Demolition - Walls but not ceiling

lequebecois

Hello,
I starting a thread about how to best remove gypsum on walls but without affecting the ceiling too much.

My specific project is to refresh a wall that was plague with old wallpaper that had been painted over and add a pocket door, so I removed the drywall by cutting it into piece with a reciprocating saw: piece less than 2x2 were easy to put in garbage bags.

Metal Mesh in the plaster:
Especially, I would like some advice on how to deal with metal mesh that is sometimes used in (older?) construction. At the juncture of the walls and the ceiling, in the plaster, is a metal mesh (as seen in the attached image). If I just pull on it, I rip out quite a bit of plaster from the ceiling: I seem to be uselessly creating work for myself especially since the ceiling and the walls don't have the same paint (so I only did it on a few inches). Having a super clean cut at the top of the walls would be awesome.

Oscillating tool to cut gypsum and mesh ?
I was thinking of buying one of those oscillating tools to cut a line as close as possible to where the walls meets the ceiling to not affect the ceiling. What tools do you suggest for making this cut? What are the pros and cons? Would an oscillating tool cut through metal (seems pretty clear that they cut through gypsum, but it's the metal that concerns me).

Attached Thumbnails

 

joecaption

An ossilating tools blade would be trash within a few seconds.
I use a brick chisle to break the bond in the corner then use a 4-1/2" right angle grinder with a diamond blade.
It will go through the old plaster and wire mesh.
Open a window, remove the screen and put in cheap box fan blowing out, have someone close by holding a shop vac to catch the dust. Shut off the HVAC while working.
Wear a dust mask and eye protection.
Seal all doors with plastic, remove anything in the room. (furniture.)

The studs will need to be shimmed to get the new rock to meet the old ceiling evenly.
Strips of 1/2" drywall with just a couple of drywall nails will work most of the time. No need to over nail it, the wall screws will hold it in place.

Once the walls open up it's a good time to address wiring, insulation, air sealing, adding an outlet, fire blocking if it's ballon wall constrution.