If you’re an attentive reader (and I assume you are), you must have noticed that I skipped a part between taking down the wooden ceiling in our former kitchen and installing the insulation. You know, the part where things get really dusty, removing the old lath and plaster. Fear not, for I can make up for that now!
But first, some music that just popped into my mind when I came up with the title for this post (for those of you that prefer a little music while reading):
A couple of posts ago I wrote about the to-be-kitchen ceiling, and how we put insulation up there, as there’s only a flat roof separating our kitchen from the sky. When I ordered the insulation, I ordered more than I needed for only the kitchen though. I also calculated to do half of the ceiling in the storage. Why only half you might ask. Well, only half of our storage is also separated by said flat roof from the sky (the other half being under our bathroom).
The reason I didn’t write about the dusty stuff then is I didn’t take any pictures, and so I forgot. This time around, I did think of snapping some pictures, so let’s take a look at them first.
In progress…
… and all done!
As I’m a bit OCD, I developed my little own way of working. First I put my ladder next to the part I was going to tackle. Then I set my wheelbarrow beneath that part, essentially next to the ladder. With the setup ready, I took my heavy hammer and started knocking on the plaster from above, trying to separate it from the lath already. That way I made it tumble nice and easily into the wheelbarrow (or at least most of it). I then knocked down the lath with my trusty ol’ crowbar.
Now wash-rinse-repeat.
You’re now probably wondering “why would anyone go through that much trouble for getting it down, couldn’t you just burst it down magically somehow?”. Well, maybe I could. But then I still wouldn’t do it like that. I wanted to separate as much as possible, because the plaster I need to get rid of, the lath I wanted to keep. I also wanted to keep our new floor a little safer from the falling plaster (hence the wheelbarrow).
Just call me crazy.
So we ended up with a car full of plaster for the civic amenity site, and a pile of lath for whenever we want to start fire, or need a small piece of wood for anything.
That’s only a small part of the pile though.
What would you do different? Maybe you have an idea for the lath? Or you can just call me crazy in the comments below. Go ahead, just do it!