Lath and plaster walls how to#

I'll park these two links here in the hopes it may help someone using the search function in the future. Or, with interruption of evaporation in the freeze/thaw cycle, brick can spall and rapidly degrade. If you diminish the ability for air circulation, you end up with rotted joists at critical structural junctures. It is a structural element into which joists are embedded. Thing is, the brick is not simply a veneer. I may not be around to know the long term effects of blowing cellulose or foam between the wythes but if you explore/research the literature consensus points to trouble. That's the rub…the two 'walls' (exterior brick and interior lath/plaster) do act together as a single system. Thanks for reading this overly long post! As it is I bet the 13 is limited by being shoved back into the old firebox, but again, not enough room to have a larger stove sticking out into the room. I bet I'd be very content with a larger stove but I don't have the space. I'm heating with an Englander 13 placed into the firebox of the living room end of a completely open 1st floor (approx 18' x 32').

Lath and plaster walls how to#

One specific question I have is, can cracks in the plaster allow cold air to infiltrate into the house? There are several hairline or larger cracks in the wall, but no plaster is missing nor is there lath exposed.Īnyway, short of medieval style thick tapestries or blankets, does anyone have a ideas of how to deal with the negative effects of this cold wall? I put a thermometer at the bottom of the staircase this winter and no matter how hot the wall thermostat said the ambient air was at, the thermometer by the wall at the bottom of the stairs was never higher than 59/60*F. I'm convinced that the cold radiates or convects, or whatever, into the house. Second, with all its imperfections, the plaster has an historic appeal that I'd rather retain. First, I prefer to not loose valuable real-estate on the staircase I don't want to loose the stringer I painstakingly stripped and repainted.

I'm not really willing to fur it out, insulate and then hang drywall for a couple of reasons. So, the issue I'm trying to address is this cold, cold wall. I had blown in insulation blown into the 'true attic' above the 3rd floor when I bought the house in 2005. The staircases runs parallel to this wall (basement to 1st, 1st to 2nd, 2nd to finished 3rd floor). This wall, from the 1st floor to the finished attic has the original lath and plaster, and the structure is two-courses of brick. I have an alley running along that south-west side. One side wall is a 'party wall' shared with my neighbors and the other, south-west facing side wall gets all the weather coming from the west. My house is a late, 1890's solid brick end row house in Pittsburgh, PA.

Not sure there's a solution short of a medieval-era tapestry hung against the wall, but here goes the situation I'd appreciate some help thinking through: