Orlando, FL · Member since 2009 · 2k+ posts · 282 votes
I'm looking at a couple of houses built in the 50's that have plaster. I haven't been able to get inside the houses yet so I'm not sure what the condition of the plaster is.
If anyone here has bought one of these, did you leave the plaster alone, or replace it with drywall? Were the rental applicants turned off by the appearance of the plaster? If you do replace it, do you just go by the going rate of square foot materials/labor for drywall, or is there more to it than that? Thanks.
Bienes Raices, I haven't encountered plaster, but if I did,I would probably just patch it where needed. I don't believe the look of plaster will be a turn off. In fact, plaster is used sometimes in very high end homes. But if you were to replace it, I would make sure to use that time to insulate the house and take care of old pluming and possibly electical wires since it is probably a system lacking a ground wire being 1950's built,
When I visited my sister in Florida, I noticed most of the houses built in her area (New Smirna Beach) are cinder block construction. Was plaster applied directly to the face of cinderblock walls when it was in use? Is cinderblock construction common in your area?
Bienes Raices, I haven't encountered plaster, but if I did,I would probably just patch it where needed. I don't believe the look of plaster will be a turn off. In fact, plaster is used sometimes in very high end homes. But if you were to replace it, I would make sure to use that time to insulate the house and take care of old pluming and possibly electical wires since it is probably a system lacking a ground wire being 1950's built,
When I visited my sister in Florida, I noticed most of the houses built in her area (New Smirna Beach) are cinder block construction. Was plaster applied directly to the face of cinderblock walls when it was in use? Is cinderblock construction common in your area?
Bienes Raices, I haven't encountered plaster, but if I did,I would probably just patch it where needed. I don't believe the look of plaster will be a turn off. In fact, plaster is used sometimes in very high end homes. But if you were to replace it, I would make sure to use that time to insulate the house and take care of old pluming and possibly electical wires since it is probably a system lacking a ground wire being 1950's built,
When I visited my sister in Florida, I noticed most of the houses built in her area (New Smirna Beach) are cinder block construction. Was plaster applied directly to the face of cinderblock walls when it was in use? Is cinderblock construction common in your area?
Yes, concrete block is the norm here. Both of these houses are block.
Unless you need to do substantial work to the home, leave it alone. Patch it, repair it where needed, but I'd never absorb the expense of replacing or recovering plaster unless it had to be done.
We have plaster and lath up here and price/rent levels don't seem to influence those with plaster.
I would not put sheetrock over plaster directly over block unless you used unfaced sheetrock. You may have a condensation problem if there was a vapor barrier between the plaster and sheetrock. Check as to what is customary down there.
Ceilings will probably have lath and finding the joists in an attic, you can apply sheetrock over a ceiling. If you have high ceilings you might consider running furring strips under the joists and over the plaster and apply the rock to the strips. Often in an older building the ceilings will crack and just look bad and if you glue new rock over the plaster the additional weight will or can cause it to swag and get wavy or just fall off! Screw 1/2 inch rock up there into the joists and you won't have a problem, if there is not much settlement, and if so, use wood shims to level it out.
Don't forget all your trim will have to be redone and get extensions for your door jams as your walls will be thicker.
I'd probably stip the plaster from the walls use furring strips and add insulation board and then sheetrock it. Get rehab electrical boxes in to the new surface or get extensions for the old metal boxes.
Plastering is a lost art! It's hard enought to find rock & rollers to feather out joint compound much less a wall or ceiling. Fixing small cracks is not a big deal, gouge out the crack so the new holds and fill it in coats wipe it and sand and paint.
We had a renovation of an old theater early 20s work with scupltured plaster and relief work and gold leaf. The guy who did it was in Cali no one could be found to do the work! Very expensive, but he was an artist. I'm not too bad at it, but I wouldn't even try a whole wall....use sheetrock for larger areas....
PS didn't mean to answer a question if ya were asking Ed, just threw this out....
Thanks for the info @Bill Gulley. Up in Philadelphia there are tons of row homes with plaster. Some of it is flat out beautiful and would be awesome to keep but it's really tough to find guys to salvage it. But I'd definitely keep it if all possible. For one reason, it's really stinks demo-ing that stuff. Tough to demo efficiently and it takes up way more space in a dumpster than meets the eye. Good luck.
nothing looks worse than cracked, patched and rough plaster. Gutting to studs is often easiest,,,BUT sometimes is too damaging to design of house...Case in point, looking at my walls as typing, NICE old detailed woodwork including cove molding and extra plate rails. Just couldnt tear it all out so measured, cut carefully 3/8 rock and screwed tight, made poor walls look great, didnt remove any woodwork. If I would have you never get it back properly,,,so you end up buying all new style,,,which some houses need, some dont.
Replacing does get you access to insulation, wiring and plumbing which if needed,,,dont skimp. Problem is 3 pieces of rock off the wall triggers city inspections and permits ,,,which is another whole can of worms,,,which here will mandate a total gut redo top to bottom including ALL mechanical s incl. heat and air, roof an insulation nightmares if you have 4 inch exterior walls or low attic space, or finish in basement
The term "plaster" varies on where you are in the country. Here in New England, it could be old horsehair plaster over wood lathes (terrible) or high end plaster over blueboard. If it needs replacing in a rental, I see nothing wrong with sheetrock, its what I have in my own house! Being in FL, I assume its fairly recent and just needs patching if anything...
Just Don beat me to it. I bought block house last year and didnt pull a permit for the work. I needed to replace the lower half of sheet rock in the three bedrooms. Just as i was having it pulled off here comes the city. I had to rip all the sheet rock out, replace the insulation, frame exterior walls to bring insulation to code, replace electrical and so on. Just because I took some of the sheet rock out.
Thanks for the responses. What about when the tenants hang paintings with nails -- is it hard to cover up the holes? Does the plaster tend to crumble? Or can I use Roll a Tex for that?
The responses have been very helpful but I guess I didn't formulate my original question correctly....is it inevitable that I will have to get this stuff replaced with drywall at some point (if not right away)? These houses are not new--they were built in the '50s. It seems like the benefits of adding new insulation would accrue to the tenants through lower utility bills, not to me.
Bienes, energy efficient units rent for more than slum lord properties or inefficient ones. High utilities will drive a tennant away in my area.
The insulation and energy improvements are (hmmm? were maybe) deductable, utility companies give credits as well, state money may be available and you depreciate the improvements. So it can mean money in your pocket to do it right....
Half my rental portfolio has the type of "plaster" you are refering to. As others have already suggested this doesn't really make a difference when it comes to rent prices. What I have done is patched as needed and where is more substantial damage, I've just replaced "that section" with drywall.
The only time you'll run into an issue is if a tenant/contractor exposes the asbestos or lead in the building materials. Even then, you'll just have to replace/paint over the section that is exposed.
@Bill That makes sense. I have had some applicants tell me they called the utility company to find out the average electric bill before they came to see my house.
@Arthur thanks. These houses were built before '78 so lead paint is a potential issue.