Patching and Plastering - framing a door into a plaster wall without leaving cracks

Hi all,

New owner of a 1910 colonial and it has a closet that runs the lenght of the room, but only a standard door at the end of the wall to access it, and then you have have to basically shuffle to the far end of the dark closet to get anything on that side of the closet

so I'd like to open up the door frame openning to allow mounting fold in style closet doors to allow easy access to the entire closet and bring in room light to the closet

my question is....can you cut into plaster walls and cut straight lines and not send stress cracks across the whole wall in the process

basically I guess I'm asking if when you cut plaster to frame in the new door frame, will the plaster react the same way that sheet rock would react, if you cut straight...you'll get a straight cut...and not leave a jagged crumbling mess in the process?

thanks for the help

Jim

cutting the plaster isn't the problem. Cutting the lath is. You could use a skill saw or grinder with a diamond blade. or you could score the plaster with a utility knife and break it away and then cut the lath seperate. Don't use a sawz all the cut through both. It will shake the lath and break the plaster.

Also make sure there is no wiring, plumbing or anything else in the wall cavity.

thanks for the ideas, the grinder with the diamond wheel sounds good, because it'd cut both at the same time, and i'll double check wiring and what not ahead of time

The skillsaw works well, cause you can set the depth of cut to just below the lathe and not have so much concern about cutting through wires, pipes, dead rodents :rolleyes: etc.

All this is good advice. I have nothing else to add about the cutting but this is going to raise a cloud of dust like you won't believe. Try to contain it the best you can to keep it out of the rest of the house. Seal the doors with tape and so on.

If the plaster is damaged which is possible if you have wood lath we can tell you how to repair it. Also try to cut next to studs. It will make framing in the new dor easier.