Removing Part of a Plaster Kitchen Wall

I started a new kitchen remodel this morning in Inglewood. In addition to new floor and backsplash tile, the homeowner wanted to widen the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room.

When I started, there was a recessed door there, however, it was built into a thin false wall on top of the old wall with plaster on the dining room side. The thin wall wasn't needed without the recessed door so I removed that and began working on the old plaster wall.

This is NOT a load-bearing wall. This is important to note because a load-bearing wall would be handled differently including some temporary supports and a larger header.

I took out all the blocking and door framing and was left with the studs covered with lath and plaster on one side. I really wanted to keep from damaging the plaster so I wouldn't have to add those repairs to my list. I did a pretty good job and wanted to share my process with you:

1. I had removed all the old paneling from the kitchen side of the wall back to where I wanted the new doorway to end. Then, before I removed the wall or any plaster, I went ahead and put in the king and trimmer studs where my new header would go.

TYPES OF STUDS... King Studs- go from the top to bottom plate; Trimmer Studs- support the headers; Cripple Studs- go from top of header to the top plate (the little guys :)

2. Now, for the plaster... The trimmer stud marks the rough opening of the doorway so I have a solid reference point. I made a pencil line to mark it and then used a chisel to cut the plaster along this line. Doing this will give me a nice edge and prevent large cracks in the plaster that will remain. As you can see in the picture, I started on the opposite side (at the old doorway) and pryed off chunks of plaster toward the line for the new doorway.

3. After cleaning off the plaster, I used my pneumatic stapler to fasten all the lath to the trimmer stud. This will help prevent them from wiggling as much as I cut them. My sabre saw worked well for cutting the lath along the trimmer stud. Again, having the stud there saves a ton of mess because without its support, the plaster would surely break and the lath would come loose.

4. Once the lath is cut it can be pulled off and discarded. Then you can move on to removing those studs. Cutting the cripple studs above the old header was the most difficult part to do without damaging the plaster.

I'll still have a little plaster to patch, but I think I won the plaster battle for today...

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com