Remove Horsehair Plaster?

[Harburt]

Hi folks

We're redoing our living room and the plaster was cracked and sounded blown in lots of areas. Having removed a lot of the skim layer it looks like the base horsehair plaster is quite old and cracked. It still feels fairly solid but does crumble in places. I've tried to take a picture but not sure how well it displays the state of the plaster:

Any thoughts on whether or not this needs removing and taking back to brick? Or is it salvageable.. Could it just be skimmed over in this state?

Any advice would be fantastic.

Thanks

Tom

 

[roy c]

It would probably be quite easy to remove it all. But if you do then keep soaking it as you take it off. When it is all off then you can decide if you want to put the wall back on with sand and cement or "dot and dab" it with plaster boards. It looks like sand and lime plaster if it is then there would be lime in it so if you go thru that process then mask up and keep it wet. Try and put up a picture of a bigger area..

 

[john4703]

I'm not sure if keeping it wet is a good idea. If it is lime and sand it will come off easily dry and be dusty but easy to clean up. If you wet it there will be a lot less dust but it will be a messy job and harder to clean up. Wet lime and sand mix reds to stick to anything, shoes, clothes etc. The dry dust just brushes off.
I can see that wetting it reduces the dust but back in the old days we hacked into it dry with no problems.

 

[roy c]

One of the reasons to wet it is to keep the "dust" down I would rather clean up the wet mess than mask up and have the dust all over the place. Old lime dust is not too good for you aswell,,,

 

[john4703]

One of the reasons to wet it is to keep the "dust" down I would rather clean up the wet mess than mask up and have the dust all over the place. Old lime dust is not too good for you aswell,,,

I've never bothered with a mask and have worked with old plaster a lot. It does not seem to do any harm. I'm now 71 and fit and healthy.

 

[roy c]

You must be one of the lucky ones John..

 

[Alastairreid]

I've never bothered with a mask and have worked with old plaster a lot. It does not seem to do any harm. I'm now 71 and fit and healthy.

Lol....time yet John.