Hi all! Plaster newbie needs help

ru65

New Member
Hi all! Complete newbie at the job. I'm trying my DIY muscle in the house and stumbled upon a difficult one to solve.

The external wall in my bedroom was sounding hollow and could not hold the curtain rails, cracks were appearing halfway the wall and I could hear people's footsepts outside the house. Not to mention room cannot hold the heat. So thought it may be the time to insulate that wall.

After I took down that plaster board, I found disaster underneath. Whoever has done it before, used patches of browning with plaster on the wall in places where skiting and radiators needed to be and the rest, completed the wall with bits of double plaster boards, some cement to even it up and painted over. Therefore the cracks, the noise, and everything.

I need to take down everything, clean the wall and strenghten it. My issue is that the brick is very old, I can see a lot of cracked bricks, mortar is crumbling at the touch of hand, and I have timber bricks at the window. Nothing looks rotten, just fragile.

I need to fill in the missing mortar and I'd like to put lathing and Thistle Hardwall plaster on all the wall. But I'm torn, unsure if using plaster is a good idea. Would a browning layer and then multicoat be better? I don't want to do more damage than it's already there. Any advice on what to use would be welcome.
 

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If you are diy guy and you think of floating the wall with hardwall then I would really recommend employing plasterer for a day as it'll go horribly wrong if you do it yourself...
 
Hi all! Complete newbie at the job. I'm trying my DIY muscle in the house and stumbled upon a difficult one to solve.

The external wall in my bedroom was sounding hollow and could not hold the curtain rails, cracks were appearing halfway the wall and I could hear people's footsepts outside the house. Not to mention room cannot hold the heat. So thought it may be the time to insulate that wall.

After I took down that plaster board, I found disaster underneath. Whoever has done it before, used patches of browning with plaster on the wall in places where skiting and radiators needed to be and the rest, completed the wall with bits of double plaster boards, some cement to even it up and painted over. Therefore the cracks, the noise, and everything.

I need to take down everything, clean the wall and strenghten it. My issue is that the brick is very old, I can see a lot of cracked bricks, mortar is crumbling at the touch of hand, and I have timber bricks at the window. Nothing looks rotten, just fragile.

I need to fill in the missing mortar and I'd like to put lathing and Thistle Hardwall plaster on all the wall. But I'm torn, unsure if using plaster is a good idea. Would a browning layer and then multicoat be better? I don't want to do more damage than it's already there. Any advice on what to use would be welcome.

Hack it all off and let the dog see the rabbit. It’s the only way to go if you want to do a proper job and will need doing wether you end up getting someone in or diy.
 
thank you for the suggestions. if only I could buldozer it
turns out there is a 2m wooden beam at the top, propped on 2 bricks at either side with nothing underneath, holding the roof .... and the beam is bent in the middle. That may be my main priority now, or else the roof collapses on my head
 
It's clearly an old property, that wood beam has held the roof for a long time and might be fine. If you can hear street noise thru' the brickwork it might be a half brick wall or a dodgy 9 inch solid. Solid plaster is not insulation. Foam backerd board is but first you need to fix thre brickwork, and maybe/maybe not replace the beam.
You have just identifed that this is no longer a novice DIY job, you need a builder, and a proper plasterer.
 
Hi all! Complete newbie at the job. I'm trying my DIY muscle in the house and stumbled upon a difficult one to solve.

The external wall in my bedroom was sounding hollow and could not hold the curtain rails, cracks were appearing halfway the wall and I could hear people's footsepts outside the house. Not to mention room cannot hold the heat. So thought it may be the time to insulate that wall.

After I took down that plaster board, I found disaster underneath. Whoever has done it before, used patches of browning with plaster on the wall in places where skiting and radiators needed to be and the rest, completed the wall with bits of double plaster boards, some cement to even it up and painted over. Therefore the cracks, the noise, and everything.

I need to take down everything, clean the wall and strenghten it. My issue is that the brick is very old, I can see a lot of cracked bricks, mortar is crumbling at the touch of hand, and I have timber bricks at the window. Nothing looks rotten, just fragile.

I need to fill in the missing mortar and I'd like to put lathing and Thistle Hardwall plaster on all the wall. But I'm torn, unsure if using plaster is a good idea. Would a browning layer and then multicoat be better? I don't want to do more damage than it's already there. Any advice on what to use would be welcome.
You won't be floating and skimming that yourself buddy most plasterers I know can't even float
 
It's clearly an old property, that wood beam has held the roof for a long time and might be fine. If you can hear street noise thru' the brickwork it might be a half brick wall or a dodgy 9 inch solid. Solid plaster is not insulation. Foam backerd board is but first you need to fix thre brickwork, and maybe/maybe not replace the beam.
You have just identifed that this is no longer a novice DIY job, you need a builder, and a proper plasterer.
I'd go further and say that he needs a proper builder more than a proper plasterer. There really aren't many proper small builders about.
 
I'd go further and say that he needs a proper builder more than a proper plasterer. There really aren't many proper small builders about.
Yup, builder first. To be fair there are a reasonable number of proper small builders around Berkshire, and never short of work. (That's small as in size of firm, not those of restricted height Andy)).
 
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