[Emmie9999]

Hello, all:

I wish my digicam had been working over the past few days, because I would have taken pics for a blog! My DH has been tearing out walls in our house in order to replace them with sheetrock.

Our house is a 1920's bungalow/mini-Colonial (depending on the real estate agent you ask) in the north of Boston. All the walls and ceiling are horsehair plaster, in some cases plaster overlaid with sheetrock.In some areas, they put up sheetrock, then paneling. The paneling was just plain ugly, and in many areas the plaster wascovered with "popcorn" to hide cracks and buckles, or with multiple layers of very ugly wallpaper. We finally decided that this had to go.

We had ripped off all the paper we could, but the walls were in horrid shape and just had to be torn down. We decided to save the moldings and strip off the (seven!) layers of paint on them to later put them back into place, but rip out the plaster and lathes on the majority of the walls and the ceiling of the foyer.

We bought the house in 1998, and after purchase we did this with the dining room. Now, we are doing the foyer, stairwell, and half the upstairs hallway. (The other half was done with the bathroom remodel we did 18 months ago.) I thought I would share some hard-learned wisdom here, and look for any other information to be added in case we lose our sanity COMPLETELY and decide to do this in the bedrooms. (There are THREE!)

• Horsehair plaster creates dust when you pull it down. Not just "dust", but micro-dust that permeates every pore of your skin and fiber of your being.
  • Do NOT do this with lead paint on the walls. If you have lead paint on your walls, just STOP HERE and get a pro to help you. The dust will be in the air for DAYS, so PLEASE do NOT risk your health!
  • DO purchase respirator masks and goggles to use before you do this task.
    • You will cough anyway, but life will be much more horrid if you do not have this equipment.
  • Remember to have plenty of shampoo, soap, laundry detergent and lotion on hand.
    • Remember: a minimum of three washings is needed at the end of the task.
  • WEAR A HAT!
  • Confine your pets/children to a safe zone, a kennel, a family member's house, or the yard. Be prepared to have them confined and/or constricted for several days.
• Move EVERY ITEM out of the room!
  • Move to a floor BELOW DEMO ZONE if possible: the dust "floats".
  • Drape it all with a layer of plastic, and a tarp, andANOTHERlayer of plastic. WRAP IT!
  • Remember: NOTHING is safe. If you don't want to dust it, MOVE it!
  • The dust is very, VERY coarse. even if you dust the item, the dust may scratch. SO, if you don't want to risk it, move it out of the zone or WRAP IT as described above. (I thought my built-in china cabinet was safe during the DR demo, and some huge and expensive pieces of my wedding china got scratched!)
• LOOK OVER THE DEMO AREA CAREFULLY ON BOTH SIDES OF THE WALL!
  • If you rip out a wall on one side, the closet behind it could get filled with dust!
  • Think in THREE DIMENSIONS! Don't just think of the wall on the opposite side, but the walls at a 90 degree angle, or sharing studs with the wall you are demo-ing.
    • We forgot this, and the closet holding my wedding dress is filled with a mist of dust.
• Cover the floors. Even if you will replace them, you will track dust to other parts of the house.
  • Plastic, then tarps, then plastic again.
  • Try to have "demo shoes" and "non-demo" shoes. Change in an area between rooms to avoid dust tracking.
  • Remember: if you step on the crap you pull down, it might leave marks on the floor underneath.
• Double drape the doors between rooms. Plastic on BOTH sides.
  • Stuff the cracks under AND OVER the doors with tarps/old towels, etc.
  • Staples will hold the plastic, double sided tape will work better. Staples INTO double sided tape will hold better still.
  • A trick I heard too late: put a cloth on the outside (facing demo) and mist it with water: it will catch the dust.
    • THIS WILL BE HEAVY TO REMOVE!
• Ventilate well! Fans placed blowing OUT in the windows of the demo room will help a lot!
  • WATCH THE BREEZE! We had windows open to bring in air that actually wound up blowing dust back INTO the house!
• Leave at LEAST an hour for clean up for each 12 x 12 room.
  • scoop debris from the outer edges into the middle
  • gather the corners into the center before dragging it out.
• Clean up is a LOT of detail work!
  • Household vacuums will eat the dust AND DIE A HORRID AND LOUD DEATH WITHIN SIX INCHES! Use a shop vac! Rent a heavy duty one if you must, but use one!
  • Use a broom but SWEEP SLOWLY! Wear a mask! (see above)
  • After the broom, use a dry duster (like a dry formula Swiffer). Change and re-sweep several times.
  • Be VERY certain the dust is all collected before you wet mop. ANY liquid will cause the dust to solidify and cling to the floor.
• Resign yourself to baking cookies for the trash collectors for at LEAST 3 months.
  • Big smiles help.
  • Bottles of booze at the holidays also work well.

Does anyone else have any wisdom to add? I know I would love to hear it before my DH decides it's the "perfect time to do the bedroom"!!!!!

Emmie

[kirsty]

Wow.

Thanks for all the tips- I'll definitely be checking this again before we demo. It sounds... horrendous. Which leads me to a question,if that would be ok-- would you have left up any of theplaster in if it were in better shape,or is it just that its easier/better to start fresh?

I've been reading up on THS, and some people seem in favor of taking it out while others advocate leaving as much as possible. Our house (circa 1906) has all its original plaster walls-- they're in good shape, but somewill need tocomeout to make way for progress.

What I can't figure out is if it would be better (and less messy) to remove what we have to, and patch the rest, or if we should just go for the clean slate?

[Emmie9999]

Hi Kirsty!

I'm glad you found this helpful. I'm glad we did this project, but when we did the first room 7 years ago, I had NO idea of what we were in for. If I ahd been better prepared then, I would have felt better. This time, although it was a mess, was a LOT smoother.

We would have left more if it had been in better shape. In general, a wall is a wall, and as long as it's flat and separates the rooms it is perfectly functional. The less you pull out, the less mess there is to clean up! We have removed walls at different points due to several reasons:

• The walls in our home are not insulated, and on outside walls that is a BIG problem. If you want to insulate, the walls need to come down. Blown-in insulation isn't very efficient.
• With plaster, the walls all blend where they meet (corners, ceiling, etc.) so if one comes down, it can be hard to leave the one adjacent. The "seam" between the two begins to crumble, and then it's hard to stop that.
• With plaster, it's harder to remove moldings, etc for replacement without damaging the walls. (I guess it's hard to do with sheetrock too, but sheetrock is easier to patch, IMO)
• Plaster is patchable, but it depends on the size of the hole being patched as to the ease of doing it. According to some, it's a true art form.
• We wanted to remove wallpaper and paint instead; removing old wallpaper from plaster and getting it prepped to paint can be very difficult.

In some cases, you can go over existing walls with 1/4 inch sheetrock. It doesn't work if you have any moldings, though. You never get it to match up nicely.

On Sunday, my FIL told us we could have left the lathes in place and used 3/8 inch sheet rock to replace the plaster, which would have been a lot less time consuming and less messy. (Of course, we did not get this piece of advice until after my DH had spent 2 days ripping everything down!)

I'd be interested to hear what forums you are reading on THS? I'm looking for more cleanup tips if I can find them!

Emmie

[ourmoneypit]

Emmie,

It must have been awfully cold without insulation. I can't even imagine it. Sounds like nasty work, but just think how much more comfortable you will be once it's all done.

Martine

[kirsty]

Thanks for the thoughts Emmie- Its nice to get a balanced perspective on it. I'm still not sure what we'll do...its abummer of atransition from the "dreaming of remodeled house" phase to the "ugly details of remodeling" phase. :?

I think the 'remodelling' & 'the old house'forum on THS is where I've found the most info on plastering. As I alluded, it seems like people are strongly for or against preservation, with less emphasis on the actual process with all it messiness.

[GardenOfDarwin]

Emmie -- thanks for the incredibly detailed how-to! I'm sure this will be a great resource for those of us with old houses -- there seem to be a number! Thanks again -- well done!

Susan

[Emmie9999]

GardenOfDarwin wrote:

Emmie -- thanks for the incredibly detailed how-to! I'm sure this will be a great resource for those of us with old houses -- there seem to be a number! Thanks again -- well done!

Susan

You are welcome, and thank you for the complement! I hope it helps folks out, and if anyone has any hints to add, I would love to hear them!

Emmie