Should I tear out old plaster or put drywall over it?
Tearing out old plaster creates a massive mess and a difficult remodeling process, while leaving it up adds extra thickness and alignment challenges when hanging new drywall. Dealing with this material also sparks worries about hidden issues like mold and the terrifyingly expensive prospect of extensive remediation.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Should I tear out old plaster or put drywall over it?
- 1Hanging thin sheetrock directly over the existing lath and plasterDid this help you?
- 2Mounting furring strips over the existing structure to attach new drywallDid this help you?
- 3Patching up damaged areas of the existing plaster rather than doing a full removalDid this help you?
- 4Using a box cutter and a laser level to cut out only the bottom 3 feet of drywall around the water intrusion area to check for active problems.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“This wall is lathe and plaster. I have some experience working with this, but when it comes to hanging new drywall I am unsure how to go about it.”source ↗
“There's certainly nothing "wrong" with my house, but it's been a pain to remodel and deal with the mess of plaster and extra thickness, etc.”source ↗
Where this came up
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