Lath and Plaster removal

[Am333rcr]

hi

I am looking for some pointers. The girlfriend and I are looking at buying a house that will basically need a rip out 100 odd years old and the old couple have been in it for 60 years.

Question is if I am to chip the plaster off the brick walls. I take it that I just need to fit in vertical straps then insulation then gyp rock on then finally a plaster.

was looking to get some on to do it purely due to time and I would just rip out. I would just like to know. I am practical minded and am planning to do a good bit myself apart from wires

cheers

 

[rikrobson]

You don't need to plaster the gyproc. palsterboard has two sides on one side it is flush the other has a taper on the edge. this places outermost and created a trench that get taped and then filled in. Its called Ames taping. also you need to fill the screw holes in the board and its ready for painting.

Also if you are going to insulate the wall then why chip off the plaster?

 

[mike os]

The work is probably covered by the building regulations, you may want to check

What you do will depend on wall type mainly. Solid walls require a vertical dpm against the brick then insulation, cavity you can use insulated plasterboard applied direct to the wall with board adhesive, thickness to comply with regulations will, depend on wall construction and insulation value required

 

[BrokenBiker]

i would only plaster it if you are looking for a perfectly plastered finish, otherwise i would just fill the tapers and then paint/paper it and you wont tell the difference

 

[I'm getting on a bit]

Lath and plaster on timber not brick.

It's one hell of a messy job and the lime dust won't do you much good.

When I do it I use a large axial extractor fan to suck the dust out. So I am breathing clean air.

 

[the snooper]

i think from the sound of it he wants to dry line the walls with insulation behind

 

[malcolm]

I was lime plastering on new lath yesterday. There are advantages in the system and I would hesitate to rip it out unnecessarily. If you do rip it out just in order to insulate then make sure the outside isn't painted or rendered in cement and read up on interstitial condensation.

I find the trick with old houses is to leave them alone. It is really quick to do and saves thousands more pounds than wall insulation would.

 

[marfyboy]

All the houses we've done we've taken the outside wall's and any brick internal walls back to brick and had them rendered and plastered and any internal laughing plaster wall's ripped off back to the studding added a few more 3x2 if required and then plasterboard and plastered. Big dirty job but it all usually comes off easy enough with a shovel!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

...Question is if I am to chip the plaster off the brick walls....

Are the walls definitely lath and plaster? Sounds like they're plastered 'on the hard', in which case proceed as suggested above.

 

[gaz1]

theres 2 ways that im aware of bonded and plastered walls or dry lining them

this is fire damage property the fire started within the first pic but ended doing a blow lamp effect on the ceiling of the second pic the fire reaxh past that room into the hallway on the third room



the ceiling in the 2nd pic had to be ripped down but not the cornice just the plaster was ripped down and then boarded over and plastered all walls have been plastered

these are old walls that have been fire damaged and then soaked by fire brigade house pipe

the bottom roof of the extension fire damage area had to be all ripped off and rebuilt using most of the original slates and also to buy extra new ones that was rebuilt in 2 days

 

[brightspark]

and if u have any asbestos get rid of it yourself before u get anyone to do work on the property otherwise u will be in deep sh...it buried in regulations and it will cost u a fortune even just to get rid of old floor tiles and artex ceilings so get rid of it yourself first

 

[Rocketman]

Insulating the wall under the plaster board with the correct insulation won't cause interstitial condensation and will probably remedy many of old house condensation mould problems that they previously had.

Personally if it was a old house and especially with no cavity I would use something like celotex insulated plasterboard which has moisture barrier built in - you can dot and dab it job done. Saves the hassle of battening it.

 

[Am333rcr]

hi

thanks everyone . I was round at the house tonight. I was just going by what I was told. I had a look tonight my thoughts where, this dangerous me and thinking. plaster is solid to the walls in most places . so am I right in saying just leave it. If it isn't broke and all that?. pretty sure the ceilings will need to come down though.

I also want to try and keep the character of the old building.

 

[pedrobedro]

. pretty sure the ceilings will need to come down though.

You can board over old ceiling if it is solid enough and flat.

 

[DanielW]

There's nothing to stop you boarding over the existing plaster providing ther's no damp? most old plaster walls float and sometimes it feels solid till you start knocking a piece out and find its floating.

and as pedrodrobedro said the same can be done with the ceiling,think i would go the above method as its less time consuming and lighter on the pocket ie stripping &skipping the old plaster would cost.

 

[Wedg1e]

I also want to try and keep the character of the old building.

The house I bought with my ex-wife was built in 1928 by a builder for one of his daughters. It was built as a 3-bed semi against the gable end of a Victorian terrace. For the front and side walls they used red engineering bricks (same builder built the local picture house, wonder where the bricks came from ), it had suspended floors (earth under the downstairs), slate roof, leaded lights, plaster cornices, fancy woodwork, massive beams holding the roof up... the lot.
The guy from whom we bought it in 1995 was only the second owner, he was well into his 80s, his wife had died years before and the place hadn't been decorated in 30 years.
When I stripped the wallpaper off the chimney breast in the front room the wife noticed some odd marks in the plaster: on closer inspection they were cartoons in pencil of various males, signed and dated 1928; we presumed them to be the guys who'd built the place.
A year or so later I was installing central heating and had to chop and lift floorboards that had never been up. On the earth below the lounge floor I spotted what I thought was a wasp's nest; gingerly fished it out to find it was the crumpled-up back page from our local evening paper that one of the builders must have tossed after he'd eaten his sarnies, nearly 70 years earlier.
Ended up framing it and hung it in the hall.
When we split up she bought me out and kept the house but sold it (at a massive profit) a couple of years later; the first thing the new owner did was to rip out all the timber leaded lights and clagged heavy white uPVC frames in. What a bloody eyesore, and an insult to the tradesmen who'd put the character into the house in the first place.

 

[malcolm]

100 years ago seems to be a peak in quality of building and materials. Replacing them with modern poor quality materials doesn't seem to offer much advantage. Some of the windows people are ripping out these days have lasted for 100 years, yet we are told it is good for the environment to fit uPVC windows then throw them away and replace them every 20 years.

It's well worth a lick of paint then living in a house for a couple of years before deciding on changes. My plans have changed completely in 2 years (original plans were a bit optimistic and I've had better ideas based on how the space works).

 

[Kent]

Horrid job wear a mask a good one. Had one ceiling come down on me once probably took s few years of my life
About everything in it you dont want to breathe in
Insulated plaster board is good but dabs alone are not sufficient alone to secure it it requires special top fixings especially if there is a fire

 

[brightspark]

depending on how bad the ceilings are u could overboard and skim them

You can board over old ceiling if it is solid enough and flat.

overboarding and skimming is best rather than pulling the old one down if its still reasonably sound .mark where the joists are and screw the new boards on ive done 7 ceilings in my house like that apart from 1 and it was a nightmare to re do the lot