These are consistently the best drywall/carpentry/painting videos on KZfaq at present. I've done quite a bit of remodeling these past two years and I've found that Vancouver Carpenter videos are the most informative and best source for advice. Thanks for your help.

Oh man.. Funniest thing about this is I JUST did this with my 1954 home. It's exactly as you show. We removed soffits from our kitchen and it was a nightmare removing them cleanly and patching in the drywall. The best part about it is that I spent probably 100 hours watching and re-watching your videos to learn how to do any of it (I literally knew nothing), and if I had waited 5 months or so, I'd see this video. Hahaha anyway, thank you for posting everything that you have! Even prior to this video, you gave me enough information to do a pretty dang good job modifying my kitchen!

Man am i so glad you decided to make this video. My house was built in 1950 in Boston. And this is the same process and materials they used. I Have some experience with repairing walls in these older homes but had never come across this type of plaster board. I think this video is the only one that I have ever seen covering this method of drywalling. So thank you. ONe of the first things I noticed when we were looking to buy my home was the amazingly straight ceilings and walls . Cheers, William

My parents' house, built in 1965, is finished this way. Almost 60 years later, the walls are still smooth and in beautiful shape. Without admitting to anything, I can promise you that those walls haven't always had an easy life.

Very informative, but I could have used this about 20 years ago. 😂 My house in West Michigan was built in 1941, using 3/8 x 16 x 48 inch Gyprock, or Sheetrock, panels. It had several settlement cracks and a lot of water damage. I'm no pro, but I taught myself pretty much everything you showed in this vid, plus some more tricks. Great teaching job on your part, for anyone yet to have that much fun.

You're a legend mate. I've been able to hang on to my second attempt at keeping a job in drywall finishing. Thanks for being here 👍

So funny to find this video because it has taken me 5 days to find exactly what the walls we have in our house were called. We have a 1951 mass-produced middle-america single family home, and this is on every single wall plus very heavy texture on every wall. It is pain to try and repair and upgrade things, but it is very solid. Just hard to fix and no one at the big box store knew what it was called. They all had it in there, and suggested the 5/8 drywall as the fix. This was helpful as is all of your other content. Thanks so much.

I have this in my house, which was my grandmother’s house, built in 1950. The only difference is the “drywall” boards underneath are “button board” which has holes to key the plaster through. It also seems harder, maybe not quite cement but similar. It has archways in all the doorways except between the kitchen an dining room, which used to have a swinging door. I decided to buy an arch kit and put in an arch there, and now I’m working on getting the right depth between the drywall and plaster. This is pretty good timing for me!

Our home was built in 1943. While doing renovations years ago, I discovered our beautiful plaster walls used gypsum board instead of wooden lathe. This gypsum board has held up amazingly well, and it enhances fire resistant and insulation. You’re right about this type of plastering being well done. I hope people who have this type of plastering will see its value from your video and patch repairs like this instead of ripping it all out and replacing all of it with drywall.

Oh how badly I wish you had made this video a year ago!! We purchased our 1962 Toronto home almost a year ago now and have been DIY renovating it ever since. There's not much info about this era of construction on the internet so we have learned a lot through trial and error. We also learned how solid and heavy this stuff is during the demo stage! Some walls were wavier than others, but overall 5/8" drywall lined up pretty well with the old plaster, and then we FEATHERED out any height differences. This video is very validating for our noob DIY work :) Thanks for the vid!

Tape in Mud works really good for a situation like this. Great job 👍

Have the same set up in my 1950s house in eastern PA. Had to do something similar. I opted for 5/8" drywall directly on studs (instead of adding filler strips and using 1/2" drywall). Prefilled with Durock 90 and then used premixed mud (on top of Durock 90) since it's easier for me to get a smoother texture. This was my first drywall/mudding job. Unless you really know where to look, it turned out decently well.

The contractor I worked for in the 1980s would patch plaster walls by nailing or screwing a piece of 1/2” drywall in the hole with the back side facing out. We would mix up a bit of Structolite and fill almost flush, then give it a coat of finish plaster. Working with Ralph and Nick, (my boss and his brother), was like having walking encyclopedias of how houses were built from the 1920s onward.

That came off like your most professional video yet. Nice work.

This is what I have at my house. Thank you for the video. I have been learning to work with this. Watch out for asbestos when working with the backer board. Unfortuantly all the contractors's workers here have no idea how to fix this stuff. Aparently I am much better just doing it myself, even not knowing what I am doing. California patch is your friend when patching holes with this style walls. Workers tend to not do anyting with the metal lath, leave nails sticking out etc, if the ruff work guys put in the wrong thickness backer, the drywall guys just pull it out and put 1/2" dryweall then try to mud out the last 1/2" leaving the walls very wavey. It's all in the prep, getting these lines up well and then you will be fine. It's actually not that hard, but contractors just want the paycheck so they skip over the detail work and it ends up terrible. I used allot of drywall shims for patching smaller holes due to varying thicknesses. Also some times it helps to have some fireboard etc for the various thicknesses you might encounter.

I just moved into a house with rock lath plaster. I thought it was initially 2 layers of drywall- thanks for the clarity. Built in ‘69, like you said, most of the stuff is in fantastic condition.

The drywalliest carpenter on youtube!! Awesome video, my house's wall are all made with the gyprock/plaster walls throughout! If I had seen this video over a year ago, I might have saved a bit of extra effort in my kitchen reno after I had removed a bunch of ugly bulkheads in the kitchen. Nevertheless, we put 1/4" sheetrock to cover the entire ceiling for a smoother finish and filling in a bunch of holes, and we were tearing down the old walls down to the 2x4 studs so that we could extend the wall another 1 1/2" for better insulation and completely replace bunch of electrical/plumbing work.

Thanks for your efforts! I've learned a lot from your videos. Although I'm not doing any level 5 finishing I've learned much from you. Over been rehabbing a 100 year old cabin and it's coming out better than I could of hoped!

This repair was my specialty when I was still working. I used exactly the same method as Ben. This is the most satisfying of all the repairs you can do on an old building. Looks better than new when finished!

"...you've seen this, don't need to see it again..", But we like watching again...LOL..keep returning to your videos every time we need a refresher.

Sure could’ve used this video a week ago!!! 😅 but you did almost exactly what I came up with to do lol thank you

Hello Ben. My wife and I bought a early sixties bungalow with plaster walls and have had my share of repairs after some small renovations upstairs, but when I removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room I hired a friend of mine who just happened to be a pro drywaller. He had me do the prep work for the openings in the walls and ceiling and like you I used 1/4in” and 1/2in” to fill the gaps. He did great job, much better than I would have done, and well worth the money. He also showed me a few tricks, as you have done as well, that me better going forward with future repair and reno projects. Great video as always. Great channel(I subscribed after watching for the first time a few years ago) and thanks for all of your work making these videos. Very helpful.

You might have saved me.. you have no idea how hard it is to find a good video on working with this stuff.

Great vid Ben...someone asked about matching textures for a repair..there are four different textures in my house. One method they used was lay out a thin coat of plaster and then press a damp burlap sack into the wall..my parents witnessed this when they had the house built in 1947 (Victoria,B.C.)

My home was 1942 and has Rock-lathe. I actually have 4’x6’ sheets of drywall with a brown coat, grey coat, and white coat of plaster. My walls average between 1 1/4” up to 2 1/4”. Been a fun life every time I want to hang pictures or shelves.

I wish I saw this before I started. 1940 home. We did not push down the metal mesh enough. Applied the first drywall patch with 1/4 drywall with 1/2 purple board to make it close to even with the plaster. Metal mesh rusted through the plaster! Wish I pushed it down more and used shims on the studs instead! DIY learning curve for sure!

That mid-century method blew my mind the first time I encountered it. I grew up in a very old farmhouse, lath and horsehair walls, got a commercial maintenance job doing a lot of doubled heavy sheetrock on metal framing, then bought a 1959 house with the plaster on wallboard, where the plaster was no joke 2" thick in some spots! Took a 12' long wall to the dump, it was 800 pounds! Anyway, great work, you've taught us a lot!

Found this video and had to do the same in a home built in 1957 and wanted to know if I did the work correctly. They had this and I am glad to see I did what you did. Thanks for the video!

I am doing the finishing on a she-shed I am building for my wife which she will use as her office since we are both fulltime work-from-home and she is sick of sharing an office with me =) I was doing the tape in a bucket method and remember watching your video of you on stilts with the bucket-o-tape and I found myself saying "Schlap" as I was slapping the tape on the joints lol. Great videos, finishing carpentry is by-far the hardest form of carpentry, and you make it look easy. Though the festool does help I imagine. Look forward to your next one!

Ben, you couldn't have uploaded this like 2 months ago before I had to do this in my kitchen reno?!? 😂 I didn't do everything the same as you, but fortunately got mine to turn out okay. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Love your videos, you're the man, BUT my ONLY issue is that you refer to "Quick Set" on every video I've seen of yours, but at Home Depot there are ZERO bags of mud with that word printed on the bag. IJS don't forget about us true beginners. We are hanging on your every word, and trying to use the exact same products you use, if possible. You also say "Hot Mud". What!?!? Lol. Please let us see your packages or tell us what to look for so we're not walking around the store aimlessly. Keep up the great work. You are the best I've found on KZfaq for drywall, plaster and mud, which is what I'm learning for my rental property remodels. Thank you!

Dude I was watching your Thunder truck reviews earlier today, and here you are answering my carpentry questions as well!

Your video on concrete fill you talked about structolite being the equivalent in the us. I tried it and it’s basically a plaster product. I’ve used it to fix lath and plaster and it works great to fill large area quickly

looks like I'm not the only one to have had this experience. our home has this exact build style and I could never find anyone who knew what I was talking about. I watched your videos over and over and it took me all summer but in the end I'm very happy with the way everything turned out. we live in northwest Ohio and the house was built in the 50s.

I have that in my 1943 house outside of Baltimore MD, someone told me it was called wallboard. The drywall 2'x8' are fixed to furring strips. The first coat (brown coat) seems to be cement based and will dull carbide very quickly. I have to use the blades made for bathroom cement boards to cut it. Iit looks very flat, but nothing is flat or square putting a level on a wall is scary, but it looks very good. These screws from GRK really helped me because you can move the new drywall in and out by screwing the center of the screw...GRK Fasteners Top Star Shim Screws

Thank you! I just bought a house with this style drywall! I am so glad I found your channel!!!

I am in the process of remodeling a mid-century house built with this technique. Solid as a rock.

YES!! My house in America had this type of drywall in the bathroom, then coated with plaster, with TIN painted tiles about one-half the height of the wall. The house was built in 1941 (pre-Pearl Harbor). And yes, I found the wire mesh in the corners as well when I demo'd the bathroom to remodel. To the best of my knowledge my entire house is finished this way as well. I am hesitant to even try patching the cracks, since traditionally you're supposed to make the cracks bigger to get the spackle in before either sanding or damp sponging the spackle. I"m no Vancouver Carpenter, so I try avoiding making things worse by trying to do too much for too little improvement. Love your work and your work ethic.

Can't paper tape over plaster. It needs to be mesh or FIBA fuse or it's ganna blister. Mud cannot penatrate cement so it forces all the moisture out through the tape

I had to watch this video again. I have been watching your channel for years. And have learned so much!!! So again thank you young man

Mine is 1870 but same old stuff lol just horsehair plaster. When u have big cracks that detach from the wall go to lee valley and get plaster washers they wrap around the drywall screw and sucj the plaster back into the lathe. Then fill cracks with durabond and skim Overton with 20. The cracks are actually gone for good

This is very timely for me. Thanks for the post.

Thank you for this video. That corner drywall looks exactly like mine. I never put up drywall or drywall mud before. I went to Home Depot and got the materials. I'm confident I'll do a good job. Thanks again. Excellent video.

we have 10,000 sf of plaster repair in our 1890s home and before tackling the project we are watching your videos.

Great timing. My daughter recently bought a house in eastern Ontario and has this gypsum board and lath throughout. Haven’t found any cracking and it still looks original to late 50’s or 60’s.

This video couldn't be more timely. I'm currently doing exactly this same thing in my 1946 kitchen. I had to rip out a section of the wall where the tile was stuck to the backsplash, so I have gaping holes in the wall that need to be brought flush with the existing plaster. The depth of the plaster is inconsistent, and to make matters worse, the studs are all different depths too. I had to take a new 2 x 4 and rip spacers to staple to the studs. In some cases I had to add up to 1" to the existing studs to bring the drywall up flush with the plaster. Thanks for the great video.

Amazing video and work. Keep up the amazing work Ben.

These are good videos, thanks for them!

A friend of mine bought my grandparents house,it was built in 1948 and has the same stuff,and it ranges from 7/8" to 1 1/4! Lots of fun.

I just bought a fire damaged house, how inferior new drywall is compared to what was originally existing it's so much thicker and substantial. That thick old drywall was the reason the fire didn't get to one stud in the fire room that stuff can hold back fire being so thick so I kept as much as the old drywall as I could in the house. I see why dry wall is put on much more simply and thinner now but happy to mostly have the older mid-century drywall in my house insulates better being thick and blocks out sound better as well. 👍 Appreciate the videos, my last flip house had crappy looking textured walls that I smooth the entire house out with coats of spackling and my new house has needed a lot of skim coats to get the surface prep for painting so you know I've been watching some of your videos and been going through lots of spackling I'm starting to feel professional at spackling at this point hah. I didn't finish college, never been in debt and just bought my house cash because learning to work/flip houses has been very rewarding it's always a benefit to know how to work in fixing and maintaining your house from roofing, drywall, electrical to Plumbing it pays to learn how to do your own work. Keep up the informative videos

The original rockcliff was only 16 in in height by about 4 ft. It was similar to regular drywall back in the day. However proper rocklath has chemicals in the paper on the surface of the board to help that plaster set, the reason why they have steel laugh is over the seams it's to prevent it from cracking, you also need to be sure to add a fibrous material into the plaster for the base coat, to prevent cracks from appearing. Best thing to do for fiber material is to go to either a dispensary and get the stocks cut down to quarter inch lengths, or take sisal rope and cut it the little quarter inch length and break it apart so it becomes a fibrous material.

Love your videos, I've learned a lot from you. I recently moved to Europe and the houses are older and all plaster with old style wood lathe. I'd be interested to see any future videos where you work on plaster instead of drywall (if you come across it).

Much of mine was cracking and sagging with stippled ceilings and sand swirled walls. I removed tons of this from my house and replaced it with roxul insulation and 1/2 drywall. Looks much better.

the inside of the Pyramids of Egypt were plastered, as was the outside (stucco) originally. Master trades would adorn the walls which were then carved and painted by skilled artists. Over time the desert has warn off or it degraded and fell off the exteriors. Plastering is nothing new, but applying it is a lost art.

glad you are back! Good guy I was not seeing your vids for a while

I've been obsessed with confil ever since I learned about it from you. I finally found an equivalent in the States - RapidSet OnePass. Honestly, I can't tell the difference between it and repair mortar (lol) but I've used it a lot now and it works well. It seems to shrink even less than hot mud, so it's nice for your larger blowouts. Be very careful about overfilling though, it's like sanding cast iron. I prefer to underfill with it and then skim it with something sandable later

My house was built by a spaniard in 1933 and has this plaster, it is heavily textured to give it a stucco swept look, archways for doorways, spiral pillars, very Mediterranean for New England. Has held up well, some settling cracks that are easy enough to repair thanks to your videos but I've found it hard to replicate the wavy texture in areas I've replaced with drywall

Keep doin what you doin 👍 just when u think there isn't more to learn, you always end up dropping a gem.💎

Regarding showing stuff you have shown before, keep doing it. There's no such thing as too much instruction, and even after all this time I am still perfectly happy watching you put on and wipe out tape

I found using durabond on plaster was the best form of hot mud. It sets like concrete but it’s very similar in texture

좋은영상 입니다! 늘 많은것을 배우고 있습니다.

Great video man, this was super usefull, really never thought to build out that much during prefill i always had to have way longer dry times then I would have liked. Man that is going to save some time!

❤ Thank you for sharing this video! IT HIT THE SPOT!

My 1938 house is exactly like this, thank you great video!

confill and slop bucket, my faves😎

I had the same situation in my house when we needed to cut a few holes in the wall for plumbing work and raking out a medicine cabinet. I ended up using scrap 2x4’s attaching them to the studs to fur out the mounting surface. Where the plumbing work was done the 2x4 was brought out to enough to bring the drywall to the face of the plaster. Where there was the medicine cabinet the 2x4s were brought out enough to mount 1/2” ply to and then gyp on top of that giving me the ability to mount mirrors to. There was variance in the depth so I ended up bring the drywall to the lowest point of the plaster and used hot mud to skim coat the wall after taping to bring the finish surface even with the surrounding surfaces.

Our house was built in 1952. It has plaster, but not on wooden lath, and not on rocklath. This is the only house I've ever seen it in 17 years of working in construction and renovation, but it's a 1/2" thick product, made of cardboard-like fibres, it came in 16"×8" sheets and had a shiplap edge on the long side, so the panels overlapped. It's held up perfectly. But the point of the comment originally was... it's thickness was all over the place due to very uneven framing, and to adapt to it I simply attached drywall as a backer and built up with sheetrock 90 to match the thickness, then Finished with drywall compound. It turned out seamless and has held up without shifting or cracking for several years now.

Insanely helpful. Thank you

Great video-you covered everything I wanted to see. Thanks for a very informative video !!!

I'm in Seattle we have 1 plaster yard. Mostly a stucco spot so interior veneer plaster is not something readily available. Unfortunately it's been like this for so long customers look for drywall contractors to fix plaster repairs. Been in the trade for 6 years now and have yet to meet a single plaster specialist. I like to do plaster work but it's cost prohibited here

Just in time! I had a similar wall ceiling corner of this stuff… looked around your videos to see if you had anything on this topic… but had to just wing it. Glad to see I didn’t mess it up too badly. Shimmed mine with the 1/4 in on top and just drove 2” screws through both pieces at once. Then precio with 20min mud… now going to tape. You use thinned out bucket mud (premixed all purpose) for taping, correct? Thanks for these videos… watching you breeze through these projects gave me confidence to try it myself.

Best video on this so far. Thank you! I can do this now

Yep…. I find the “looks like walls now” aspect of drywall work to be a relaxing escape from the noise and chaos outside

Rocklath is the proper name for the material you are patching. Rocklath came to being used at least as early as the late 30s, early 40s. I began my career as an apprentice plasterer in the early 50s, and it had been being used long before then. I came packaged in bundles, 6 pcs of 16”x48” pcs per bundle.

the work and final product are always just beautifully done

I haven't touched any of my house projects in a while because work got pretty busy...But after watching this video, I think I'm gonna do some skim-coating lol

Rock-Lath--16"x48"--made to be used on 16" on-center studs

great video - got this problem - mostly happens on ceilings - maybe just seeing it there more often

Thanks for doing this particular topic. I've watched that video you cut into quite a bit (very nostalgic voice-over) since I've been figured out how to repair some damaged plaster around one of the windows in my room. I wonder if it would be worth cutting it out and use new drywall or just scrape it, sand it, use some joint compound, sand again, paint and call it day. Anyway, great video, I'm sure I'll be referencing it in the future.

Man plaster guys gonna come after you for this one 😂

Thank you sir exactly what i was looking for.

Ever use plaster weld before repairs against plaster?

Finally I know what the fuck im dealing with. Thank you so much! My house was built in that period, I had no idea for the longest what I was looking at whenever I had to do a repair but I pretty much was doing this method. I took a chunk of it to the hardware store to see if they could tell me what exactly it was and got nothing. The funniest thing about these walls is trying to hang a picture frame with a nail and the nail just bends. Damn walls are tough as hell

Decent command of the tools, kid. 1/2 drywall on top of 1/4 drywall furring = 4/8 + 2/8 = 6/8 so with 7/8 nominal thickness of original plaster you will have 1/8 nominal to spare to fill and true up the plane. Of course that means sometimes it can be flush or protruding. I leave 1/8 to 1/4 inch gaps between the Rock Lath and drywall and make sure my plaster is stuffed in there. Lightly wetting the gyp core helps adhesion. It will not crack like that.

I wish I had seen this video before I did the exact same repair to my wall/ceiling. I had never worked with the gyp-board/plaster walls before and was confused as to how it went up. In some places I had to shim nearly a full inch (2.54 cm). It had been decades since I had to deal with plaster walls & had forgotten just how much material is involved. Must have been over 100lbs (45kg) of damaged, dusty plaster I had to remove.

Hoping to dry wall my walls in my home! We just purchased a home built in 1892 and the walls are cracking so bad... we'd like to drywall it!! Thanks for the video!!

Ha! So I was right in guessing what was in my house. I was really baffled when I looked down in the attic and saw the 16” panels. I watched your videos to tackle my first wall, but could have used this one to inspire the shimming idea. I used 5/8” Sheetrock and then had to gob layers of mud on to build up the difference in depth. If it doesn’t work out, I know how to correct it now 😂

Great timing... I am currently repairing a couple of spots on the rock lath ceiling in my 1959 garage... I am trying to decide how to recreate the rough texture... It is not orange peel or popcorn... It appears that the original plasterer troweled on a finishing coat and randomly brushed the surface with a stiff bristled brush.

Like others have commented here already I needed this video like a while ago 😂It went pretty much like you did except being in Ottawa I didn’t have the confil and used Durabond instead for the prefill.

Exactly the information I was looking for.

My home was built in 1927 and has plaster board. Didn't think it was around that early, but it was. I also have heavy metal lath in all the corners and joints, which is a real bear to deal with. No cracks though!

The dude at 1:20 is a total boss! I've seen him in other videos.

as a fellow tradesmen i appreciate your videos really helped me out on tapping and mudding (in the states union wise hanging and framing is different union than painting and tapping and i’m a framer and hanger) but is plaster still a thing up in canada because in at least midwest usa plaster is a dead art and most people here (mostly st. louis area) want plaster either gone or covered up with 1/2” to 5/8” drywall

I have a 1953 home with this construction. The big problem I have had to deal with is the top skim coat delaminating. Some of the repairs I used ready mix mud only to find it to completely delaminate a few years later. The latest room I used the powder mud and sealed the edges of the skim coat with watered down glue (thanks to one of your videos) . So far it seems to hold. I would love to see more on how to repair this era, especially matching up the texture. Mine seems to have a sand in it with light swirls. If anyone has any tips please respond. Thanks in advance.

I have actually done some repairs with lathe and hot mud. Hardest part is getting the lathe tight and the mud the right consistency.

He's also forgotten to use plaster bonding adhesive which will solidify the edges of that plaster keep it from flaking out, and the other problem he'll have if he doesn't use that, is it will dry out the plaster along the edges of his repair and he'll have to chip it out and try and what it down and fill in the crack that's now there because he failed to use bonding.

USGS jillmakes plasterboard 2ft by 8ft. Can have special setting compounds in it and it is a heavier board than standard drywall. Modern standard drywall is weaker in its construct as they whipped the materials into a lather in order to create the air bubbles in the material. And modern drywall is barely able to hold its own weight on the screws. Plaster is also more sound deadening, and it looks a whole lot nicer when you're through if you know how to do it properly.

This was great. Your technique of shimming with drywall and plywood are really awesome and then your technique for taping and mudding was also really helpful. The only thing I couldnt quite work out was if there was much texture on the original wall and if you will need to make the new texture match?

Never fail to find help with my exact drywall repair with Vancouver Carpenter.

These videos are great, but being from the UK and having recently learned to plaster i do find it kinda funny all the steps that tapers/drywallers use to avoid plastering which isnt actually all that hard and leaves a much stronger wall. Im not criticising in any way its just interesting that it differs so much over the pond.