Moving my outlets.

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ian61478

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My house has the lovely horse hair plaster. I was told there are basically 2 ways to deal with it. 1) remove it or 2) put drywall over it. I am going to try both methods but starting with putting drywall over it.

Now comes my question. Without ripping apart the whole wall, what the best way to move the outlets out 1/2 an inch? So they are flush with the new wall?

Thanks,
Ian
 
Why would you want cover up nice plaster walls? Are they badly damaged?
 
Thanks for the info slownsteady........ JoeD every wall in the house was covered in the lovely wood paneling from the 70's. I carefully took it down because it was only nailed on. But yes some of the walls are badly damaged.
 
Our house circa 1880 is all horse hair plaster even though the rarely used horse hair I'm told its most likely pig hair. Our house had a lot of damage along with ten layers of wall paper. Outlets are only one problem all the trim has to be moved out as well. Each house is a different story as to what to do. Exterior walls if you strip it all off down to studs you can then insulate if they are not now. Also if you are doing plumbing or running wires taking it down helps. I will tell you it's a bigger job than you think. We did a combination of all three. My ceilings I put up drywall over the plaster. Only one wall I took down to studs as I needed to frame that wall again for structural reasons. The rest we re plastered. Fixing a thousand bad spots. Some just nail holes some big enough to walk thru. I would always vote for keeping the lath plaster.


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Thanks for the info slownsteady........ JoeD every wall in the house was covered in the lovely wood paneling from the 70's. I carefully took it down because it was only nailed on. But yes some of the walls are badly damaged.

I would still try to repair them. If it's just a bunch of small nail holes , it should not be a difficult issue. If that is not feasible then take all the plaster down. Then you can rewire everything. If you leave the lath, the drywall should come out very close the same thickness as the plaster. Then you won't need as much work recasing the windows and doors.
 
Here are the tricks I know about repairing plaster over lath. Small holes as JoeD said use joint compound. Tight cracks use mesh tape then joint compound feather it out and sand. Loose cracks where you can feel plaster move away from lath, use thin plaster washers and drywall screws along the crack screw into lath and pull the plaster back up tight, tape, compound and sand. Areas missing as mentioned above half inch drywall is about right thickness. If to thick use 3/8 trim plaster careful back and screw a patch in place, tape seams and use compound or real plaster mixed with water. The compound shrinks when it drys and if put on heavy takes a long time to dry and takes many coats. Repairing plaster is much quicker for large gaps. It is very hard and tough to sand down. Try and get it as flat as you can. I have then used compound to get it perfect. Around switches and outlets quite often the outlet wobbles around and lath is split or loose. I make up from half inch plywood rectangles about 3" bigger on a side than a outlet box with a hole in center for the box. Carefully cut back the plaster and screw in the plates with a screw into each lath end around the outlet. Them tape and compound. Ceilings are mostly nothing to go around and no trim, maybe one ceiling light. If they are bad or loose rent a drywall lift and go over the whole ceiling. Before you do that figure out where the joists are and snap lines. Poke holes if needed and probe with a coat hanger wire to make sure. Old houses were not 16" on center. You want to use screws long enough to go thru plaster and lath and into joists. Finish ceilings with tape and compound. A trick I use is to mix joint compound with latex paint and thicken the paint right up. Not so much you can't roll it but thick enough to really lay on a thick smooth coat. I do it on walls and ceilings. Ceilings that's the final finish. Walls I paint the color and sheen I want over it.


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