Pulaski

I was guessing "herbs".

lizzyq

Today I scored a couple of $25 dwarf buddleias for $5 each to go with the four $7 lavenders marked down to $1 apiece that I got a few days earlier. The frosty weather we had a week or so ago has played havoc with the plant stocks at the local DIY stores (and the busy lizzies and marigolds I had planted too early). So now that the weather looks less risky I have replaced the ones I lost to the cold and added a few more, I love the reduced racks at Lowe's and have populated my garden on the cheap from there for the last few years. Not everything survives but that is usually down to our mostly very shady growing conditions and cold winters rather than the quality of the plants. In gardening you never succeed all the time, but as long as I succeed more than half the time at less than half the price I am happy! Time will tell on today's plantings.

Bob

Definitely hops.

Out in Harvard, someone bought a farm as he fancied giving it a go, spent a fortune renovation all the buildings, re-did loads of trees in the orchard but after a couple years found it too much work and not so fun, so he donated it to the town to grow things for the community pantry. They had loads of hops growing, but those were proving too much hassle for the volunteers to pick and do anything with, so they removed them last summer and let folks take the vines away so I got a bunch.

It's a neat little farm. They were planting blueberries in the space where the hops were.

Pulaski

My new work-from-home office chair arrived this afternoon (the leg of the old one had collapsed after many years of service), in a box from Amazon and I figued it would take me about half an hour to put it together, so I decided to wait until this evening to assemble it.

A few minutes ago Little Miss P arrived in the office doorway with the chair completely assembled and ready to sit on. Good job Little Miss P!

Maste

Alright guys, I have a question!

I started working on the closet in the guest room, and when scraping off the paint, some of the drywall crumbled and came away too. Therefore, in the closet are a bunch of holes. Also, they did a bad job of jointing the corners, so I also scraped and chipped those out so I can redo them.

What is the best way to approach fixing the holes? Should I spackling paste, or should I use a drywall compound? And why? I'm learning here as I've never came across this problem so would love to hear your advice and reasons!

Also, what's the best way to approach the corners? There is now a half inch either side of the corner gap. Should I use the same material as above? And should I be using joint tape on these corners? Would I fill the gap a little first then use the tape if so, then put more on? Thanks!

Pulaski

I use jointing compound, because it comes in a big tub and that is what the pros use. That said I am surprised that the drywall crumbled, the only time that I have seen that is when the wall has been hit hard and the gypsum core has shattered. ..... In fact the paper layer that covers dry wall is pretty tough so I am not sure how you would come into contact with a crumbly gypsum core. It makes me wonder if the drywall was damaged previously and the paper has been peeled off?

So the drywall boards don't meet at the corner? If you don't want to strip off the old board and hang new, then yes, applying tape would be a way to solve the problem. I would recommend that you invest in a corner trowel as trying to get an internal corner looking even halfway decent, is the devil's own job IME.

Jerseygirl

Good job indeed!!

My daughter is the same. She loves assembling stuff. Takes after her dad.

Maste

Cheers, I'll look at that and get watching some videos! I'm assuming it's pretty straight forward to use/do? Yeah, it was odd. I started scraping away some of the flaking paint, and some parts just crumbled away. I had never seen that happen but the house is old, and the previous owners did a lot of botch work on the house so it also was not a surprise that it happened. Thanks, I'll make sure to grab a corner trowel too!

tom169

Could the crumbling be caused by moisture?

Pulaski

Yes, if it has been wet in the past, that can seriously degrade the gypsum layer, but I still wonder what happened to the paper layer as I am not familiar with drywall "crumbling" without something having already removed or damaged the paper covering.

Given what Maste is describing, I would lean towards removing the drywall and replacing it with new, or for a quicker, easier fix putting a layer of ¼" drywall on top of the existing wall.

chawkins99

So, how old is old?

Lath & plaster?

Nutek

Agreed. (The 1/4 inch drywall is a great, quick-fix item).

Lion in Winter

How old is Little Miss P now? And when is she opening her own home repair business?

The Little Lion declared that he was going to rewire the basement when he was 4, but fortunately he never got round to it.

Pulaski

I was wondering that too, and that can certainly crumble, but I am not sure about the corner gap though.

I have removed some lath and plaster - it is a messy business. I removed and replaced the kitchen ceiling of our home in London, which was badly damaged and a repair had been attempted using cement! And then had been concealed behind an amateurish dropped ceiling. I have also experienced a kitchen ceiling collapse after it separated from the laths. It formed a blister which grew over time (it wasn't my house - I was sharing with a couple of friends, one of whom was the owner) but I came home and found the bulge noticeably larger than it had been that morning. I moved the kitchen table out of the way, cleared the counters, and gingering removed the florescent tubes. Some time in the night, the plaster came down.

Maste

Pulaski, my bad. Having read chawkins response, it turns out it is lath and plaster!

Chawkins, a quick google actually reveals it is indeed lath & plaster. On closer inspection, I can see some of the slats behind that appeared to be used for lath & plaster jobs. I see it wasn't used since the 50's in the USA, so I guess that closet is that old! (Our house is over a 100 years old now).