in a few rooms that had wall cracks. The house was/is shifting so now the sheetrock has cracks. I’m in the process of getting the house leveled to deal with the cracking walls, but know that the sheetrock is going to crack/split more once this is done.
FYI, I live in New Orleans and a lot of the plaster walls in my neighborhood stood up to Katrina flooding.
I just had my plaster walls repaired and skim coated — two rooms — and was charged $1,300 Was I had or is that a fair price??
Ye old time plaster walls were done in three layers over wood lath, wire mesh, or directly on brick walls. The first layer, or Scratchcoat keys onto or into the lath, and then is “scratched” with a wire tool to give it more surface for the second layer or Browncoat. This gray sandy coat sometimes contained horse hair as a reinforcer. The Browncoat layer is the gray sandy layer that was put on top of the scratch coat layer and was finished more or less smoothly in preparation for the finish coat of plaster. When you make repairs you need to determine the depth of the damage. The most severe damaged areas, where the plaster wall has been crushed and come unkeyed from the lath requires removal of all loose material. Sometimes the finish plaster coat has only come loose from the brown coat. You can carefully remove this loose material back until you reach sound plaster and then brush on plaster-weld and skim with plaster or joint compound. It is important to prevent the moisture from being sucked out of the new plaster patch too quickly as this will cause shrinking and cracking. The plaster weld will prevent this, but using an old damp paint brush with water to wet the dry browncoat helps as well. When the wall has “dead” sounding hollow spots with cracks, you can start by widening the cracks and see how loose everything is. You have to work carefully, otherwise you may end up redoing the entire wall. Sometimes its best to just leave it alone and make surface repairs. Depends on how ambitious you are. If any repairs go back down to the brick wall, remember to wet the wall first or the old brick will suck out all the water from the structolite and it will just fall off when it dries. I have repaired cracks to plaster over brick walls and found that the bricks were actually loose in places. (The can of worms you open in old house repairs) If you use the fiberglass tape mesh before you skim the final finish coat it should hold up. Also a little trick to judge how good your skim coat is…get one of those cheap metal clamp-on lights that has the exposed lightbulb, and hold it low and close to the wall shinning the light in one direction. This will highlight all your mistakes that show up only later after painting. When I finish sand, I hold the light in one hand and the sanding block in the other, change directions often. Most of theses repairs can be done by the homeowner. Once you get the hang of it, applying the finish coat is truly a meditative experience.
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How about repairing plaster that was applied directly to brick (no furring or lath underneath)? The outer walls of our 4th floor were plastered that way.
Plaster is generally in good shape, but there are places where the plaster is pulling away from the wall. I can tell by rapping a knuckle on the wall and getting sort of a hollow sound (usually in the vicinity of a crack line.)
What’s the fix. Try to readhere the plaster somehow? Or knock off the loose sections and replaster?
First, cracks that run all the way through the browncoat, no matter how much plaster, mesh, ect, will return. If the plaster has unkeyed from the lath the stress is two great. You can hide the cracks however. The mesh acts like a huge band aid that once skim coated, “floats” over the existing repaired wall so the old cracks do not telegraph through to the new finished wall. The pink stuff (plaster weld) is a kind of primer that creates a more sticky surface for the new plaster to hold on to. To repair a crack in a plaster wall you need to excavate any loose material, kind of like a dentist. Under cut the crack inward, using a shop vac to suck out any loose grit. Paint the crack with the pink stuff and fill it right away. Depending on the width, you may be able to fill it in one pass. Make sure it is level with the existing walls. Then you can use fiberglass mesh tape and skim with joint compond. By the way, you can skim coat a sheet rocked wall, and to the eye it will look just like plaster with its organic imperfections. If you have never used these materials before remember to build the surfaces up slowly so very little sanding will be required. Remember to mix the new bucket of joint compound and add a little water before you use it. You can always mix a little plaster in the joint compond to speed the set time. Thats for small batches not the whole 5 gal bucket! Lastly, don’t buy cheap taping knives.
I wish I knew about Brownstoner when I started doing our renovation. My contractors knock all of our beautiful plaster walls down, said it was all crumbling, and made a huge mess, cost a lot to remove, and put up ugly sheetrock!
You can get to the link by clicking on my name. Sorry.
I agree with all the above posters. Plaster walls and their texture are part of the charm of an old house. One thing to add: You can get what are called plaster washers at the link that I enclosed in this post. I used it on the hallway where the plaster wall had separated from the lath and was sort of sagging and vulnerable to the weapon that is our excited dog’s tail. I screwed them on with drywall screws and now the wall is firm and strong.