On Feb 14, 11:28*am, "RogerT" wrote:
RicodJour wrote:
On Feb 12, 4:39 pm, "RogerT" wrote:
RicodJour wrote:

You don't want to sister things. Save that for things structural. As
far as the shimming, the most important thing when replacing plaster
with drywall is shimming for the overall thickness discrepancy, then
it's a matter of shimming individual studs as required for
alignment.

Thanks. In my case, I won't have to worry about accounting for the
overall thickness discrepency between the old lath and plaster and
the new sheetrock. The reason is that this property has an unusual
(to me) construction. It is a side-by-side twin home and all 4
exterior walls are stone. I say "stone", but it's some kind of red
clay-looking blocks that are stacked on top of each other. Those 4
exterior walls then have a rough coat and then a finish coat of
plaster right on the stone to create the interior side of each of
those walls -- no lath, just stone and two types of plaster on top
of the stone. The only lath and plaster is on the ceilings and the
interior room divider walls and walls between the rooms and the
hallways.
Where are you located? *I guess you're in a pretty mild climate, as
plaster on stone or clay around here would be akin to living in a
refrigerator. *Or you'd have to have the heating on all of the time,
and live away from the exterior walls.

I am on the U.S. East Coast -- New Jersey. *The property does use a LOT of
gas for heating in winter. *I had attributed that in part to the fact that
it is a large older home with old and drafty windows. *The windows are all
going to be replaced. *But, now that you mention it, the stone/block walls
with no insulation barrier (it has a stucco exterior on top of the
stone/block) could also be causing a huge heat loss. *I have given some
thought to putting up new wood frame walls on the inside of the 3 exterior
stone/block walls to accomodate wiring etc. *And, if I did that I could
insulate them. *I would probably skip the stone/block partition wall between
this property and the other twin home that is attached along that wall. *I
am still not sure whether I will do the wood frame walls, but the insualtion
factor is another reason in favor of going ahead with that idea.

You may want to look into one of the insulated basement finishing
systems. They provide unbroken insulation (wood or metal studs are
thermal short-circuits), and wood against stone/masonry presents
problems with future rot and mold growth. I would imagine that if you
insulated your solid masonry exterior walls you'd cut your heating
bill by a very large amount. You would also qualify for state and
federal energy credits off of your taxes.

R