My husband has had the wonderful idea to use wood to repair some
largish holes (e.g. 22cm x 10cm) in his office wall caused by
enthusiastic electricians fishing for wires. I guess he will use
something to fill the gaps between the plaster and lathe parts of the
wall, and the wood. He is intending to fix the wood pieces to studs.
This seems nuts to me, but my current arguments (that I have never seen
someone do this,and that the drywaller we once had just cut drywall to
size and mudded to fit) isn't flying. Can someone tell me why my
intuition (this is nuts) is right?

thanks!

Silverlining wrote:
My husband has had the wonderful idea to use wood to repair some
largish holes (e.g. 22cm x 10cm) in his office wall caused by
enthusiastic electricians fishing for wires. I guess he will use
something to fill the gaps between the plaster and lathe parts of the
wall, and the wood. He is intending to fix the wood pieces to studs.
This seems nuts to me, but my current arguments (that I have never
seen someone do this,and that the drywaller we once had just cut
drywall to size and mudded to fit) isn't flying. Can someone tell me
why my intuition (this is nuts) is right?

thanks!

You leave it up to hubby,because you're all muddled. ;-)

--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

Silverlining wrote:
My husband has had the wonderful idea to use wood to repair some
largish holes (e.g. 22cm x 10cm) in his office wall caused by
enthusiastic electricians fishing for wires. I guess he will use
something to fill the gaps between the plaster and lathe parts of the
wall, and the wood. He is intending to fix the wood pieces to studs.
This seems nuts to me, but my current arguments (that I have never seen
someone do this,and that the drywaller we once had just cut drywall to
size and mudded to fit) isn't flying. Can someone tell me why my
intuition (this is nuts) is right?

thanks!


The way I usually do this is to use bits of newspaper stuffed in the
holes, and then scrap plasterboard jammed in, then slap plaster type
filler over the top, and finally take it all back to smooth with an
orbital sander.

Silverlining wrote:
My husband has had the wonderful idea to use wood to repair some
largish holes (e.g. 22cm x 10cm) in his office wall caused by
enthusiastic electricians fishing for wires. I guess he will use
something to fill the gaps between the plaster and lathe parts of the
wall, and the wood. He is intending to fix the wood pieces to studs.
This seems nuts to me, but my current arguments (that I have never seen
someone do this,and that the drywaller we once had just cut drywall to
size and mudded to fit) isn't flying. Can someone tell me why my
intuition (this is nuts) is right?

Can you clarify what he's going to do with these wood pieces, and what's
going to be plastered, etc?

David

He intends to use these flat wood pieces to fill in several holes in
the plaster and lathe walls. The holes vary in size from relatively
small (5x8) to larger (22x15). I believe he intends to try to make
some holes larger so he can have the wood attach to two studs. He is
then likely to use polyfilla to fill in the gaps between the wood (it's
actually 5/8 plywood) and the original plaster and lathe.

Can you tell me why he SHOULDN'T do it this way (or if he shouldn't!),
and what the ideal method is for a DIYer who doesn't want to do a bodge
job?

Thanks for any help!

Silverlining wrote:
He intends to use these flat wood pieces to fill in several holes in
the plaster and lathe walls. The holes vary in size from relatively
small (5x8) to larger (22x15). I believe he intends to try to make
some holes larger so he can have the wood attach to two studs. He is
then likely to use polyfilla to fill in the gaps between the wood
(it's actually 5/8 plywood) and the original plaster and lathe.

Can you tell me why he SHOULDN'T do it this way (or if he shouldn't!),
and what the ideal method is for a DIYer who doesn't want to do a
bodge job?

Thanks for any help!

If he uses sheet wood of any kind, the plaster will not bond to it, if
however he cuts new laths from any scrap timber and nails these on, he can
plaster it as normal, (once he's stripped back to the studding of course) I
suggest 'Gyproc Bonding' or 'Brownin' for the base coat and multi- finish
for the skimming, skimming over browning or bonding should be done on the
same day...once dried it is almost impossible to skim to a decent finish due
to it's absorbency.

Even the thinnest plasterboard would probably be too thick and the bumps
would be noticable.

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 23:51:00 GMT, "Phil L"
wrote:

Silverlining wrote:
He intends to use these flat wood pieces to fill in several holes in
the plaster and lathe walls. The holes vary in size from relatively
small (5x8) to larger (22x15). I believe he intends to try to make
some holes larger so he can have the wood attach to two studs. He is
then likely to use polyfilla to fill in the gaps between the wood
(it's actually 5/8 plywood) and the original plaster and lathe.

Can you tell me why he SHOULDN'T do it this way (or if he shouldn't!),
and what the ideal method is for a DIYer who doesn't want to do a
bodge job?

Thanks for any help!

If he uses sheet wood of any kind, the plaster will not bond to it, if
however he cuts new laths from any scrap timber and nails these on, he can
plaster it as normal, (once he's stripped back to the studding of course) I
suggest 'Gyproc Bonding' or 'Brownin' for the base coat and multi- finish
for the skimming, skimming over browning or bonding should be done on the
same day...once dried it is almost impossible to skim to a decent finish due
to it's absorbency.

Even the thinnest plasterboard would probably be too thick and the bumps
would be noticable.


Good advice but I'd use "bonding coat" not browning which isn't grippy
enough for this IMO . Also as an alternative to using wooden laths,
use expanded metal lath.

Silverlining wrote:
He intends to use these flat wood pieces to fill in several holes in
the plaster and lathe walls. The holes vary in size from relatively
small (5x8) to larger (22x15). I believe he intends to try to make
some holes larger so he can have the wood attach to two studs. He is
then likely to use polyfilla to fill in the gaps between the wood (it's
actually 5/8 plywood) and the original plaster and lathe.

Can you tell me why he SHOULDN'T do it this way (or if he shouldn't!),
and what the ideal method is for a DIYer who doesn't want to do a bodge
job?

Only slight downside is that wood moves as the humidity changes and its
likely you will get crack lines appearing in the skim coat..


That's why its best to use plaster supported on whatever substrate you
can find - balled up newspapers is always good ;-)


Thanks for any help!

In article .com
Silverlining wrote:
My husband has had the wonderful idea to use wood to repair some
largish holes (e.g. 22cm x 10cm) in his office wall caused by
enthusiastic electricians fishing for wires. I guess he will use
something to fill the gaps between the plaster and lathe parts of the
wall, and the wood. He is intending to fix the wood pieces to studs.
This seems nuts to me, but my current arguments (that I have never seen
someone do this,and that the drywaller we once had just cut drywall to
size and mudded to fit) isn't flying. Can someone tell me why my
intuition (this is nuts) is right?

You're right, he's wrong - that's just the way it is (surely as a woman
you're used to this by now?)