Question on Horse hair plaster

anasotoandrews

Just closed on an investment property and the house is 100 yrs old. It is all horse hair plaster and is covered in at least 4 layers of wall paper. Is it possible to just sheet rock over the horse hair plaster or do we need to tear it down?

troubleseeker

Is it physically possible;yes if you use long enough screws to reach the studs. But it also brings up a few other problems:
Adding a layer of drywall will deminish the depth of the trim it butts to considerably, so the trim will be very thin looking on the drywall.
It requires a judicious drywall team, as they have to cut around any trim profiles in play, and the finisher will require extra effort to cleanly float to all the trim.
Electrical boxes which may have been added in the plaster field will require extension rings added to them, so the devices in them will be seated on something more solid than the edge of a drywall cut out.

Bob Mariani

the other issues is you do not know what is behind the walls. old houses are very leaky and energy hogs. It will be worth the effort to do it right and remove all interior wall covering, air seal and insulate correctly and then drywall. This way the studs can be shimmed to give nice straight walls.

troubleseeker

That is definately the "cadillac" plan $$. (better watch out for the Obama tax). You also usually lose some trim through breakage when removing; and when reinstalling, the door and window trim usually has to be built out on the back, because the new drywall is not as thick as the old plaster coats, so the jambs are to wide.
And shimming the old style rough cut studs straight has always been a real can of worms in my experience. The did not worry so much about identical stud dimensions because they set the plaster grounds straight, and then screeded the plaster to them, resulting in a flat wall surface.

Bob Mariani

you never go wrong doing it right. patching will cost must more in the long run

Gary in WA

Another thought is the wallpaper may have a vinyl layer, a vapor barrier. Depending on your location, this could be a problem.

Be safe, Gary

__________________

chrisn

Why in the world would you remove the plaster in the first place?Remove the wall paper, prime and paint or re paper and you're done!

itsreallyconc

we did this on our 1856 home - stripp'd down to the studs - found lots of old newspaper ( vapor barrier ? ) but no insulation, of course the sheetrockers were happier & the home was much warmer w/no more drafty winter winds

now go find lots of eggs

Bob Mariani

and you get a chance to fix the electric or plumbing that is long past it's life expectancy.

Scuba_Dave

I have one room where they added 3/8" over the old plaster/rock system
I can't stand it & will be gutting the room & redoing it
Do it right the 1st time