We have (ok, had) walls like that too; two partition walls upstairs built directly on the floorboards out of 3" thick "breezeblock"-type blocks (someone called them cinderblocks). These were interesting in that they had a toungue-and-groove arrangement on their narrow vertical faces!
+--------+ > > +--------+What counts as plaster in this 1930s council-built semi is about a half to threequarters of an inch of black coal dust capped with no more than a sixteenth of cement render. This is further coated with gorgeous Artex in much of the house (see pictures still up at
All the ceilings in the house mentioned above are (or were) asbestos sheet. As part of the refurbishment these are going - at least in the half of the house we're doing at the moment.
So you're not in an entirely unique position :-) Obviously some odd things went on in the 1930s. Like the ceiling joists upstairs (i.e. attic joists) which are on 2ft or so centres and not properly supported over their 6m span. Again, the support will be better when we've refurbished, though I'm blowed if I'm adding extra joists just to make putting a bit of board up there a bit easier.
Hwyl!
M.