# Joining drywall and plaster



## pete1972 (Oct 27, 2006)

I purchased an older home recently with plaster interior walls. Throughout the house the plaster is in _excellent_ shape. Sometime in the 1970's an exterior wall was removed from the kitchen and a den was added, creating an open floor plan between the existing kitchen and new den. The homeowner opted to use cheap fake wood paneling in the den and a panelled ceiling material. I plan on removing the paneling in favor of drywall, and would like to know if it's feasible/practical to run the new drywall right up to the plaster walls. Does anyone know of any problems created by doing this, particularly joints failing between the plaster and drywall? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## dougrus (Sep 16, 2006)

My house also has plaster walls. I had to join some areas when we put triple casments in the bedrooms.
1. Height was an issue. I had to "shim out" or "furr out" the drywall to get the same thickness to the plaster walls. I think I used 1x's and 3/8" drywall and that got it about right...
2. For taping I used compound that you mix with water. It sets harder I believe and you can recoat in the same day. Took me a few coats If I remember.
3. I had to do some good sanding, priming and painting to get them to blend.

All in all, it wasnt too bad. Obviously more work then just taping two drywall sheets, but ok...


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## AtlanticWBConst. (May 12, 2006)

pete1972 said:


> I purchased an older home recently with plaster interior walls. Throughout the house the plaster is in _excellent_ shape. Sometime in the 1970's an exterior wall was removed from the kitchen and a den was added, creating an open floor plan between the existing kitchen and new den. The homeowner opted to use cheap fake wood paneling in the den and a panelled ceiling material. I plan on removing the paneling in favor of drywall, and would like to know if it's feasible/practical to run the new drywall right up to the plaster walls. Does anyone know of any problems created by doing this, particularly joints failing between the plaster and drywall? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


No, you will have zero problems...as long as you tape it properly...
Treat the plaster surfaces just as if you were taping up to drywall...


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## troubleseeker (Sep 25, 2006)

You should have no problems. We tape plaster /drywall connections pretty frequently in renovations. I personally prefer mesh tape for this connection, but have no real facts to back it up. just my feeling that the mesh will give a little more before tearing than paper. You will need to shim out to get the faces flush, as previously posted, and possibly totally skim the entire plaster wall so that the texture on the old and new will be even. When ready to paint, prime everything with an oil based primer/sealer such as Kilz, and then paint as usual.


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## clasact (Oct 21, 2006)

Hi Pete I ran into the same problem only with a twist I have differant thicknesses of plaster in differant areas. One window or wall maybe one thickness and another maybe something else.It took some doing as far as shimming the drywall,mudding and sanding to get it to blend right( since we are useing a dark coler for painting it had to be just so or it would show real bad) but it has turned out pretty good


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## pete1972 (Oct 27, 2006)

Some great advice and reassurance in these posts. Many, many thanks to all.


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