If your home is older and has plaster walls that are cracking, it may be time to remove the walls and replace them with drywall. Over time, the plaster can deteriorate and separate from the wood lathe behind it, which can make it difficult to repair cracked or sagging plaster properly. Removing the plaster and lathe walls is strenuous work and some safety precautions are necessary. Having a few helpers on hand is a good idea to make the job go quicker and easier.
Instructions
1. Put on a disposable respirator and open any windows in the room you're working in because removing the plaster will create a large amount of airborne particles. Also, if you are only removing the walls in one room, block off the other rooms by covering any doorways with plastic and turn off the central heating-and-air-conditioning unit to prevent the airborne matter from traveling through the house.
2. Put on a heavy-duty pair of work gloves because broken pieces of plaster can be sharp and break the skin.
3. Place a wheelbarrow along the wall you will be working on to catch some of the plaster you'll be removing. This will help speed up the clean-up process.
4. Hit the wall with a hammer to break the plaster. Continue to hit the plaster until you have at least a 2-foot-by-2-foot area of the wall cleared.
5. Dislodge the rest of the plaster by using a shovel to scrape along the wall in a pattern that is parallel to the lathe. Staying parallel to the lathe will result in the shovel getting caught in the grooves of the lathe less often.
6. Remove the broken plaster from the room. Be careful not to overfill the wheelbarrow because the plaster is very heavy.
7. Remove the lathe by prying it off the studs with a crowbar. Pry as close to the stud as possible to prevent the lathe from snapping off into smaller pieces, which will prolong the job.
8. Remove any nails that remain in the studs after you remove the lathe. To make sure you have removed all the nails, run a hammer the length of the stud to make it easier to identify any nails that you need to take out.
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