WORKING WITH WALLS

They don’t build ‘em like they used to. Something we all have heard a time or two. With proper care, homes built 80 plus years ago will still be standing even after we humans decide to blow ourselves up. These old homes are built like bunkers. Sixteen inch stone foundation, Twelve by twelve inch timbers, real 2x4s, 5/4 tongue and grove outer walls with ½ inch wood siding on top of that, these houses just don’t move in a storm, they don’t even wiggle. Needless to say, most methods used for new construction do not work well in an older home. I’m going to start with a simple thing that will save you time, frustration and more time. Let’s hang items on the wall without managing a huge hole, loosening a square foot of plaster, or sending a crack from your living room to the corner drug store. A solid interior wall in an old home is basically concrete spread over wood strips. When in good shape, this stuff is far stronger than modern materials used in new construction. The worst thing you can do is pound on it, especially with the addition of a nail. The pounding with a hammer and nail will break and crack the plaster, make a huge hole, then proceed to push the wood away from the plaster behind it and weaken the wall, its downhill from there. Now there’s a bunch of extra work, a number of choice words, and you still have to get that piece hung.

Get yourself a small box of 1 ½” number 6 drywall screws at any hardware store, a small drill bit, 11/32, grab your drill and drill a hole at a slight angle up and screw your drywall screw in leaving the last 1/4 out. You will be amazed at how much weight this technique will hold. No cracks, no huge holes, no need to worry about hitting a stud, these old walls are strong. I always hang pictures for tenets to avoid time consuming repairs later. I hung a large framed picture not long ago; we walked into another room then heard a loud crash. Back into the room we went, pieces all over, glass and broken frame. In disbelief, my eyes went from floor to wall to one piece of the frame still hanging, my screw did not budge. They just don’t build’em like they used to!

As long as we’re talking old walls in an old house, how about those long, old cracks that speak to every time you walk into the room, or should I say that you speak to. It’s really not that difficult to make those cracks disappear for good. But you must have strength for it will look much worse before it gets better.

First off you’ need to clean the crack out. The best tool I’ve found for this is a hammer with a straight claw. You’ll want to dig it out in the shape of a V. Take the claw end of your hammer, turn it a bit sideways; with one of the claws sink it into the crack. Now pull the hammer all the way along the crack, you’ll see two layers of material, a smooth plaster about ¼ inch thick and a course plaster. At minimum you need to get down into this course plaster. Run your claw along the crack many times, each time removing more material. Do not worry if the wood slats start to show. Once you have this crack cleaned out of loose material take a vacuum cleaner and suck all the dust out. Now hop into your car and head to your nearest hardware store and pick up a bag of Dura Bond 90, this stuff dries like a rock in 90 minutes. You will also need a 3 or 6 inch putty knife, depending on how wide your crack got, a mixing container, and a small tub of pre mixed joint compound. Now mix some dura bond with some water to the consistency of frosting or toothpaste. Work the material into the crack and run your putty knife over the crack so no dura bond is higher than the wall surface. Don’t worry about imperfections; we’ll be adding a skim coat later. Any extra dura bond should be disposed of in the wastebasket, do not wash it down the drain. After this has dried for about an hour, bridge your putty knife over the crack and scrape off any material that may be raised above the wall surface.We’ll let this dry over night so you can put your knife down after you’ve cleaned it, and relax, the hardest part is over.

After about six hours have pasted, we can finish up now. Open up your joint compound, take your clean putty knife and spread some compound into the dips and grooves, again don’t worry about imperfections. The less you put on the better. Let this dry, sand lightly with a sanding block. If you still see grooves and holes, ad a little more compound, let dry and sand. Less is better. If your walls have some sort of texture, your paint store guy can give you some direction as how to achieve a matching surface.

Brian Quinn
http://www.steeltoesorethumb.com