Tips on hacking plaster off a wall neatly

[bp]

Hi,

I have a question about hacking plaster froma wall.

I am having a door fitted in an internal brick wall (Single brick thick). There is no door there currently.

To reduce costs I have offered to hack the plaster away. The builder has marked on the wall where the door will go and how much extra plaster will need to be removed for the frame etc.

Since the remainder of the room is decorated well, I want to remove the plaster as cleanly as possible to minimize painting the whole wall again. I have hacked plaster off before and find that it never follows a given line, extra bits alway crumble away.

So, I was thinkng about using an angle grinder with a stome cutting disc, to cut a line all the way round the propose door frame I would cut only to the depth of the plaster - not the brick. THen I would be able to remove the plaster without too much damage to the remaing wall.

Would this approach work?

I anticipate some filling/plastering once the door is in. Should I therefore cut the line at an angle to the wall (say 45 degrees) to give the new plaster sometihng to stick to.

If someone has a better approach or thinks I would be better off just using hammer and chisel - please say

Bhupesh

[rrh]

I'm sure this would work but you would spend more time cleaning up all the resulting dust than you ever would repainting the wall. Hammer and chisel would only take a few minutes to mark out the outline.

[Andrew Mawson]

cutting

would be

A deep scored line with a 'utility knife' Stanley blade or whatever will help stop the cracks going the wrong way. The deeper the better obviously.

AWEM

[Cicero]

=================================== It's often easier to get a clean cut line by using an (old) wide-bladed

*wood* chisel. It takes a bit longer but it doesn't break up the edges of the cut so much as the usual brick bolster.

I wouldn't consider using an angle grinder for this job unless you've got a long holiday coming up for cleaning up the mess.

Cic.

[TMC]

I have used a scutch chisel to good effect to achieve the perforated line suggested by drilling then a bolster chisel to remove the plaster

You only need to remove a couple of inches of plaster as the rest will go with bricks

However I may be missing a point here ....that is how is the builder going to cut the wall itself?

If he were to use a chisel to cut through the bricks the vibration will possibly trash plaster on both sides of the wall

I guess that he will use a stone cutter so you might as well start the mess with the angle grinder

Tony

[TMC]

snip

Further thought is that the hole in the plaster should be the same size as the hole in the bricks as the frame fits within the depth of the plaster. The architrave then fits over the join of the frame and the plaster

I am not clear as to how you gain anything by removing the plaster in advance of the job

[Tony Bryer]

As others have said, if you use an angle grinder you will regret it big time! What I have done with jobs like this is to drill a line of holes (like perforations between stamps) and these let you cut away the plaster to one side without disturbing the rest. A wall chaser with extract would be another alternative.

[bp]

OK,

Looks like I over looked the dust side of things. Quite right there will be way too much dust from the grinder - I will not be doing this.

I will stick to the chisel. May try some of the other suggestions though.

Well worth posting the question here. Thanks all.

[Cicero]

================================== I suppose it depends on what is on the other side of the wall. The OP obviously wants to keep his room clean but he may not be so particular about whatever is on the other side of the wall from where the angle grinder could be used to remove the brickwork, thus minimising the amount of dust in the 'good' room.

Cic.

[TMC]

Tony

[John Rumm]

There are some other options that might work in this case:

(a wall chaser can often be run with just one disc fitted to cut a single line rather than a pair)

[Weatherlawyer]

In which case why is he allowing the occupant to save money by removing the plaster or is it a foil to get out of causing damage?

Put a shield of Visquene around both rooms taped up to the outline of the cut and hire a large cutter to go through the lot. The job will only take an hour after fiddling with the plastic.

Use a pop bottle with an hole in the top to spray the edges to be cut with water to lay the dust every so often.

Cut an orifice some 1/2" bigger than the frame. Any bloopers will be covered with architrave.