#Plaster lath wall demo full#

I am not based in North Essex, but I would recommend looking for a plasterer with experience working with older properties and who has a good reputation in your local area. You should also check that they are using a high-quality, breathable lime plaster that is suitable for the specific conditions of your walls. If you do decide to go with a lime-based skim coat, I would recommend checking with your plasterer that they have experience working with lime plaster, as it requires a different set of skills and techniques compared to gypsum plaster. Gypsum plaster can also be used for skim coating, but it is not always the best choice for older properties.

As such, I would recommend using a lime-based skim coat to ensure that the new plaster is compatible with the old. In your case, given the age of your house, it is likely that the original plaster was a lime-based plaster. When it comes to applying a skim coat over lath and plaster walls, it is important to use a material that is compatible with the existing substrate to prevent any potential issues down the line. If I was doing it in my home, I think I’d want to run the shop vac to help pick up that dust, or create a negative pressure situation to help reduce the dust.Īnd of course - don’t forget your PPE (safety glasses, mask/respirator, gloves, work boots, hard hat, hearing protection) - esp once you start working chest heigh & above you’re going to get pieces of plaster flying at your face or falling on your head, and I don’t even know how many nails or pieces of lath I had to pull out of my boot soles.Thank you for reaching out regarding your lath and plaster walls. But the lower part, with the tile, is on metal lath and about 1-1/2 thick including the tile. The upper part of the wall is rock lath, which I’m trying not to damage too much. We ran a big air cleaner when we were working, but I don’t know if it actually did much (granted the entire interior was being gutted so it was probably trying to bail out the Titanic with a tea cup). Right now (well, as soon as I get off my but and get to work) I’m removing the tile wainscoting in a 1950’s bathroom. After you get a couple studs cleared off, either pull them all out or run the sawzall up & down the stud to cut them off. * Those little lath nails get left in the studs and are a real PITA - they snag on your shirt / belt / skin. * Every once in awhile take a break and sweep up all of the dust & small stuff accumulating on the floor - it’s a pain (and somewhat treacherous for your ankles) to keep stepping on. Laths or lathes are narrow strips of timber nailed horizontally across the timber stud frame or ceiling joists and then coated in plaster to finish the wall.

#Plaster lath wall demo full#

* Do a “section” (whatever feels like a reasonable area to you) of demo, then take a break from that to pickup and throw all the chunks in the garbage can, and drag the garbage can out to the dumpster when it’s about half full (or whatever you can handle based upon your personal size & strength - that shit is HEAVY!). * Then a flat bar or cat’s paw (nail puller) to pull out the lath pieces from the studs * I used a sawzall to cut the plaster & lath between studs

* Use a big plastic garbage can right where you are working. Dealt with this in a demo job recently - I found a couple of strategies reasonably effective for me: