Inse

Take off the old drywall, add 2x2s and re-insulate with R 22 or R24 batts.
Get the air/vapour barrier sealed correctly to the electrical sockets and switches, and Bob's your uncle. Warmer and more efficient from several angles.

caretaker

I'm surprised they haven't improved on that. A more expensive option is polyurethane rigid foam but you can achieve r-28 in a 2x4 wall. At least it's made in the right size. They say recoups the expense on a few years but I suspect that may mean vs no insulation at all.

Flossie and Jim

He'd tear the house down, build everything with that pink wood then spray foam the hell out of everything, finishing off with several tubs of caulking

Flossie and Jim

Leaning towards the rip out and replace option, but because its the wall adjoining the garage, it kind of scares me as we will then have to insulate, seal, blah,blah, blah. And yes, we do have aluminium wiring and don't want to touch that at all!

Give me a nice bricks and mortar construction with a bit of plastering and I'm ok but when its all wood and drywall and plastic sheeting and sticky tape I'm a little more out of my comfort zone!

jimf

I had this issue with a couple of rooms in the house (1960s). One of the bedrooms had one wall with rough sawn wooden panelling. I took this off and was left with plasterboard where the glue was either still stuck on or had pulled off the paper when it stayed on the timber. I tried scraping the glue off the plasterboard but this tore the paper lining off and was fiddly to repair. Then I tried sanding the glue off the plasterboard. This worked quite well and I used some stain block paint and then emulsion paint (is that acrylic here?) and it looked quite reasonable when finished.

The next area was the basement where they had put in some really crude wood panelling. Taking in account the time spent to repair the bedroom wall and other issues with the basement I just removed all the drywall which I'm sure was the best approach.

6 months later it is now apparent that the stain block paint on the bedroom wall isn't effective enough and the outline of the dark glue is visible. I think I will try a better stainblock paint and if that doesn't work just add a second layer of 6mm plasterboard.

dbd33

We extended our previous house. That entailed hanging, taping and mudding 90 sheets of drywall which we fetched from Buffalo. At the end of that we were, and are, pretty good at this game. We recently replaced about half of the drywall in the bathroom here.

What I'd do is, rip out the old drywall, hang new sheets. Find a professional drywaller who wants some extra cash and pay him or her to finish it. For the money involved the dust and effort just isn't worthwhile, a skilled worker won't make so much dust and watching is more restful than sanding. It'll take you weeks, a skilled worker days.

Tinpusher63

caretaker

Or you could buy a roll of poly and a hod and trowel and about 10 bags of plaster and just plaster the granny out of it, as much like home as you want. I've seen a plasterer do it, mix a garbage can full and go like mad. Comfort zone? Hah!

MegSnow

I got a nice guy to come in and patch ours where DS had punched the wall in frustration of his PS4 game (oh how I wished we were in England at that time so he could have punched the brick wall and learnt not to do it). He was very reasonable and did a good job. PM me if you want his number.

tee1

Yes Yes Yes!!! Your 1970s home is 99% certain to have asbestos in the drywall. Well its in the mud and tape. The amount of ppl including a bunch on here it seems just rip drywall out without a second thought for testing for asbestos. Just this week I refused to rip drywall out at work as it had not been tested.

Tinpusher63

The difficulty with that solution I've already pointed out, is you then have to move the electrical outlets and switches forward to be flush with the new drywall. This is not that easy to do with wiring that is already stapled in place. Also I believe the OP's home has aluminum wiring which probably is not a good idea to move.

To those concerned with asbestos, a little research will reveal that asbestos is likely to be in only the joint compound and that would amount to 0.2 or 0.3 percent of the total amount to be removed (drywall plus compound).

Pulaski

In my experience there is usually 6"-8" (15cm-20cm) of "spare" wire coiled up inside the back box, such that the box could easily be moved forward by 2" (5cm) without having to remove staples and move the wire.

jimf

Drywall is fairly cheap isn't it? How much cheaper in the USA is it out of interest?

I notice that it seems to be common practice here to install the drywall with the long edge of the boards horizontal which to me has the disadvantage of leaving an unsupported board edge at just the height where it is most likely to be leaned on and crack in spite of being taped. My preference, and what I've seen in the UK generally, is to place the boards with the long edge vertical and lined up on the vertical studs so that as long as the ceiling is no higher than 8 feet there shouldn't be any unsupported board edges.

As you suggest I wouldn't attempt to do the finishing plaster skimming.

Pulaski

I have never seen a wall cracked at the unsupported seam 4ft off the ground. Drywall is commonly available in 12ft lengths, meaning that when installed horizontally, there are very few vertical seams in most houses. I suspect that tying together the studs horizontally increases the rigidity of the house's framing, especially if using 12ft lengths.

Tinpusher63

That "spare wire" as you call it, is there for a purpose. It is not there so you can relocate the box.

If you read the "Simplified Wiring Code" available at most DIY stores it'll explain why.