Kitchen demo con't

Joel's crew demoed more walls in the kitchen today. With the appliances gone and soffits and cabinetry removed, we can see a lovely space unfolding. Like a raw loft, there is a simple beauty to the empty space, helped by the 11 foot ceilings. Most of all, I am thrilled that we are revealing a very well built house. Joel, our contractor, says that the thickness of the brick construction is unusual. There are three layers of brick. One to two is usually enough. After all the kitchen demo is done, we may have to revisit integrating some of the brick into the kitchen design. I didn't realize the house was going to have all this red brick under the lath and plaster. Wow.

A few words about lath and plaster (thanks Wikipedia!). Wood laths are the narrow strips of wood nailed horizontally across the wall studs. It was used in construction up until the 195os in the US and Canada. Post 1950, plasterboard was used. Each wall frame is covered in lath, tacked to the studs. The lath is typically about two inches wide by four feet long by 1/4 inch thick. Next, temporary lath guides are placed vertically to the wall, usually vertically at the studs. Plaster is then applied, typically using a wooden board as the application tool. The applier drags the board upward over the wall, forcing the plaster into the gaps between the lath and leaving a layer on the front the depth of the temporary guides. A helper feeds new plaster onto the board, as the plaster is applied in quantity. When the wall is fully covered, the vertical lath "guides" are removed, and their "slots" are filled in, leaving a fairly uniform undercoat. It is standard to apply a second layer in the same fashion, leaving about a half inch of rough, sandy plaster (called a brown coat). A smooth, white finish coat goes on last. After the plaster is completely dry, the walls are ready to be painted. Eventually (around 1950)the wood laths were replaced with "rock lath", which is a type of gypsum wall board.

What is really cool about lath and plaster is that it incorporated horse hair as a binder for the tradional lime based mortar. Interestingly, throughout our house we can see evidence of the horse hair fibers. Lath and plaster construction was a labor intensive process, but it was clearly a durable method of construction as evidenced by the walls that were revealed today at 1109 Pine.