If you own an old home (at least 80 years old), it’s likely that your interior walls are plaster rather than drywall. Plaster walls are beautiful, durable and far more soundproof than modern drywall walls. If possible, damaged plaster walls should be repaired rather than replaced. However, this is not always a practical option. Sometimes you simply have to replace the plaster walls with new drywall. Here is how you do it.
Instructions
1. Rip out the plaster. Start by chipping away all of the old plaster from the walls. This is a tedious venture, but is required to create a flat surface onto which you can attach drywall. Leave the lath. Remove the plaster. Pay special attention to the corners where it’s more difficult to remove the plaster, as improperly prepared corners will make it difficult to hang your drywall later. When you are finished ripping out the plaster, you should be down to the bare wood lath.
2. Prepare the surface by hammering in or removing any old screws, nails, staples or anything else holding onto the surface of the lath. The flatter the lath surface, the better the drywall will lay once installed.
3. Hang the new wallboard, using drywall screws. If you are hanging a new ceiling as well as new walls, start with the ceiling first. Then do the first 4 feet from the floor, followed by fitting in the pieces between the floor pieces and the ceiling. Be mindful of hanging the drywall in such a way as to insure the seams lay flat against each other. This will make mudding easier later. Also, as you go up the wall, stagger the pieces like a bricklayer so you don’t have seams running straight from floor to ceiling.
4. Apply drywall mud to all of the seams, covering them smooth with drywall tape as you go. Drywall tape comes as either fiberglass or paper rolls. Both are equally effective. Allow your tape and mud to dry, then use finishing mud to smooth out the seams. You will likely extend your smooth-mud surface out about a foot on each side of a seam. Make it as smooth as you can without getting too stuck in the details of the smoothness. Your next step will fix any blemishes. Allow your mud to dry thoroughly, usually 24 hours, before continuing.
5. Sand the edges of the mud and any uneven parts of the mud so that the entire wall and seam look smooth in appearance. The point of extending the mud beyond the seams is that when mud is smoothed over a wider surface without edges, it gives the appearance of being perfectly straight and seamless without actually being so. Because we are actually dealing with fractions of millimeters, it simply doesn’t show. Now you are ready to paint.
Related posts
Drywall, consisting of flat sheets of gypsum, is the modern alternative to old-fashioned plaster for covering interior walls. Drywall is much easier to work with than plaster and results in smooth...
Plaster repair isn't complicated if the lath is still in place.Major wall damage on a plaster and lath wall, of the kind of damage that goes all the way through both the plaster and lath, usually...
The corner of a plaster wall is subject to damage and wear.Many older homes' walls are constructed of plaster. After years of being exposed to moving furniture and general wear and tear, the corne...
You can erect temporary dividing walls with drywall in rapid fashion.Temporary dividing walls are often used in apartments, homes and businesses for privacy, to split one room into two, or to divi...
Drywall is an interior wall and ceiling finishing material made of gypsum plaster sandwiched between two thick paper sheets. Drywall, also called gypsum board and plaster board, is a preferred wal...
