Weird drywall in old garage

[Loonies]

Anyone ever seen anything like this?

I just cut out a piece of the finished ceiling in my garage (house was built in 1965) to install an attic ladder and this stuff is weird....my 63 year old dad says he's never seen anything like it.

It looks like someone cemented/epoxied drywall to existing drywall at some point...the small section I cut out weighs a ton (the 30" x15" section weighs like 50 pounds)

Now I'm actually kind of reluctant about storing a bunch of stuff up in the ceiling because I definitely don't want the entire ceiling to collapse on my head one day.

 

[cdestuck]

I do believe what you have there is a plastered ceiling.

 

[Kevin54]

Ditto on the plastered ceiling. Back at that time, they would put a coat of plaster over blue-board, or basically a sort of drywall.

 

[T_R]

Sure looks like plaster over blueboard to me.

 

[PugetDude]

Plaster over perforated blueboard. The perforations were a holdover from the lath and plaster days.

 

[Kensgarage]

Have a read.
http://inspectapedia.com/interiors/Plaster_Ceilings.htm

 

[tcianci]

What you have there is called a rock lath and plaster job. The guys are right, this is an interim type of plaster backer between wood lath and plaster and modern blueboard and plaster. The lath was furnished in bundles, each piece was 16 x 48 inches. Each bundle covered 32 square feet, just like a 4 x 8 sheet. The lath was installed in a brick like pattern with blued nails. The material was 3/8 inch thick. Once the lath was installed, it was coated with a brown/gray gypsum plaster. Once that plaster dried, it was coated with a white hydrated lime finish coat. The nominal thickness of the job was 3/4" there were small 3/4 x 3/4 strips of wood nailed to the framing of the building around every rough opening and along the floor. These were called plaster grounds and were used to gauge the thickness of the plaster job so that the job stayed flush with jambs of windows and doors.
Your ceiling looks to have been sand finished. In the case of sand finishes, the hydrated finish lime was mixed with white silica sand and troweled onto the gypsum plaster with a sponge float while the gypsum plaster was still wet.

It's pretty much a lost art now but it made for some very solid, quiet buildings.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Now that you know what it is and have a section cut out, what are your plans now ?

 

[KCarGuy]

Yep...
My Entire house is done with that.
Corners all have wire Mesh too.

And Yes, it Heavy as Hell. Strong though

 

[CNGsaves]

Now you know WHY you had such a warm garage in the winter !!

What is your ceiling and roof RAFTERS look like for construction strength?? Are they 2x4's . . 2x6's . . or bigger ?? Do you have collar ties at the top of each??

Be sure you devise an INSULATED cover for the opening you cut for attic access.

 

[pstnbly]

Ditto-Rock lath

 

[Stuart in MN]

Also sometimes called button board.

 

[The Cobbler]

commonly called plaster scratch coat in my area

 

[zoomzoomjeff]

Exact same stuff in my house. As a matter of fact, I took some out today and yeah, 3 trash can loads weighed a TON. I have that, plus conventional drywall over the top of that. I can't imagine how much load is bearing on the studs.

 

[readhead]

In California we called it button board and as mentioned it was the transition between wood lath and drywall. When I was doing remodel jobs it was very common to find all the drops in the stud bays so the lathers didn't have to haul it off the job.

 

[dreasoner]

I have seen a very similar approach in mid 50's houses that used electric cable heating in the ceilings. The cable ran between the 2 layers. Similar to radiant heat but in the ceiling.

 

[gregtwojeeps]

Yep, have it in my 1959 model home and it has plaster wire mesh inside corners also. Heavy stuff, but it lasts for years and years ..

 

[tehach]

Back in the day I worked in the plastering trade and did a lot of interior work exactly as depicted in the picture. That's clearly a plastered lid. We used to call it hardwall, it weigh a lot, and was a lot of work to get it on the walls straight. Its counterpart in showers and wet spaces was even more dense.

 

[gregtwojeeps]

And then we wonder why these old houses that have these really heavy plaster jobs done and even the really old wood lathe strip plaster jobs..... have a lot of the interior doors/jambs that sit parallel with the floor joists sag and bind with time....

Unless the carpenters back then had a good mindset of framing and blocked in under the doors between the joists. If they did not block under the doors, all that is holding up these heavy doors /walls ... is the 1"x10" x 3/4 " sub floors.

The carpenters that built my house in 1959 did not block the joists under the parallel walls, so I have a problem with the interior doors sagging/binding and the header plaster cracking around them.

 

[PelicanPines]

And then we wonder why these old houses that have these really heavy plaster jobs done and even the really old wood lathe strip plaster jobs..... have a lot of the interior doors/jambs that sit parallel with the floor joists sag and bind with time....

Unless the carpenters back then had a good mindset of framing and blocked in under the doors between the joists. If they did not block under the doors, all that is holding up these heavy doors /walls ... is the 1"x10" x 3/4 " sub floors.

The carpenters that built my house in 1959 did not block the joists under the parallel walls, so I have a problem with the interior doors sagging/binding and the header plaster cracking around them.

Son of a ... that's whats happening. Thanks for the insight into why only the parallel doorways have that crack. I have seen this my whole life and never realized why.

 

[gregtwojeeps]

Son of a ... that's whats happening. Thanks for the insight into why only the parallel doorways have that crack. I have seen this my whole life and never realized why.

Don't lose any sleep over it Pelican, its called having, "character in this old house".

 

[rick carpenter]

Loonies, if you want to store stuff in the attic but are nervous about the weight already there in the ceiling, do you have room in the garage to consider some steel pillars and a beam running front to back? You could hang some cabinets off the beam for a little more storage but it might negatively affect the lighting some.

 

[dutchgray]

And then we wonder why these old houses that have these really heavy plaster jobs done and even the really old wood lathe strip plaster jobs..... have a lot of the interior doors/jambs that sit parallel with the floor joists sag and bind with time....

Unless the carpenters back then had a good mindset of framing and blocked in under the doors between the joists. If they did not block under the doors, all that is holding up these heavy doors /walls ... is the 1"x10" x 3/4 " sub floors.

The carpenters that built my house in 1959 did not block the joists under the parallel walls, so I have a problem with the interior doors sagging/binding and the header plaster cracking around them.

You think that's bad, over here in the 70's they were building 2 1/2 masonry walls in upstairs rooms strait on the floor boards, they sagged alot.
We still plaster our drywall over here its standard practice in residential construction, commercial would be taped and filled though.

 

[Alan Douglas]

When I had an addition put on in 1983 as a library I asked for and got plaster over blueboard instead of drywall. It still looks like the day they finished, not a crack anywhere.

 

[Loonies]

Thanks all for the quick responses. I definitely learned something about plaster reading all that...cool stuff

Now that you know what it is and have a section cut out, what are your plans now ?

Attic ladder is installed. I just have to finish the trim and cover the long ~6" gap on the side of the ladder door. I think for now I'll just cover the gap with some plywood and paint it all white. It will do the job for now.

Now you know WHY you had such a warm garage in the winter !!

What is your ceiling and roof RAFTERS look like for construction strength?? Are they 2x4's . . 2x6's . . or bigger ?? Do you have collar ties at the top of each??

Be sure you devise an INSULATED cover for the opening you cut for attic access.

Good call on the insulation. I will have to try and insulate what I cut out.

The rafters are 2 x 6"s...the ceiling joists are 2 x 8"...no collar ties, probably since the highest point of the attic is only 3.5 feet...I'm probably overthinking the whole overloading thing. There really isn't that much space up there....I'm sure whatever I put up there will be fine

Interesting side note though, while i was up there removing some garbage one of the previous owners left up there (bunch of old wooden boards, old broken snow shovels, an old tire, bunch of old styrofoam packing material) I found a few old (1969) baseball cards half-buried in the insulation...it makes me wonder how they got there and if there is any more cool stuff hidden around the house somewhere.

 

[ratdoggy]

Plaster over perforated blueboard. The perforations were a holdover from the lath and plaster days.

My old house was completely like that (built in 1949)....The good old days
That house was quiet. In my new house (2009) I can hear a mouse fart from 100 yards away

 

[Kensgarage]

The Zachary and the Hoerner will pay for 1/2 roll of drywall tape.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1970-Topps-...476137?hash=item51da84a169:g:p18AAOSwVFlT7fsH

 

[Kensgarage]

Maybe a fifth for the Twins team card ?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1966-Topps-...841144?hash=item3d066d72b8:g:NgIAAOSw~bFWJB6k

 

[Norcal]

Some late 1950's homes here had 1/2" button board w/ another 1/2" of plaster, during a remodel they patched the walls w/ a double layer of 1/2" drywall & finished it like drywall, but doubt there are many people that can do plaster around here.