follow-up

Post Reply | Watch this Post

I appreciate your followup with some more details. Lath is often 1/4 inch thick. Once the plaster is knocked off it, it can be applied to the studs and drywall applied on top. It just saves cutting spacers, but you can also rip 1/4 inch plywood or luan very quickly. Its a lot cheaper than ripping dimensional lumber, and it saves a lot of time compared to salvaging lath. If you have the table saw, this is the way to go. Each sheet of plywood will yield 30 1-1/2 x 8-foot spacers you can apply to studs. Apply them with a nail gun, and it will take no time at all and give you a perfect nailing or screw surface for the drywall. BTW, plywood will not split like ripped lumber.

Since you want access to the walls to update everything, you need to strip the old plaster. It just doesn't make sense to not get the demolition over with at one time and do all the electrical and insulation updates. Once this project is complete, you will have a fully updated, warmer more efficient, safer home, and will find future repairs much easier with only drywall covering the walls. Skim-coating would be much more time consuming than demolition, and drywall, and you couldn't access the walls to update and upgrade.