wall demo and patch

ediemarie

Need help. I am going to take down a non loadbearing wall between kitchen and dining room in a 1940's condo. The walls are plaster. How do I patch the area revealed after wall is down on the ceiling and adjoint wall? Use drywall with some sort of joint patch?

redmanblackdog

Yes, use whatever is necessary to level the surface. It is probably lath and plaster. You will have to fill more than a one layer of 1/2" sheetrock. You can use multiply layers of sheetrock, or plywood first with sheetrock over it ( sheetrock and plywood comes in many different thickness). Its best to have the patched surface flush with the ceiling or a little indented, You definitely don't want to start with a hump, where the patch sticks out past the existing surface.

Usually from my experience, the plaster in a house that old will start deteriorating(cracking) and once it starts it just keeps going. If you have the funds, it would be a good time to go over all of the old plaster with a layer of sheetrock. That might be to costly, but it would be a good time to do a complete remodel on the walls and ceiling.

Sand with a heavy grit sandpaper (60 or 80), and clean surface so new mud will stick to the paint. I use taping mud(mixed loose) and paper tape over the seams and cracks (if gaps, prefill and let dry before taping). Then finish mud, running passes on each side of the joint leaving a line in the center with an 8" knife, always feather the edge. Let dry, and look for air pockets to be scraped with a knife and then a tight pass of mud to fill them(let dry) and sand. Then apply another coat of mud with a 12" knife, Passing each side of joint, feathering the edge. Let dry and sand.

The ridges that might be left from trying to feather the edge must be wiped away with a damp cloth.

ediemarie

is there a special type of tape and mud i can get at home depot/lowes?

oh'mike

There are three basic types of 'mud'

Durrabond--powdered in a bag--chemical set-20-45-90 minute--used to fill gaps and set paper--some times used for first coat--

fast setting--Very hard to sand--

All Purpose--green lid--contains glue--used to set paper--bonds well to old paint----hard to sand--relatively fast drying--
sometimes used as first coat when skim coating old work because it sticks well.

Topping compound---Blue lid---used for top coats---easy to sand --slow drying--


Hope that helps--Depot and others have this--

Good knives are important---You will want a 6"--10" --and 12" and a pan--if you have a larger job,buy a drywall mixing whip for your drill---whipping the buckets of mud insures a nice even consistency--and better spreading.

mrgins

Good advice, but there's also low dust compound which emits dust that falls straight to the ground when sanded, instead of floating around in the air. Would be comparable with the blue lid compound