Plaster and trim...

[ashevillian]

I'm in the middle of the demo phase of my new project house and of course I've hit a few snags. I've had to remove half the ceilings in the house as the PO's added drop ceilings and in the process damaged the plaster above. While removing the drop ceilings, much of the plaster fell. In a few of the rooms (that had pretty bad settling) paneling was added and during its removal, much of the plaster behind fell too.

So, here's the question. The ceilings are easy but what do I do in the rooms that need plaster removal? I don't really want to change the reveal of the trim so do I shim all the studs? Or shim out the window and door trim? Any other ideas? I am fixing the rest of the plaster in the other rooms, but not where 50% or more of the plaster fell of by itself.
thanks!

[Mick_VT]

Shim out because..? the plaster is thicker than sheetrock? Either sheetrock over the lath, or if you need to remove the lath, for wiring or insulating, use some of it to shim the studs. Most of my place has no plaster left (was gone long before we were here), but whenever I remove sheetrock I find the lath in place.

[ashevillian]

The lath is in place for the most part but I figured that with the plaster gone, I might as well remove the lath too so my wiring, plumbing, and insulation jobs would be a lot easier.

[CS in Low Hud]

I would leave the lath and sheetrock over that. That should not change the fit of the trim. Alternatively, you will need to shim out the studs to make up the difference. Maybe do a mix of both, depending. It's easy enough to remove a few bits of lath to run wiring, but if you are using fiberglass batts for insulation, you'll need access to the full bays along the exterior walls.

Chris

[mattswabb]

I used 3/8 drywall once over the lath and tucked it behind the trim. Came out nice and it was hard to see the difference especially if you have painted trim and can caulk the intersection.

[1850Farmer]

I used 1/2" plywood strips, cut 2" wide, to pad out the studs before installing 1/2" drywall. Most of our plaster + lath measured 1" thick, so padding w/plywood worked well.

Removing the lath, in addition to allowing me to install new electric/plumbing, it also allowed me to run string lines to straighten the walls as needed by padding each stud or joist with different materials (1/4", 1/2", 3/4" plywood), shim the 1/2" plywood as needed or sister a new stud along side the old one if it was way out/bowed.

[kelt65]

You know, veneer plaster is an option. It is more expensive, about twice as much as drywall. But it looks and feels 1000X better.

[Texas_Ranger]

Apparently the Brits regularly "skim" 3/8" of plaster over plain drywall so that might be an option too. Then there's always the option of double-planking (required for fire safety in finished attics around here).

[Al F. Furnituremaker]

In our area plaster in higher end homes is still popular. We have some very good plaster masons. It is usually done over blue board (sheetrock with special paper for plaster and it's really dark grey to me), then a brown coat, then the top coat. Blueboard is available in 3/8, 1/2, 5/8(fire rated), and probably others.

[kelt65]

In our area plaster in higher end homes is still popular. We have some very good plaster masons. It is usually done over blue board (sheetrock with special paper for plaster and it's really dark grey to me), then a brown coat, then the top coat. Blueboard is available in 3/8, 1/2, 5/8(fire rated), and probably others.

Yeah they call that "veneer plaster" here. There's a handful of people that do it. It looks far better than drywall. I understand drywall is DIY-able and therefore cheap, but then, it looks cheap too.