Plaster Wall For The Attic

We have plaster walls everywhere but the upstairs is in total disrepair and needs to be completely gutted after years of neglect windows that leaked etc.

Plaster wall for the attic.

Drywall often called gypsum wallboard gyp board or plasterboard is made of a crumbly fire resistant substance called gypsum. Typically plaster ceiling cracks have two causes. Staple insulation between the wall studs and ceiling joists image a. We are planning to spray foam the attic but curious if when we remove all plaster walls upstairs we should insulate the exterior cavity add vapor barrier then drywall from inside of house.

Compared to today s most common drywall. If drilling up through the ceiling expect to pass through a thin coat of plaster and 5 8 of sheet rock and 1 2 inch 1 3 cm of strapping to which the sheet rock is secured. With boric acid added for fire resistance shredded recycled telephone books tax forms and newspapers all contribute to making safe cellulose insulation blown in cellulose is injected into the wall cavities by a series of holes drilled into either the inside or outside of the walls. If you own an old house with plaster and lath walls you may have discovered how utterly useless a stud finder can be.

Protect the wall with a thin piece of cardboard etc. Since plaster is extremely rigid the slightest movement can cause a gap. Veneer plaster comes really close to being as convenient as traditional drywall. You don t need to be quite as skilled to properly build walls using veneer plaster as you would need to be when hanging drywall.

It can be used to cover conventional bare stud walls or damaged lath and plaster wads. Don t mash or compress the insulation into the space. Use r 30 insulation for the ceiling and r 13 for the walls. Blowing in attic cellulose is conceivably a do it yourself job.

Most smaller items can be hung pretty securely anywhere on the wall by screwing into the wood lath but for heavy things that weight more than 10 15 lbs like large mirrors and tvs you ll need to learn how to find studs in a plaster wall. If building a knee wall for storage like karl did with this project make sure to insulate that area as well. This makes it a lot easier to make use of the veneer plaster without having prior experience. It actually offers many of the same benefits that using drywall does.

And while loosely guiding the bit with one hand apply even pressure with the other holding the drill while running it. It needs a certain amount of loft to work properly.