Demolition continues at the Purple Palace.  In this post a few weeks ago, I wrote about tearing out the drywall, which left the first floor looking like this:

East Wall of Living Room

. . . with the metal framework still intact and 100+ year old plaster clinging to most of the brick.  In August, I removed the metal framework, which required hanging the HVAC ducts from the joists . . . a task I’ll discuss in another post.  Today’s post is about exposing brick.  My plan was to expose the brick on the interior living room walls that I share with my neighbors to the east and west.  Heat and A/C loss isn’t a concern on those walls because there isn’t a temperature differential on the other side of the wall.  I’ll be heavily insulating the wall with the windows then rehanging drywall.

West Wall of Living Room . . . dig the original tile work inside the front door.

I used a hammer and a small pry bar to chip the old plaster off the brick.  It was messy, messy work.  A respirator and goggles are must-haves for the job.  And the ZipWall continued to earn its keep.  Despite daily showers, I had plaster grit on my scalp throughout the month of August.

West Wall of Living Room

After removing the plaster with hammer and pry bar, I used a stiff wire brush, repeatedly dunked in a bucket of water to reduce dust, to scrub the brick clean.  Unfortunately, removing the plaster from the west wall of the living room revealed a section of brick with cement mortar smeared all over it.  (See photo below.)  The mortar is much harder than the plaster and can’t be removed with a brush.  Chipping it away damages the brick.  There’s no obvious reason why this was done.  One of my neighbors is a mason and suspects it might have been done because the brick underneath was either rotten or not cooked right in the first place.  He offered to tear out the brick in this section and replace it for $250 plus materials.  He began today and will likely finish the job tomorrow.  I’ll report back on the repair.

West Wall of Living Room

In the photo below, you can see the HVAC duct suspended from metal straps attached to the joists, with the metal framework that used to support the duct removed.  For some unknown reason, the entire wall wasn’t plastered.  Less work for me!

East Wall of Living Room

East Wall of Living Room

The plaster debris, pictured above, was extremely heavy.  I bought the heaviest plastic contractor’s garbage bags I could find and was only able to load about 10″ of debris in the bag while still being able to lift it.  I attempted to dispose of the debris by putting a single partially-filled bad in my garbage can, but the trash collectors wouldn’t empty the can because it was too heavy.  So after finishing the plaster removal in the living room, I rented a U-Haul last weekend and took the debris to the city dump.

The photo above was taken after the hammer-and-pry-bar removal, while the photo below was taken a couple of days later, after the stiff wire brush treatment.

East Wall of Living Room

The brick still requires some more cleaning, as well as the application of a sealant.  And I’m loving the look of the exposed brick so much that I’m planning on exposing the brick all the way up the staircase on the west wall of the house.  I think it’ll nicely tie the first and second floors together.  I need to figure out how to scaffold the stairwell so I can reach the top of the wall.  Painting it a few months ago was easy, because I was able to use a roller and brush extension pole, but I’ll need to get up close and personal to remove plaster with a hammer and pry bar.  Stay tuned.