Apologies if this has been addressed before - but how does one go abou
removing the plaster from an internal wall (with windows) to get tha 'loft apartment' look, with exposed brick work?
Many thanks
-- Gioconda
Crefully with a chisel.You can hire a kanga, which is basically a motorised chisel, by be cereful of damaging teh bricks.
Once most is of, wire brush is gine for most of te resiude, unless bricks are very very soft.
Then gallons of brick acid and water will get rid of the rest.
Soaking the wall in water may wll soften the plaster up enough, and pressure washers also have their place.
A lot depends on the age/type of the plaster and brickwork.
I've been renovating the kicthen in our 100 year old house and the thick lime plaster comes off quite easily. The best tools seems to be a cold chisel to get started and smallish wrecking bar, once you have a gap you can ease the thin chisel end of the bar in under the edge of the plaster, working with the bar parallel to the wall, and pry away the plaster with little or no damage to the brick. If it's proving harder work, protect the brick with a thin piece of wood under the bar and try to chisel on the joints as you'll probably want to re-point later anyway.
In our case it was only the plaster that was holding the wall together. The think beds of lime mortar could be removed with pencil and vacuum cleaner.
And be prepared for more dust tahn you can ever imagine.
If you don't want to remove plaster (e.g. you've just stripped the wallpaper and you want to patch a couple of areas before repapering) then you can pull it off by hand in large pieces. If you do want to remove it then you will have to attack it with a bolster and lump hammer, and lots of it will be so securely attached to the underlying masonry that you end up removing bits of brick as well.
my plaster came off easily enough by whacking the wall with the side of a hammer and then ploughing through the soft grey render with a bricklaying trowel.
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depends a bit on the age and thus hardness of the bricks. An SDS run at reduced speed should make quick work of it, but real care is needed to not damage the bricks. Use the chisel to push the plaster sideways rather than straight into the bricks.
you dont think that would be liable to tak the whole wall down? Even an sds can knock the wall down if used enthusiastically on a lime mortar wall.
yes, but never do that unless you know the bricks can take it. A good
50% of housing would be very damaged by that, mostly Victorian houses.NT
Similar query, but for removing paint from brickwork (internal) - what works the best? Acid, paint stripper, or drill attachment wire brush? Approx 2 sq. m
Cheers guys
"Loft apartment" look?
This weekend we've been camping in Lincoln Castle. Because the grass was waterlogged and we got there first we pitched on the only patch of gravel. No other tents were allowed.
A hundred or more others were allowed to sleep in the Victorian prison cells. They had said 'loft apartment' look.
A rose by another name!
Mary
Bare in mind that the walls which were intended to be plastered will have been built by the apprentice using the B-grade bricks. Don't presume you'll necessarily have nice tidy brickwork behind the plaster.
Bear
in mind that the walls which were intended to be plastered
B garde bricks? Rubbish. They will be built of rubbish.
Or indeed bricks at all!
Flints, bits of broken brick, the odd rock, essentially what we would call 'hardcore'
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We have a little home made tool for this job, well several actually so that more people can work at the same time. It is basically a 4/5" nail with a big flat head welded at right angles onto a steel bar about 9" long, with a wooden handle. You hit the nail in at an angle with a hammer and then lever the out the mortar. Hope that makes sense. It is the best thing we have tried for softer mortar and fiddly bits. For heavier work we use an SDS drill.
Holly, in France. Holiday home in the Dordogne, website:
Thanks folks, for the replies....
"Bare in mind that the walls which were intended to be plastered will have been built by the apprentice using the B-grade bricks. Don't presume you'll necessarily have nice tidy brickwork behind the plaster."
Quite...It is a Victorian house, and I'm guessing the brickwork won' be spectacular - any ideas how to spruce it up, in case it looks lik it's been used as a firing squad wall?
BTW 'Brick Acid'???? What on earth..
-- Gioconda
Hydrochloric acid, probably not very clean, in a large container from a builders merchant. I wouldn't personally use it on a Victorian lime mortar wall, as I suspect it will dissolve the mortar (which is essentially just chalk) very quickly ;-). The rate of CO2 generation might even pose a suffocation hazard, just before the building collapses on you...
30% hydrochloric formulated for removing cement stains from bricks OK?
Get a little hydorgen suplhide as well. Its not as aggressive as you think. you can appluy with a paint brush and miss out the mortar.
It is a perfectly sane approach, and a lot les disty, though very wet...
howeever else you do the job, you will need to finish up with it to bring up the brick color.
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