Oops.
So, I’m doing the final mud coat to the removed second entry door of the Secret Bedroom in the carriage house. To assure that my mudding is near perfect, I plugged in a 1,000W work light.
Oh. My. While my mudding did, indeed, look pretty good, the other walls in the room suddenly looked a fright! My eyes bugged out!
I have never seen the room brightly lighted. It is normally dark as its two windows are shrouded by trees, and only a single dim lightbulb hangs from the ceiling.
To the left of the area I was working on, on the north wall, there was a highly curious condition. The lower 5-feet of the wall clearly protruded out, culminating in a bulbous carbuncle sticking out about 1-1/2-inches.
Huh?
The wall looked a little bit pregnant.
It felt solid, so what was causing the protrusion?
Chiseling into the carbuncle I found this. WTF? Why is there a dressed block of wood hidden under the plaster and later mud? I think, think, it might have been put in place to keep the doorknob (from the now-removed door) from hitting the wall. But, there are much easier ways to accomplish this, like those base molding thingys. Note, too, the fiberglass tape, revealing that the area was repaired not that long ago.
It proved easy to remove the block of wood, and I only needed to repair this small hole.
Or…so I thought.
Scroll way down…
Oops. ALL this plaster had de-keyed from the lath and was standing proud by about 1-1/2-inches. Hence the pregnancy. It all came away with just my hand. Well…poo.
But, two pieces of sheetrock to the quick rescue. The removed door is to the right. I get to sand it tomorrow!
And the moral of the story?
Caveat Emptor 1,000W lights.
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Hahaha beware, beware, beware.
Same reason I use dim bulbs in my bathroom…I still look 21 in there! 31?
Ha!
So that’s why…. 🙂
Ok, 41…and it helps if you don’t wear your glasses LOL!
Yes but just imagine room completed and that happens. Better now than……
I was just thinking this. Imagine: Cody is finally moved in and unpacked. He comes downstairs, and the wall is on the floor. Better this happen now than later, I guess.
Just as well you found it now while you are plastering than much later when you have to do it again. I had a similar bulge in my sewing room when I moved in. A very old leak from the roof had weakened and unkeyed a section about 3×5 up near the ceiling but under the picture molding. You can’t even tell now. I am that good with mud and tape. My plaster walls are not smooth but textured so I have gotten very good at imitating that texture so that when it is painted, you can’t tell. There is a big patch in the hallway too from where the fuse box was reversed to face into a cabinet on the other side rather that be an eyesore in the hallway. I’m working on the kitchen ceiling now, patching a spot where I moved a light. It was an awful job and I have procrastinated the final coat.
Looks great now! Troop on! 🙂
Cheers for doing it right! I had a similar bulbous wall situation in my c. 1900 rental cottage when I went to hang some cabinets. The culprit? An asbestos panel, likely meant to go behind a kitchen stove pipe, left intact and drywalled over in a 90s remodel. But the silver (or maybe asbestos) lining: it was too bowed for the wall of upper cabinets I’d planned, and instead got a much more chic hood fan and open shelving on either side, as the asbestos bulge was more than I wanted to take on.
Dim bulbs (or in this case, candles) have their place! Many moons ago, my neighbor wanted to bring his sister over for desert after dinner on very short notice. I knew my house was not going to pass muster. My solution: I turned off the power, and lit a million candles!
We did exactly that again years later when we had my daughter’s wedding in the local, very neglected grange hall, only that time we used two million candles. The effect was spectacular!