So You're Thinking Of Hiring A Drywall Contractor?

Let's say you are considering your options, even using the services of a drywall contractor. Your plaster is truly a disaster, and you just want new walls and/or ceilings. You may even have gotten some prices from reputable plaster contractors.

Now you are asking yourself - should I do it? Can I really get fresh serviceable interior surfaces without the cost and mess of new plaster?

Yes, you can choose a drywall contractor to cover up your old surfaces (or the now exposed wood lath) with thin drywall. This usually means three-eighths rock on the ceiling, quarter inch on the walls.

By the way, you can easily check out local drywall contractors by doing an online search using the form at the bottom of this page.

Now what?

This is a perfectly valid choice. Yes, plasterers will disagree. Many don't have a high opinion of drywall anyway, sometimes with good reason when there is so much inferior work out there. Not every drywall contractor is worth his pay, unfortunately.

But you need not be a plaster purist. Drywall panels, when installed correctly, finished properly and textured well can be made to look just like expensive plaster work. I have done this for clients for years.

Yes, it is not plaster. Finished drywall is not as hard, for one thing. But with modest care taken afterwards, there is no reason why it cannot work well, once installed and painted.

Particular issues with drywall

But . . . there are some things you must be aware of before you choose drywall over plaster.

Many houses old enough to have wood lath and plaster are commonly trimmed around windows and doors and wall base with wide wood trim that is usually three-quarters of an inch thick.

This is an advantage in some respects.

If the plan is to cover the plaster with sheetrock, then your drywall contractor can butt the panels up against trim ( fill and flat tape any crack). If he uses one-quarter inch thick rock, you are still left with about a half inch trim relief. Of course, if he uses thicker rock, the result will be less trim relief(depth) on the wall side of the opening. That's why I recommend quarter inch rock.

If your trim is thinner or has a sculpted edge adjacent to the wall, then you have a problem. It may not work to butt the rock up against the trim. This means the trim will have to be removed and then reattached after the drywall operation is finished. First, however, you will have to shim out the door and window jambs to bring them flush to the level of the drywall surface.

If your jambs are finished in something other than paint, it will be just about impossible to shim and then refinish with a flawless juncture between old and new wood.

Of course, you could paint the trim, jambs, etc. But you may not wish to do this.

In addition, when you remove old trim that has received multiple coats of paint over the years, you are faced with brittle paint flaking and creating problems for you later when you do a new paint coat. And because old trim is brittle also, you have to be extra careful not to crack the boards when you pry them loose.

All these problems are complications that can be successfully worked around, but they do entail extra time and expense. For some folks, these present reasons enough not to choose the drywall contractor option for dealing with old plaster.

One (messy) solution

Where there's a will, there's a way! Yes, there is a way out of these considerations if you are willing to put up with extra trouble and mess. Remove the plaster.

Leaving all trim in place, remove the old plaster with special care to get it off clean up against the trim. Be especially vigilant with the plaster just above the base trim. Plaster can break off below the trim level and you are left with gaps behind the top of the base when you pull the plaster free.

Try this: with a sharp utility knife, score the plaster deeply along the top of the base trim. (You may go through lots of blades.) Now you try to break off the plaster along the scored line.

After you have gotten all the plaster off, scrape along the wood lath now exposed and knock off the bits and pieces of plaster still clinging to the wood lath. You want a smooth surface to attach the new rock to. Renail any loose lath with small shingle nails (not roofing nails).

Most old plaster over wood lath will vary some in thickness, but three eighths is about the average I encounter here on the west coast of the USA. So, for walls with wood lath exposed, I think I'd go with rock of about the same thickness, three eighths.

The result is that the newly installed rock will simply replace the old plaster and the net result will be about the same as before the plaster was removed. The drywall contractor can flat tape over the narrow cracks that may exist between the drywall and trim edges.

You have some additional options.

1. Hang the drywall yourself if you are confident you can do a clean job. (Be sure to use screws, not nails.) Then hire someone with professional experience to come in to tape and finish the new walls/ceilings.

2. Hire a drywall contractor to hang the rock. You do the taping, finishing and texturizing.

3. Hire your drywall contractor to do the hanging and finishing up to the smooth stage. You put on the texture.

Remember: drywall can be textured to look just like plaster. The choices are yours.

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