Expert: Bruce E. Johnson - 10/25/2008

Question
Bruce,
My kitchen was plastered and painted over horsehair. Now all the paint and plaster is peeling off. I started scraping the walls in preparation to re-skim the walls. However, it's a real project. Is there an easy way to remove the old paint and plaster?

Thanks, Dan

Answer
Hi Dan, there are a couple of ways to remove the suface scale on old plaster but it seems like you are trying to remove the entire coat of plaster?  If you are skim coating then you really only need to remove the flaky stuff.  I like to use a sand blaster  for simple jobs like this.  Home Depot has a cheap one ($25-30)  if you have an air compressor this is the way to go.  I use playground sand (sold in bags at Home Depot) put the sand in a bucket and stick the sand intake tube from the sand blaster in the bucket of sand, hook up air to the air intake part of the gun handle and spray away.  The sand quickly removes any paint or other loose material.  Be sure to cover anything that may be damaged by bouncing sand particles, wear goggles, long sleeve shirt and gloves and a filter mask.

A wire brush is another alternative or a wire brush attachment for a drill or grinder.  Same goes for belt sanders and palm sanders.   
They can be used to prep surfaces with a heavy grit sandpaper #80 or #60.

Instead of removing the old plaster you might consider covering it with a 3/8" or 1/2" drywall.  This eliminates the work of removing the plaster and gives you a nice smooth drywall surface to finish properly.  Note: Even if you get the old plaster prepared properly you still need to skim coat over it and this is a daunting task in itself to do it right even for a skilled plasterer.

I hope this infomation helps feel free to write again regarding this or other matters, sincerely bruce e johnson..bejohnsonconsulting.com