New mechanicals means tearing down the walls?
I have spoken to two contractors about working on my new home, a 120 year old row house. Both contractors have said that they would tear down all the plaster walls and ceilings in order to replace the plumbing and electric. The walls are in near perfect shape. Is this true?? I am in the…
I have spoken to two contractors about working on my new home, a 120 year old row house. Both contractors have said that they would tear down all the plaster walls and ceilings in order to replace the plumbing and electric. The walls are in near perfect shape. Is this true??
I am in the process of finding a contractor to work on my new home. It is a 120 year old row house in unbelievable condition. Same family lived in it for 60 years and maintained it beautifully. There is some peeling paint and a few hairline cracks but absolutely no holes or water damage or rot (that we or our architect has found). Both contactors said they would rip down the walls to replace the mechanicals and then drywall. They said, “Its fast and cheaper to do that.” and “You aren’t going to find a GC to poke around to save the old plaster walls.” Then they quoted 2.2 million dollars for the work on a near perfect (but old) 3500 sq.ft. rowhouse. We are not looking for perfection. I like the old hand plastered walls. The occasional bump has a thousand times the character as new dry wall. Does anyone have a contractor who can replace mechanicals in an old house without gutting it?
wirring? And you were able to buy a house all by yourself?
Hey Anon 825. Did you put the wirring yourself? or did you use, and can you recommend a wirring specialist?
We have done it both ways. Most recently we got rid of the plaster because we put in a ton of new wiring everywhere (stereo wiring, cable, outlets everywhere, recessed lights, the works.) We don’t really care either way. And we used to care a lot. But now, hmmm, not an issue for us.
That’s just silly, all around. We ‘save’ plaster walls and ceilings when updating mechanicals all the time. Truth is, it’s more work to remove the plaster and install sheetrock, but so few know how to work and repair plaster, GC’s go with ‘what they know’ how to do.
Estimates of that magnitude should certainly include money to hire electricians and plumbers that won’t destroy the essential fabric of your home.
If you like, give me a call @ 718-501-5962 and we can get together and review the project. I’m a licensed/insured GC.
Toby Sheppard Bloch
Betterbuilt, LLC
Just want to add my USD 0.02, save the plaster. The echo/sound transmission in sheetrock isn’t easy to live with. Plaster is great at killing noise.
It’s crazy to tear down good plaster walls. Your GC is being real lazy. He’s in a rush and is thinking only of himself and the work at hand. And 2 MIL! Thats nut! He doesn’t want to bother with the plaster work. Most these guys see no difference from sheetrock & paster. I see the difference and would say to only use sheetrock when you have to. Often I meet these guys and ask them if they ever used a plaster washer to hold old plaster to lath. They look at me like I’m from Mars. Most of my work as a contractor is fixing old plaster. Sure it takes a little more skill & time but you will save your plaster moldings too. The repro stuff just doesn’t look the same. GET A NEW GC!
that’s the way some GC’s want to approach everything. gut the room and go from there. it takes much less skilled labor to tear down walls, haul out debris, and slap up sheetrock, which i assume means they can use the guys they pay less more of the time.
I’m with 4:29 and the rest. Do everthing you can to save your walls. I’m thinking, if your architect doest get it, get a new architect. Unless you are talking to David Adjaye I cant think of a single reason to redo a rowhouse in drywall.
When we renovated our house and our parlor ceiling developed a crack, our GC told me that there was no way to save our 130 year old ceiling with original plaster moldings. He told me he would have to tear down the plaster and then sheetrock it over. He told me that the ceiling would collapse on our heads one day. When I called a plasterer, he told me it would be no problem to save the ceiling. We chose to go with the plasterer and our ceiling looks great. There are no new cracks and it hasn’t collapsed on our heads. A lot of GC’s don’t know how to work with plaster or old houses. When we re-wired our house, no new sheetrock was used. We saved our plaster walls — it’s completely doable. Don’t tear down perfectly good plaster walls!!!