Cutting holes in plaster walls

[mivey]

It might be worth mentioning to be extra careful with the wire mesh. You can cut your hands to pieces before you know it (and the wire you are fishing).

For the box, I have used the drill bit and screwdriver routine followed with snips. A demo blade or tile blade in a sawzall or jigsaw can work well sometimes. You will be surprised how fast a regular blade will be eaten up. Be careful with sawtooth blades as they can catch on the mesh (then you bang up the wall or bust out chunks of plaster). I have not done any since getting my Rotozip but it sounds like a good idea as well.

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

Over 40% renovation has to bring entire house up to current code by me.

Qoug
If you are following the new code cycle in NYS, which your building department(s) are required to do, the 40% (which in the 2003 cycle was really 50% requirement) is no longer in effect.
The 2007 NYS cycle has removed the % of construction requirements and now we are following:
Appendix J Existing Buildings And Structures

Appendix J for residential and the Existing Building Code (a new document added for the 2007 NYS code cycle)for other occupancies, have been instituted to help ease the pressure on building owners to renovate "old main street USA".
Owners had found out that it was actually cheaper to build a new building as opposed to renovate existing buildings due to the severity of the codes. So now the new "Existing Building Codes" have been put in place in order to help revive "old main street USA".
I highly doubt the state will provide any municipality with the variance necessary to work around these new requirements.

With that said, in NYS it is no longer a requirement to bring the rest of the building(s) up to current code for MOST renovations in todays market.

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

I have a rewire to do in a couple of weeks and the house has plaster walls and ceilings. I don't think that a sawsall would be very gental but a keyhole won't work either.
Any ideas?
Chris

Plaster wall work is either hit or miss. Some days the work is smooth as butter, other days you wonder why you went to work.

Two things come back to me from my memory of working on plaster walls.
1. how old is the building/what kind of building structure is it.
2. the present condition of the plaster itself.

Number 1 will help me to determine how long the work will take, and how many holes I will need to install the cables and boxes.
I am sure you guys have worked in the old buildings where the corners have the bracing built into the walls at a diaginal...and the timber is usually hard as a rock.

Number 2 helps me to decide if I will do the plaster repair or tell the customer they have to hire someone to do the repair. I would only repair small patches, otherwise I would explain to the customer it would be cost effective to hire a painter to do that work.

 

[quogueelectric]

Qoug
If you are following the new code cycle in NYS, which your building department(s) are required to do, the 40% (which in the 2003 cycle was really 50% requirement) is no longer in effect.
The 2007 NYS cycle has removed the % of construction requirements and now we are following:
Appendix J Existing Buildings And Structures

Appendix J for residential and the Existing Building Code (a new document added for the 2007 NYS code cycle)for other occupancies, have been instituted to help ease the pressure on building owners to renovate "old main street USA".
Owners had found out that it was actually cheaper to build a new building as opposed to renovate existing buildings due to the severity of the codes. So now the new "Existing Building Codes" have been put in place in order to help revive "old main street USA".
I highly doubt the state will provide any municipality with the variance necessary to work around these new requirements.

With that said, in NYS it is no longer a requirement to bring the rest of the building(s) up to current code for MOST renovations in todays market.

Nice does that apply to adding arc fault on a service upgrade and bringing smoke alarms to current standards?? As far as plaster walls the way I have seen it done in Manhattan is chopping a channel with 2 hatchets and stapling the mc cable to the lath and plastering it back into the wall. The hatchets make the smallest mess and are the least damaging to the wall. Try it it is fun

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

Nice does that apply to adding arc fault on a service upgrade and bringing smoke alarms to current standards??

Adding arc fault circuit protection is not required for service upgrades in NYS.


Smoke alarms is a different issue.
For retrofit/renovation work, selling of houses or for just owning a house, smoke detectors are a statewide requirement, regardless of whether or not work or an application is taken or not.
This falls under a 17 page document called Property Maintenance Code.
There are specific requirements as to the installation procedure for smoke alarms, and that is where smoke alarm installation requirements gets a little tricky to understand. It may fall under the Property Maintenance Code, or the Residential Building Code/RBCNYS-Appendix J.

 

[480sparky]

What's the worst is when all the 'keys' that hold the plaster to the lath is broken off and sitting at the bottom of the stud cavity.

No matter what you do, the entire wall's worth of plaster will come off the wall.

 

[220/221]

All kidding aside, do you actually encounter many buildings in Phoenix with lath and plaster?

Phoenix is pretty new but, being aged, I have encountered all types of construction here, even wood lathe. THAT was a pleasure to a rookie in 1975 with NO power tools. I tore the crap out of that place

We encounter a lot of plasterboard/plaster that only uses metal lathe at corners and some seams. Central Phoenix was mostly built pre 1960, about the time they went to "dry"wall.

 

[busman]

I use a Carbide Grit Jig Saw Blade. They are meant for cutting hard materials. They don't make much dust. To start the hole, I use a slotted screwdriver in the middle of the hole to be cut. This type of blade cuts metal lath fine.

Mark

 

[Jim W in Tampa]

Hanging rock lath 16x48 was my first job while still in high school.It was at same time that new fangled stuff came out (drywall).That should not be to hard to work with.The stuff before that was on wood lath and by now would be rotting and falling off.You also might find some that was done on metal lath.Untill you see the house it will be hard to know what you got.Always make sure the owner knows that major damage could happen.My prise house was a 1920's in Tampa,ver proud to say i did no damage and kept hours within reason.Was not cheap price was about 10 grand