What's behind the hard plaster walls? [solved]
Most of the walls in the old part of my house are plaster. Hard, nasty, amazingly solid plaster. While this is nice in some areas, there's others that it's rather annoying -- such as on the stairs (previous owners have screwed in a banister ... with regular screws, awesome)
I would have no problem popping out the plaster and exposing some brick, or even better, find some wooden slats, get some insulation in there and maybe toss up some drywall. Yea, I know, it'll be a mess, but oh well, I got a shop vac :-)
Anyway, what's behind those walls? (and someone needs to make a -plaster- tag !)
If your house was built before the 1940's, it's probably a layer of wood lath, followed by a standard 2x4 stud wall with no insulation. Perhaps some knob-and-tube wiring just to make things interesting. The plaster will make more dust than you thought possible (wear a mask).
After the 1940's, it's probably gypsum board, but without the foaming agents and plasticizers that make today's drywall easier to use. Behind it, you probably have a 2x4 stud wall with no insulation and conduit or NM wiring.
[Here's a picture of a lath wall from the back, courtesy Wikipedia]
My house has hard plaster set on brick walls. All internal and external walls are brick.
One of the biggest problems I had with my renovations was finding someone who still did hard-plastering. They guy who did it claimed 57 years experience - so you can guess his age.
BTW: the house is a 1927 Californian Bungalo.
Bonding Quickset Drywall Mud to Old Plaster!
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