Lath and plaster
Working this week on and property in leeds, I thought I would add a little bit about lath and plaster.
Lath and plaster is a building process used to finish mainly interior walls and ceilings in Canada and the United States until the late 1950s. After the 1950s, drywall began to replace the lath and plaster process in the United States.
In the United Kingdom and its colonies, lath and plaster was often used for interior partition walls and the construction of ceilings, before the introduction of plasterboard in the 1930s.[1] In the U.K., riven or split hardwood laths were often used of random lengths and sizes. Splitting the timber, as opposed to sawing in straight lines, followed the grain of the timber which greatly improved strength and durability. Also, reed mat was used as a lath. The technique derives historically from the earlier, more primitive, wattle and daub.
Photos of a ceiling we have just completed in leeds city centre are now on the website. Due to a water damage from the leaking roof the ceiling was damaged and not safe. Instructed by the client to keep as much distruption and mess down to a minium the decision was made to plasterboard over the existing lath and plaster. All the loose plaster was removed and the lath and plaster was then allowed to dry out and checked for further leaks. The job was then completed using scaffolding towers due to the working height on this building.
