If you examine plaster up close, you can see the different layers if you look at it in profile. The finish coat traditionally contained more lime, creating its white color. Once the brown coat cured, the next coat was scored or scratched before it cured to give a firmer grip to the final smooth finish coat. The brown coat derived its name from the color of the first materials troweled on to the wall. Plaster walls were typically created through a three-step process - brown coat, scratch coat, and finish coat. The labor-intensive process of installing lath gave rise to time-saving inventions, such as wire lath in the 1920s. Machine-cut lath appeared in the industrial era of the mid- to late-1800s. As solid wall construction gave way to wood frame construction, builders used quarter-inch hand-cut wood slats. In ancient construction, plaster went directly onto masonry or other walls. Lath comes in many forms and has changed over the millennia. As the wet plaster mix was troweled onto the lath, it oozed through the gaps in the lath and hardened, forming a “key” that held it in place. Underneath your plaster walls, you’ll find lath nailed to the studs. You may even find hair in plaster, typically horse hair, which until the 1920s was often used to bind the mix together. Plaster’s elements have varied over time. Applied as a thick slurry of water, lime and binder, it cures to a hard finish. An ancient form of finish, plaster can be traced to the earliest forms of the built environment. Plaster is the combination of elements that, when cured, forms a rock-like, smooth wall surface, ready to accept paint or wallpaper. In fact, saving these solid, serviceable walls may be the best approach, for several reasons. We have some advice: don’t assume the plaster has to go. It generates yards of debris and creates clouds of dust that go everywhere. Even the scrap bits that were too short to do anything useful with were good- as kindling.Removing the plaster from a vintage house is a nasty job. We have used them to build garden trellises and other crafty stuff. The plaster has to go to the dump, unfortunately, but the lath strips, if you save them into long enough pieces, can be useful. Even my professional nail gun wouldn't touch them. If the studs are hardwood like ours are, you'll be predrilling and screwing to get those 2x4's sistered on. That's too far for drywall for it to be stable and solid-feeling. A lot of the older homes were built 24" on center. if your existing studs are further apart than 16" on center, then add in some studs between them. Sister some 2x4's onto the existing studs, and attach the drywall to those. It is an exercise in futility putting drywall on studs where plaster had been. Many nails would break off when I tried to extract them. I nicknamed it "The Big Ole Bust-It-Up Bar". Did I mention some of the boards have branches still sticking out of them? It really is like they chopped down whatever trees were there and made boards whatever size the trees were. Most of the studs are hardwood and not any particular size. We bought a 150 year old pile of a house, which is partially drywall over log cabin, and partially plaster. "Also learned that the framing under plaster walls is not suitable for drywall."
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