Walls and Ceilings - Backing-up plaster repairs

howdy all,

We recently purchased a 1960's Cape with plaster walls, and we've been doing some electrical upgrades (adding and removing receptacle boxes here and there).
I'm wondering how to patch a hole that would have held a receptacle or switch box. In some areas, I can access the backside of the plasterboard via a crawlspace, in other locations, not.
Can I cut a small piece of plasterboard, attach a screw to it, manuever it through the hole, apply liquid nails, and use screw to hold it in place, and then fill with plaster?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

wingnut

That ought to work.

by plasterboard, you're talking about drywall right?

Get yourself a small piece of plywood, osb, 1"x2", whatever. It only needs to be say 5" to 6" long. Place it through the hole and place it so both ends overhang the hole by at least 2". Now while holding it in place, run a screw, (do not try to nail, this will break out the hole even more), run a screw on either side of the hole into the board. Once you have it secured, you just need to cut a piece of drywall to fit the repair, place it in the hole, and again use screws to secure it. Now just mud & tape over it and you're ready to repaint.

I've also used this technique to patch hole in plaster & lath walls.

Hope that helps you out.

thanks for the replies.

awesome,

its some sort of board material, 3/8" thick or so, but with a coating of plaster (around 1/2" thick) for the finish.

I thought the idea behind "drywall" was that only the joints and screws were to be filled with compound.
And if you were going to apply a skim coat finish, some other kind of board was to be used?

so, I'm not sure if I have "drywall" or something else.

I've also heard of some kind of primer that is applied to "drywall" that allows a plaster skim coat to be applied, but I doubt they had such a thing in the early 60's.

Not sure, but your suggestions will work just the same.

Sounds as if you have the same kind of wall that I have. Plaster over gyprock. Mine is 1.25 inches thick total. The gyprock was used in place of lath.

I would still go with the suggestions for the repair.

Here's a link to all you ever wanted to know about plaster.

http://www2.cr.nps.gov/tps/briefs/brief21.htm

Good luck.

thanks for the link chfite, it'll come in handy.

Gyprock, is that like gypsum board I guess?

Bingo,

follow what I told you & the repair will stick. What you got is gyprock, the ancestor of drywall. Probablly nailed every 4", with a double nail, thankfully some smart man invented a screwgun!;) Good luck & let us know how things go.