House in Progress Diary

Removing a Plaster Wall

The Problem
As a next step in the first floor bathroom, we needed to prepare to lay new tile. First, that required removing the plaster so new backer board can be installed as a new even surface.

Our Solution
We've already removed plaster and lathe while working on the master bedroom. This project just took more care because we wanted to leave the plaster in place that wouldn't be covered with new tile.

So, we took a slightly different approach...

How It Went
After marking out cut lines with a pen, I took a utility knife and cut out the edges we wanted to create. This helped to make sure that lines would end up relatively straight and would avoid the crumbling typical of plaster removal.

Then, exercising a lot of care I used a chisel and hammer to break up the plaster I intended to remove.

After that the plaster could be pulled away easily by hand, leaving the rest of the plaster safe and sound.

After that we just cut away the lathe and cleaned up with the ShopVac!

Tools & Material We Used
- Chistle
- Graphite Hammer
- Utility Knife

Posted by aaron on December 8, 2003 at 10:52 PM