Period lath substitute

[noj]

Just a thought - I've got a couple of smallish holes (around 40cm x 30cm each) at the bottom of a couple of lath and plaster panels (where the lovely PO had dispensed with any lath and filled these bits with long screws and nails supporting slabs of cement) and a patch on a wall that's just thick lining parer bridging another hole that all need filling.

I've got a bag of lime/hemp and some lime putty finish plaster but no laths - I was wondering if I bought and dismantled one of those garden expandable trellis panel thingies it'd make a suitable source of lath as a much cheaper solution to paying delivery on such a small quantity of 'real' plastering lath or a single woodwool board?

Reasonable idea, or penny pinching that I'll regret later...?

Thanks

 

[plasticpigeon]

Better still, I'm sure you could find a busted fence panel and chop that up into strips!

 

[malcolm]

Fencing stuff tends to be made from freshly cut wood. Shrinking green wood might not provide such a good long term bond with the plaster. I gather laths are supplied dry.

Though I would penny pinch if people are charging money for lath. I've only ever recycled 100 year old lath and haven't needed to buy any.

 

[Zebra]

Having plastered a whole ceiling using hemp on lath, the only tip I'd give is make sure that the laths aren't too bendy. If they are, then as you go over the area with your trowel, the whole thing flexes and breaks off the nibs on the back, and it all falls on the floor.
Improvised lath sounds fine. Not very aesthetic but it would work. An honest repair. Garden trellis? Why not.

 

[88v8]

Expamet?
Chicken wire?
Last year's cob or elder thinnings?

Ivor

 

[TheForge]

Riven laths are only a few pence pet foot (http://www.jjsharpe.co.uk/prices.html) but reed matting (http://www.molevalleyfarmers.com/mvf/store/products/gardman-reed-screen works well as a substitute and there's minimal shrinkage as the reed doesn't suck moisture from the mix. It's available at any DIY shed but you'll end up buying a lot more than you'll need for your repair and paying more than you probably would on laths.

 

[MatthewC]

I've got some split oak lath left from four years ago which you can have for the postage cost - if I cut it into 40cm bits (poss qty 15 or 20?) it wouldn't cost too much to post to you. Or else collect from up the M40. PM me.

Matthew

 

[noj]

Thanks for the responses...

MatthewC - I may take you up on your kind offer, will measure up properly at the weekend and figure out my approach.

I do have an old fence panel in the garden (that certainly isn't green - apart from the algae on it) that I'll look closer at using. And I've got a lot of hazel knocking around from one I coppiced in the spring but I'm guessing that needed to be riven when it was green.

A second question - the lath will need to be plastered on both sides - do I do both at the same time or wait for one side to cure before doing the other?

 

[Zebra]

How do you mean, plastered on both sides? You've confused me, for one.
The usual construction is two sets of laths, one either side of the studwork, making a wall with a hollow void in. Is that what you mean? If so, it doesn't matter which side you do first, and whether one is dry before doing the other.
If you mean you're going to try to plaster both sides of the same layer of lath, then I've never seen this and don't think it would work.

 

[MatthewC]

How do you mean, plastered on both sides? You've confused me, for one.
The usual construction is two sets of laths, one either side of the studwork, making a wall with a hollow void in. Is that what you mean? If so, it doesn't matter which side you do first, and whether one is dry before doing the other.
If you mean you're going to try to plaster both sides of the same layer of lath, then I've never seen this and don't think it would work.

However, we plastered both sides of a stud wall on successive days (in winter 2010/11 in a cold house) and the scratch coat took ages to go off. Obviously we locked a load of dampness inside the wall... If I was doing that again I would certainly let one side go off for a few days before doing the other side, if that's feasible.

 

[Zebra]

Oh I seeeeee.......

 

[noj]

Well I made my own laths in the end, inefficiently splitting hazel with a hand axe (made plenty of kindling too)

And the wall in question has only ever - so far as I can see - had lath on one side of the studs and where original plaster remains it is on both sides of the lath. This gives a flat wall on the lean-to kitchen side and plaster infill between the studs on the dining room side.

Will try and put some pictures up later - it's a real mix though. Above the sole plate two panels are half brick infill and half lath, one's chipboard (probably a doorway originally), one's entirely brick and the remaining three are just the single lath, double plastered. Most of the flat side has had an additional layer of plasterboard nailed over it with nails so long they punched through what's left of the original plaster on the stud side where it was just the plaster, which was only revealed when I removed multiple layers of lining paper, bitumen backed paper and paint.

Every little repair shows up an amazing evolution (and takes forever).

 

[noj]

lath plastered both sides

view from the front

view from the back (where a little bit of plaster is hanging on) - the rest of the wall on this side has plasterboard nailed over the original plaster

Another pic

Here's the makeup - think the chipboard covers an earlier doorway but there's a newish sole plate and brick/cement plinth that now runs the length of the wall. It's all been painted black, but that's being steadily kling-stripped away. Need to strip the of it before I can fill the hole.

Lovely to see the wood - it's still drying out and will get lighter

 

[skier-hughes]

Ours is similar, but we have a groove down the stud centre and the lath fits tightly into this and we plaster both sides.

 

[Zebra]

So, I'm curious, do you do both sides at the same time? Or let one dry off first before applying the second? Would you use haired base coat plaster for the second side, or just the first?

 

[noj]

That was my quandary...

My logic suggests it's probably better to do both at once and let it all stick together rather than risk breaking off the nibs that poke through once one side has started to carbonate. But then there's a really thick, double layer to cure?

Looking at what's there, it appears to be heavily haired on both sides, but three coat one side and a thinner two coat on the other

 

[skier-hughes]

Our plasterer's did both sides on the same day, it sticks together better. If you use a thin enough coat on each side it's not going to be that thick.
They used haired base coat both sides