Removing Plaster in Hall - Electricity Meter Issue

[mj007]

I live in an old (circa 1900) house. The plaster on the exterior walls is old and crumbling, and the plaster on the interior walls is coming away from the lath.

Since moving in I have been periodically renovating each room, removing all lath and plaster including ceilings and getting a plastering company to come and fit plasterboard and skim.

The next room on the list is the hallway. The meter and fusebox is located high up on the hall wall. Ideally I would like to remove the plaster altogether (this is an exterior wall) as I can tell the plaster is not 'stuck' to the wall in a number of places due to a hollow sound when I knock it.

Has anyone had experience with a similar situation? I am wondering how to approach this, perhaps its better to leave the 'old' plaster behind the meter removing surrounding plaster only - or is there another option?

Comments welcome.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

The metering and the board it is mounted on does not belong to you, it is the property of the distributor, the fuse box is yours, so if you were to remove anything to do with the metering you would need to contact your DNO and you would also need a sparky for anything to do with the fuse board!
It may be best not to tempt fate and try to avoid disturbing the plaster around theses areas.
Unless the service head is quite old and they may come out a renew it for you and at this point might be able do do something with wall.

 

[mj007]

Cheers. Moving this to the plastering forum, seems more appropriate for the subject.

 

[SFK]

MJ007,
Had similar experience in hall where plaster on the hall wall came off the bricks (the wall paper was holding it on).

My meter and fusebox and all other electrical bits are fitted on a board and screwed onto the wall. As said by PrenticeBoyofDerry, I also believe the board does not belong to you. Also my understanding is that the board is held slightly off the plaster by wood chocks to stop damp coming off the wall and rotting the wood.

I decided to leave the original plaster behind the board and get plasterers to feather the new plaster into the old plaster. However, I was expecting in the future to see a crack at this boundary point (as two different types of plaster) so I knocked back old plaster as close to the board as possible.

However after that preparation the board then fell off the wall (original screws too short)! And was left hanging a few inches off the wall by the mains bale and the cables coming out of fuse box. So I very very carefully pulled the old plaster away from behind the board (limited space), and slid a small sheet of plaster behind the board and screwed the board properly to the wall through this new sheet. Sheet was slightly bigger than board so plasterers were happy to plaster onto it and make it look seamless.

This is all with a big warning that I would say it is best NOT to move the board unless you have to. My fuse box was for a period supported only by the cables, any of which could be pulled out and cause fire / electrocution, etc (later I got it all rechecked by electrician). And I was very lucky as none of the original screws were behind the fuse box or meter. If they had of been they would have been a nightmare to get out of the board, and until removed the board would have been impossible to re-hang.

So a long email to say I feel best option is not to bother with removing original plaster behind board as it will not be seen. But for me it was (perhaps luckily) not an issue to put a new plaster sheet there and the plasterers then making good.

SFK

 

[Beefpotnoodle]

You could box in the meter? Then leave the old plastering inside the box (you'll only ever see it when reading the meter!) and plaster up to the boxing in?

 

[mj007]

Thanks you all your replies.

Taking into account what SFK and Beefpotnoodle have said, I think I will leave the plaster surrounding the meter, get the plasterer to feather in as close as possible and also box in the meter so the unsightly join (if it does prove unsightly) is away from open view.

Thanks!

 

[JohnD]

if you hack off the plaster round the board, the plaster behind the board will probably fall off.

You might like to fix it securely with long screws into plasplugs. The board should be spaced off the wall, a convenient way to do that is to drill holes in the plastic lids of coke bottles and out them behind the corners of the board so the screws pass through the holes.