Patching up old wood lath and plaster

[bizron]

I need to patch up parts of old wood lath and plaster where the wood is exposed, what should I use? Also there are quite a few areas where the render is loose and no longer attached to the lath at all. Of course one option would be to remove the whole lot and whack up wallboard but that would be very dusty and involve emptying the bedroom of its furniture, is there a less drastic way of tackling the problem? Cheers

[Diyisfun]

I suppose it depends on the area, I had small patches, I just put plaster on it. Been there for a few years now.

[roughcaster]

Cut away plaster a few inches away from the loose areas,

Clean it down with a brush and water, plus rake out between the laths.

PVA over the whole area, especially the existing edges.

Fill it out to half thickness,

Scratch it,, let it set,

Bring it out flush ready to finish with multi.

I "always" skim the whole wall/s after patching the loose areas.

[danielrobson]

roughcaster on your filling coat what did you use? bonding?

[roughcaster]

danielrobson wrote:

roughcaster on your filling coat what did you use? bonding?

Yep,,, bonding coat Dan.

[bizron]

Roughcaster thanks for your detailed response but after what you said I think that in reality I'm going to have to remove all of the old plaster back to the lath because all of it is loose. Then I guess wallboard is the quickest and easiest option? but if I wanted to give it a scratch coat would I use bonding? Cheers

[roughcaster]

If it's all loose Biz, then you're right, it's better to remove the old plaster. You might be able to leave the old wooden lath on though, and board on top of that. If you do it that way, give the lath a good clean off, and make sure all the remnants of plaster are removed, so that the wall board lays flat onto the lath. Fix it on with plenty of 35mm drywall screws.
I always use bonding coat to plaster back onto wooden lath, whether it's a patch or a whole wall/ceiling. I reinforce "across" the lath between the backing coats too, with 3" hessian scrim..

[bizron]

Cheers roughcaster just the info I needed.

[spc]

hmmmmmmm why gypsum a nicely lathed wall?

[plstering]

iv got 9 bags of bond here if you want them m8

[roy c]

Check the date boys...

[plstering]

14th of jan the post is but the bonding is in date

[spc]

bet the laths are still in date too

[jrplastering]

did no one else notice roughcasters magic floating knife in pic 1......i want one

[spc]

its like micky mouse in fantasia, if only he could apply the same knife trick to bringing muck up the stairs from the mixer and on to the board