Need help please asap...patching plaster pics attached

mood · 07-07-2005, 08:09 AM

Hi i posted this on another diy forum but no response as yet if any1 has any ideas please help.

I'm redoing both the bedrooms in my terrace house before i go travelling. I want to get the walls skimmed so i can redecorate but the problem ive got is that when i took the wallpaper off alot of the plaster was cracked and lose against the wall so it had to be removed which has left me with this see pics.

If you look at the edges they are all diff depths from the wall at the top the plaster comes away from the wall about 1 1/2 inches and at the sides its all around an inch from the wall.

My question is how do i prepare this for skimming? my next door neighbour said cut up plasterboard and use some kind of adhesive to stick the board to the brick. How do i get it all level if all the edges are different depths from the wall?

thanks

Badseed · 07-30-2005, 04:21 PM

If there is any moisture whatsoever coming through the brick walls, whatever you put on the walls (paint, plaster, etc.) will be damaged in short order from the moisture, and all your time and money will be wasted.

I am confused by how the plaster is currently installed from your pictures and description. If it is coming off of the wall, then it will continue to be a problem moving forward. The wallpaper may have been the only thing holding it together. I wouldn't invest a cent in making improvements on top of a patch job of that plaster because it is likely to continue degrading even if you were able to make the patch job look halfway decent.

If *I* was going to spend any money on redecorating that room, I would forget about skimming the old crumbling plaster, and I would float new drywall (sheetrock) in the room instead.

Take all the plaster off of all the walls, clean the brick and make sure it is sealed. Frame the entire room w/ 2x4 's (framed flat so that the new surface frame was 2" off the brick) spaced 24" apart at the center. Then, float sheet rock on the new frame, mud it, and you're ready to redecorate (no need for skimming because you have a brand new wall surface to work with). Believe it or not, it's a pretty easy and fast job, and could be done very affordably by a pro as long as we're talking about a standard room dimension. Something in the neighborhood of a 12x14 room w/ 8ft ceilings could be done for about $500 plus materials where I live (new orleans), and it will last.

If the brick wall is clean, completely free of of moisture, and you are dead set on doing a patch job, you can patch the holes with drywall/sheetrock. It will be difficult to make it look good, however, because of the irregular shapes of the areas you intend to patch. Drywall can be cut with a box cutter, but it takes some practice to get good at it. There will be gaps that are easy to conceal if you are a good drywall floater, but very difficult if you don't know what you're doing. You will need to shim the drywall off of the brick using something along the lines of strips of plywood or 1x2"s. You can probably get the stuff to adhere to the brick wall (provided that it is a clean, dust- and moisture-free surface) using silicone caulking.

Teetorbilt · 07-30-2005, 11:06 PM

I agree with Badseed on removing all of it.
You did not tell us the age of the house. Asbestos could be a major problem. Given what I'm seeing, I would guess that horsehair was used as a binder although I have never seen surfacing that thick. You have to remember that many of these old homes were built by the owners and their construction skills varied widely.
As Badseed also mentioned, the release was probably from water. Unfortunately this could have been from a roof leak 50 yrs. ago and the source non extant today.
I would suggest that you start with a moisture meter to determine if there will be an ongoing problem. Anything else. at this point, would be pure conjecture.