Speaking of whom, as a native of London where adjoining town houses are the norm, I’ve been surprised at how seldom Forum posters mention their neighbors in relation to renovation projects. get ready to hear the folks next door a whole more. Will you need to run wiring on these walls and do you have doors or windows that will require new trim in order to meet the new surface? Also, expect a reduction in the sound proofing properties of the wall, ie. If any exterior walls are involved, removing the plaster will increase your heating costs since the newly slimmed down wall won’t insulate as well as it did before. You’ll also need to seal the bricks in some way otherwise they will be a permanent source of dust. Once the chisel-and-hammer removal of the plaster is complete and the wood lathe is gone too, I’ve seen people wire-brush the bricks and mortar - either by hand or with an electric drill with a brush attachment. Since these walls weren’t built to be exposed, the mortaring is often very sloppy and could need alot of repairing/repointing. Perhaps you could start by making an exploratory cut through the plaster in order to check the condition of the bricks? You may find you’re not crazy about the look of them. The electrical note is a good one because some electricians may have channeled the bx right through the brick face and it will need to be aesthetically repaired. You can seal the walls with Masonry water sealer and it gets absorbed but does not look shiny. Save the moldings? You will need to seal up the area where the ceiling meets the wall. Some exterior brick walls were painted with a black tar like waterproofing stuff that does not come off the brick. Use a plastic lined rectangular garbage can to catch as much of the debris before it hits the floor. the sand used in the browncoat is very abrasive and will ruin your floors. Seal up the rooms and cover the floors with masonite or multiple sheets of contractors paper. If you use a wire brush know that those tiny wires can come loose and stick into your flesh. I learned most of these techniques by trial and error but they have been very effective in my experience. This part will take some time, but it is a much faster method than any other I’ve encountered.Īfter your done brushing clean the brick with a brillo pad, with water and detergent, let it dry, seal it with masonry/brick sealer so no masonry dust gets in the room and your done. As you use it though, do not press to hard into the brick, or metal from the wire brush will flake off into the brick. The attachment spins perpindicularly, so I guide the drill foreward with it’s length parallell to the wall to clean the brick. I tried just hand wire brushing the plaster dust off but it was taking forever! I bought a wire brush attachment for my drill (ask for one at homedepot in the hardware section) which makes quick work of removing the residue. I’d reccommend using a level and ruler and blade to cut deep lines in the plaster at the border of the point you want the plaster to stay up, so when you knock the plaster off you don’t accidentally also pull plaster you wanted to keep up on the wall off too, since this is a fast method, but it is definitely not an exact science.Īfter doing this there will still be some residual plaster on the brick. To remove the plaster in the first place wear eye protection and a face mask, and use a small sledge hammer and crowbar shank to smash and then lever up all the plaster.Īfter a few good whacks with the sledge hammer (3 pound is good for this if your strong enough) the plaster will just fall down and you can chisel up from there removing the rest of the plaster with the crow bar. I recently stripped the plaster off 3 large brick fireplaces in my craftsman house and it looks excellent. “Barry’s Plaster Stripping from Brick Guide”
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