I've removed many slat and plaster walls and this is the most efficient\minimal mess technique I have discovered. The fact is, this is a messy job and "bashing walls" is out of the question if you want to minimize the spread of dust and cleanup time. Here's what you need and how to do it: 1. Quality respirator mask (no exceptions). I recommend a $19 dual filter mask from Wal Mart. 2. Thick durable work gloves. 3. Protective plastic goggles (Wal Mart). 4. 1 Large black marker. 5. 10 X 12 thin plastic drop sheets (Wal Mart). 6. 1 flat pry-bar. 7. 1 Drill with half 1/2 inch bit. 8. Reciprocating Saw (any reliable brand will do) with extension chord. 9. 1 stud finder. 10. 1 ladder. 11. Large 96 gallon square trash bin with wheels or durable plastic storage container with wheels (preferably). 12. 1 Shop vacuum. 13. 1 Broom & dustpan 14. A partner to help (needs items 1, 2, & 3). Step 1) Turn off the power in the room that contains the wall you plan on stripping. You do not want to electrocute yourself! If other rooms have power receptacles on a separate fuse you can run an extension chord into the work room to power a flood lamp. Or if it's daylight you're all set ;) Step 2) Remove all wood trim from wall. Using the ladder, stud finder, and the black marker, start about 5" down from the wall\ceiling crease and locate and mark all the wall studs on the wall you plan to strip plaster slats from. Make your stud marks horizontal and 4" wide. Have your partner mark where the stud finder began beeping and where it stopped. Make note of all electrical switches and outlets. If you have multiple plugin outlets on a single wall chances are the wiring will be horizontally ran inside the wall to join the outlets. Use the marker to draw a horizontal line between outlets. You will not cut below or within 5" of the top of this line. Step 3) Cover the floor of the room where you're working with the 10 X 12 plastic. I like to "booth off" the room with plastic by taping 10 X 12 sheets from the ceiling to the floor using blue painters tape as it will not rip your drywall paint\paper when you remove the tape. I tape all joining plastic sheet seems from ceiling to floor and allow a slit for me to walk out during breaks. Step 4) Put on you respirator, goggles and gloves. Make sure your respirator is tight enough not to let air in and the nose bridge is snug on the bridge of your nose. You do not want ancient dust creeping in your mask! A hat is optional if you don't want dust in your hair (ladies). Position the 96 gallon trash can by the ladder and have your partner waiting for you to hand them square slat and plaster section to put into the garbage can. Step 5) Start at the left hand side of the wall. At the top of the ceiling, using the drill and the 1/2" bit, drill a hole on the right end of the 4" stud marking. Only drill a hole in the section your are currently working on. Step 6) Place the blade of the reciprocating saw half way in the 1/2" hole you drilled earlier and begin sawing downward. gently add downward pressure to the saw, don't force the saw, let the saw do the work. It should cut through like butter. Keep your cut line as straight up-and-down as possible. You can also steer the saw close to the parallel wall stud for a closer cut. If the saw blade pops out or is hard to move, chances are you're cutting into a wall stud. Stop, evaluate the situation (using a flashlight), and reposition and continue to cut just the slats and plaster. Stop cutting when you're about 2" from the floor. You should now have a semi-straight vertical cut line from ceiling to floor. Step 7) On the ladder, using the pry bar, at the top of the wall, you will pry off your first single square section of wall by using the following technique. At the top of the wall, from left to right, diagonally slide the pry bar (hook end towards you) behind the cut plaster panel and leave the very end of the pry bar(flat end) sticking out at the lower bottom left. With your right hand, firmly grad the upper right of the plaster section, holding the hook end of the pry bar against the back of the plaster wall section. With your left hand, firmly hold the flat end of the pry bar behind the lower left corner of the plaster wall section. Slowly pull the entire panel of plaster towards you keeping the pry bar firmly pressed behind the plaster section you are removing. If you do it correctly you will keep 98% of the plaster in tact and all nails joining the wood slats to the 2 X 4 beam will be pulled out at the same time. Hand the square plaster section to your partner to place in the bottom of the 96 gal plastic trash can. Continue this technique all the way down the cut in the section you are working. You should get the hang of it by the time you're done with the removal of your first section. Step 8) Repeat steps 5 through 7 until the wall is stripped. You may have some remaining nails to remove with the pry bar when you are completely finished with the entire wall. Step 10) Pick up stray pieces of plaster and slats when you're finished. Gently roll up the plastics sheets being careful not to spread the dust; dispose of the plastic. Sweep and vacuum and remaining dust and debre that escaped the plastic. You may need to make several trips to the waste transfer station with the trash can to dispose of the slat and plaster or you can pay someone to pick it up. I have this technique down to where I can strip a 10 x 8 wall in 60 min with little or no mess on the floor. Have fun, be safe.

If it looks BS, sounds like BS and smells like you know what, then it is. Old three-coat over lath plaster is put on in layers, the under layers (rough and scratch coats) can look a little rough, and they are supposed to be so for good adhesion. If your other walls are smooth then you have finish coat plaster on top, which is usually smooth as as silk. Its smoothness comes from the final polishing. My finish coat plaster is so smooth that little silicate (sand) particles in my unpainted bedroom ceiling will sparkle if the light hits them right. Now the contractor who did this, is he a plasterer, or something else? Did he use real plaster or joint compound? Is the plaster (if that's what it is) over lath or is a skim coat over board? And what is the nature of the roughness or texture: ripples, waves, orange peel or more than that? Also, though this may not be so important for modern plaster mixtures, older ones at least, need to cure and be primed before they can take any paint. Has anybody taken that into account? And yes, you can sand plaster; a big mess (lots of dust), but it can be done. Usually the problem is the other way around; in some areas of the country it is apparently customary to have a "knock-down" finish to plaster, in those cases the patch is often too smooth compared to the remaining walls. What was the outcome today? Good Luck! Molly~

Link was down. Sounds like you have some of the first (scratch) coat exposed. If this is not keyed to the lath anymore you need to remove it. There's a product called Structolite you can use to fill in these areas. Keep it below the surface of the white top coat by about 1/8" After it's dry(follow instructions on bag) you can top coat it with plaster or compound or a mixture of the two. Pure plaster sets up in a heartbeat. There's a product you can put in to slow the process a bit, I think lime, but I don't remember. I just mix up some plaster and add some compound into it and it works for me. Plaster does not sand well at all. Better to get it smooth as you apply it. They also sell compound that sets up in varying intervals. Thirty, forty five and ninety minutes. Most, if not all, are available at a masonary supply store. When the pictures are available I'll check them out. Ron

It all depends on the type of plaster and substrate. My 1850 walls have super-soft clay-lime-horsehair plaster, with a slightly brittle thin lime whitecoat on top. If I pierce the whitecoat with a drill I can get through the browncoat no problem with a screw or nail. There are solid interior sheathing boards underneath to fasten stuff to. On hard modern plaster over rocklath, a hammer drill is helpful, but on wood lath potentially damaging, here's why: A masonry bit is made for eroding its way through hard material by friction/hammering out particles. But it will not easily drill through hard dry wood. It will sail through the plaster but be confounded by the lath: 2 things can happen: it will break the lath, or it will push the lath back, breaking the plaster keys in either case. So if you use a hammer drill stop once the sand stops coming out of the hole, and switch to a wood bit for the laths. If you have plaster over brick, concrete block, or high-fired structural terra cotta (hardest wall material beside stone) then you have no choice but to use a hammer drill. Unless you have the above situation, with solid masonry, I find it best to sacrifice a wood drill bit. You may get a handful of holes out of it. Invest in a drill dr. and resharpen them. Casey