Bay Area

[briguy]

I just moved into my old home in Berkeley. It's over 100 years old and the walls are definitely showing their age. The foundation has settled so there are plenty of cracks in the walls, and patches where there used to be cracks. There are also bulges and uneven surfaces in places. I'm just wondering if something like this is beyond repair and would need to be knocked out and replaced, or if they could potentially be smoothed and salvaged by a professional. Thanks in advance!

[norcalnative]

Just did a major wall job in a 12/12 bedroom being converted from a walk in closet former owner to a bedroom for the kid.

The walls were textured in the 90s with a big complicated california closets type shelving and clothes hanging system all the way around the room. When we tore out the closet type stuff there was green 70's flower print wall paper under the shelving and a smooth wall. Uggg!!!! Two main walls in the room!

I stripped the wall paper then spent a couple of weeks tracking down a very skilled dry wall guy to fix it. He basically had to do the entire wall to get it all blended in and looking correct and spent a solid 5 days 5-6hrs a day working on it. He also replaced the floor trim and painted for us. The finished product was a 100% new and painted room ready to move the kids gear into.

The wall work by far took some skill and time to get it right. I've done enough basic patching my self to know that large sections and getting it all looking good is hard to do and takes some tallent. I didn't want to even try given I knew it was far beyond my basic patching and small area blending skill LOL.

Ask around I found our guy through a friend sort of a fly by night seat of the pants type but he really did know his stuff and did a good job. Would never have hired him solo he came with a glowing recomendation from a good friend that had stumbled into him by accident and has used him for a few projects over the years. Not cheap but in the end worth it!

[El_Katz]

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briguy wrote:

I just moved into my old home in Berkeley. It's over 100 years old and the walls are definitely showing their age. The foundation has settled so there are plenty of cracks in the walls, and patches where there used to be cracks. There are also bulges and uneven surfaces in places. I'm just wondering if something like this is beyond repair and would need to be knocked out and replaced, or if they could potentially be smoothed and salvaged by a professional. Thanks in advance!

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Odds are the keyways in the plaster have given up the ghost.  In a 100 year old house, you're probably looking at plaster on lath - not drywall - unless the house has been gutted and redone.  From the sounds of what you are describing, that's unlikely. 

Knock on the bulges.  Sound more hollow than the other parts of the walls?  Then the keyways are toast.  Probably from a combination of shifting and even possibly water damage (odds are the house doesn't have much in the way of insulation). 

You can try and patch them... but will probably have mixed results and recurring cracks.  It's not easy to float and blend plaster... especially over old paint (the plaster doesn't bond with the paint as it can't form a mechanical bond to a slippery surface).  That's a job for someone who knows what they are doing (and from the sounds of it, the repairs were not done by THAT guy).  Or you can tear it out and drywall the spaces.  Once the walls are opened up, you'll have an opportunity to upgrade the electrical (it may be knob and tube) and the insulation. 

[redwood]

We had a home with lathe and plaster, and lots of settling cracks since the house was old, and on clay soil.

We had the walls floated and retextured with old world texture. It looked great, but old lathe and plaster will recrack.

If I were to be faced with this situation again, I'd remove the lathe and plaster, install sheetrock, and have old world texture done on the sheetrock walls. A longer term satisfactory result, I think.

[elt1]

Bulging plaster has to be removed. Plaster is rigid, wood is not. Sheetrock has a lot of shear strength(20% of plywood). Plaster has zero shear(crack resistance) strength. Bite the built strip off the old cracked, bulging plaster. Re-wire, plumb, and new sheetrock--plus plywood --add some shearwalls. The plaster will keep cracking no matter what.

[El_Katz]

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elt1 wrote:

Bulging plaster has to be removed. Plaster is rigid, wood is not. Sheetrock has a lot of shear strength(20% of plywood). Plaster has zero shear(crack resistance) strength. Bite the built strip off the old cracked, bulging plaster. Re-wire, plumb, and new sheetrock--plus plywood --add some shearwalls. The plaster will keep cracking no matter what.

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Before adding shear walls, I'd talk to a structural engineer.  Houses are a sum total of all their systems, not independent of one another.  Making the structure more rigid can have interesting results if the sill plate isn't bolted to the foundation..... and other seismic work isn't performed as part of that retrofit. 

[briguy]

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El_Katz wrote:

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elt1 wrote:

Bulging plaster has to be removed. Plaster is rigid, wood is not. Sheetrock has a lot of shear strength(20% of plywood). Plaster has zero shear(crack resistance) strength. Bite the built strip off the old cracked, bulging plaster. Re-wire, plumb, and new sheetrock--plus plywood --add some shearwalls. The plaster will keep cracking no matter what.

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Before adding shear walls, I'd talk to a structural engineer.  Houses are a sum total of all their systems, not independent of one another.  Making the structure more rigid can have interesting results if the sill plate isn't bolted to the foundation..... and other seismic work isn't performed as part of that retrofit. 

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We are currently getting the foundation completely redone as well as a seismic retrofit. This should do the trick right?

Can anyone recommend some plaster/painter experts in the east bay? I agree that sheetrock is probably a better solution longterm, but there are portions of the house that really just need some TLC from a qualified expert.

[El_Katz]

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briguy wrote:

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El_Katz wrote:

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elt1 wrote:

Bulging plaster has to be removed. Plaster is rigid, wood is not. Sheetrock has a lot of shear strength(20% of plywood). Plaster has zero shear(crack resistance) strength. Bite the built strip off the old cracked, bulging plaster. Re-wire, plumb, and new sheetrock--plus plywood --add some shearwalls. The plaster will keep cracking no matter what.

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Before adding shear walls, I'd talk to a structural engineer.  Houses are a sum total of all their systems, not independent of one another.  Making the structure more rigid can have interesting results if the sill plate isn't bolted to the foundation..... and other seismic work isn't performed as part of that retrofit. 

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We are currently getting the foundation completely redone as well as a seismic retrofit. This should do the trick right?

Can anyone recommend some plaster/painter experts in the east bay? I agree that sheetrock is probably a better solution longterm, but there are portions of the house that really just need some TLC from a qualified expert.

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The foundation guy may be qualified or may be able to refer you to someone who is.  Shear walls make the house more rigid - but it depends on the orginal construction of the house.  There's this thing called the law of unintended consequences.