Thanks! I thought about trying to shave the cabinet, but it only has thin plywood sides to start with so was worried about doing damage there. The block is basically just a piece of wood (probably the piece of stud that was cut out) nailed to a horizontal 2x4 that is in turn nailed to the remaining studs. It formed the left edge of the original cabinet. We could also take it out and just move it, but the lathe is nailed to it so that seemed to have the potential to do a lot more plaster damage. (We have a clear inch on both the block and the stud that could be shaved with no impact to lathe, probably because of the way the original cabinet was set in place.) The plywood stabilizer is a great idea, though--thanks!

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.

Hi, For a long while, it was customary to install the moldings (casing, chair rail, baseboard) first, to the brick or framing, and then plaster them in. Second, if the walls only got a "two coat" plastering job to begin with, they will look wavy; you're seeing the pattern of the lath underneath. But, if this is not true in you house (1870 would be quite late to find embedded moldings, but just right to find two coat plaster) you will need to get things smoothed out to suit you. I'd start with some exploratory scraping/probing near the moldings to find why they appear buried. The bulges I can't explain without seeing them. Casey

while I’d prefer to keep the plaster, it bulges in some areas and creates snag points on the walls and there Are a lot of patches that just weren’t done properly, so replacing it with Sheetrock would allow me to fix it all at once and in terms of the bathroom I’m going to build in, it will also allow me to open the walls to allow the plumbing and electrical to be run faster(and cheaper). The Walls and ceilings all over the house are textured and some rooms have already been converted to Sheetrock and they textured those to match the plaster(poorly). When I did make some holes in the walls for things like new outlets, I didn’t find any paper under the texturing layer, just solid plaster. Seriously, the house has probably been worked on by 5 different contractors and none of them even tried to match the work of the others. The drywall work was sloppy and they used too much joint compound in some areas, none in others. ill try to post some pictures on my Profile under a new project for more details and so you can see what I’m talking about. The house is sitting on a cement foundation. Not block. I just wasn’t sure if cement could be covered and not have it look like I’m trying to hide something. I haven’t seen any code against it in the UBC or in my local city/county codes.