someone pls redpill me on mounting to plaster and lathe. >What weight can a normal lathe hold

someone pls redpill me on mounting to plaster and lathe
>What weight can a normal lathe hold
>What anchors do I need to use and what are their weight ratings

The online information on this is insane, its always one of the following:
>uh just mount to a stud
(not what I’m fricking asking)
>use any normal drywall anchor
(I don’t believe it)
>use a toggle bolt to mount anything
(I need a toggle bolt to mount <10lbs?)
>Lathe is wood so you can mount to that just like a stud
(no way)

Also, why the frick can’t I find studs in my 1928 house with either a normal stud finder or a magnet? I have to drill about 20 microholes to map out stud locations because the depression era tradies apparently did not care to place them 16” apart

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    unironically had to use calc 2 to hang a heavy picture off-center of two studs

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      No you didn't. You can move the clasps on the frame. Anything else is geometry.

      Get a better stud finder that can tolerate some extra depth. You can get away with gallery hooks or toggles. Twist anchors should be ok with enough predrill. Obviously you can't drive a normal twist anchor straight in by hand. The plaster likes to chip out and you'll split the lathe even if you can.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >move the clasps on the frame
        The points where the wire is fastened to the frame? How would that help?

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          I don't use the wire generally. I set hooks exactly where the clasps or eyelets are. This way the picture won't move and it lets me keep the profile tighter to the wall. Then I check that it's either perfectly level or the best it can be visually against what's nearby.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I love this but don't quite understand how it works ...
      Is the area of the red quadrilateral equal to the area of the green quadrilateral? Is that what makes it balance?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        That was one of the more complicated derivations I found, pic related is what I tried

        I ended up just hanging it on two equal-height nails in the studs; the center of the wall was 6” off one of the studs so with two equal hanging points, the painting is just 2” off center which I don’t really mind

        I was afraid if I tried to be fancy and use my solution, If the screws were off +- 0.5” then the picture would be eternally crooked

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        That was one of the more complicated derivations I found, pic related is what I tried

        I ended up just hanging it on two equal-height nails in the studs; the center of the wall was 6” off one of the studs so with two equal hanging points, the painting is just 2” off center which I don’t really mind

        I was afraid if I tried to be fancy and use my solution, If the screws were off +- 0.5” then the picture would be eternally crooked

        forgot the pic

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      That shit over the top is what holds the plaster below in place.

      Old timers added horse hair to it for increased strength and fragmentation prevention. Try it with straw (NOT hay) or something cheap rather than hair.

      The best option for fixing it is to just knock off all the plaster in an area replace any broken lathes, and redo the plaster. Wear plenty of protective gear and get it tested for asbestos and lead first.

      You could drill holes in lathes, or you could put up wire mesh. Both are used, though wire mesh is much more common with stucco.

      The biggest issue with lathe and plaster is you can't insulate them. Old timey houses are meant to survive getting wet by drying out quickly; insulation prevents quick evaporation of moisture and promotes moisture gathering due to temperature gradients in walls.

      If you want temperature control you could build double walls and put plaster & lathe on both sides of each wall. You could also try mixing straw or wet sawdust (because dry sawdust will absorb the moisture out of the plaster and prevent curing) and something which absorbs moisture (and provides fire protection) such as plaster to absorb any moisture in the walls. If you do that, you should first build a test shed and spray it down on the inside with a house a few times a month to simulate a terminal roof leak. Do this for a year and then cut it open and see if there was any rot or mold.

      Or you could just do wood paneling.

      Most of my house is plaster and lathe. The short answer is that mounting anything is a pain so I try to avoid it. Your plaster is closing in on 100 years old. It is really fragile and absolutely wants to crumble and frick up your wall. Get good at plastering and keep a supply of matching paint.

      You basically have 3 choices :
      - mount to a stud
      - poke some pilot holes in roughly where you want the hole, until you find out where some lathe is, drill into the lathe
      - Get a butterfly or toggle bolt

      Also look into installing picture rails.

      Also if you want to hang a picture then put a piece of wood paneling at picture hanging height in your house. Also you should panel the bottom third or half of your walls to avoid kids beating up the walls.

      thank you

      The prior owners appear to have refinished the walls in the last 10 years— whatever is at the surface of the wall is in good shape and I haven’t had much or any issues with it cracking & crumbling. Some rooms have drywall over the old plaster.

      When you say the plaster is fragile— do you mean the cosmetic outer plaster or the structure itself? do I need to be worrying about the actual plaster/lathe falling apart on the inside of my wall?

      If you had to guess, how heavy of an item would you feel comfortable mounting directly onto lathe?

      It doesn't matter if plaster crumbles in your wall, it's so alkaline that nothing can grow in it. Worst thing that will happen is a draft blows some irritating dust out of the wall.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        remove all the plaster and put up drywall

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Why tf wouldn't you just do drywall if you're tearing shit off?
        You can even buy 3/8" drywall if you have a weird hardon for the lath

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >I don’t believe it
    Only one way to find out. Or continue making decisions with your emotions, idk.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >continue making decisions with my emotions
      I don’t want to use normal drywall anchors that function via expansion because plaster (especially old plaster) is quite brittle and prone to cracking. Drywall absorbs pressure and expansion much better and therefore continuously grips the anchor. How about you use your brain to decide if you should comment or not?

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >Also, why the frick can’t I find studs in my 1928 house with either a normal stud finder or a magnet?
    Plaster is too thick or too dense.

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    you can usually use a strong magnet to find the nails where the lathe was nailed into the stud

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      cant find any with a neodymium magnet, I mean once in a while It will pick up on something but I’ve used magnets in the past to find studs and I cannot for the life of me locate studs with a magnet. Easier to identify nails in the baseboards but they dont seem to be reliably nailed to studs tbh

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        the nails are very thin

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        you need a stronger magnet

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Most of my house is plaster and lathe. The short answer is that mounting anything is a pain so I try to avoid it. Your plaster is closing in on 100 years old. It is really fragile and absolutely wants to crumble and frick up your wall. Get good at plastering and keep a supply of matching paint.

    You basically have 3 choices :
    - mount to a stud
    - poke some pilot holes in roughly where you want the hole, until you find out where some lathe is, drill into the lathe
    - Get a butterfly or toggle bolt

    Also look into installing picture rails.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      thank you

      The prior owners appear to have refinished the walls in the last 10 years— whatever is at the surface of the wall is in good shape and I haven’t had much or any issues with it cracking & crumbling. Some rooms have drywall over the old plaster.

      When you say the plaster is fragile— do you mean the cosmetic outer plaster or the structure itself? do I need to be worrying about the actual plaster/lathe falling apart on the inside of my wall?

      If you had to guess, how heavy of an item would you feel comfortable mounting directly onto lathe?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      why not replace it?

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I’ve torn out shitloads of this stuff and the answer to how strong it is, is it depends who built it but it’s very fricking strong for hanging(fasteners in shear) and less in pull-out but still better than drywall. I would hang a 50lb mirror on that stuff and not worry about it. What you want is a “hollow wall anchor” not a drywall anchor. Pic related claims
    100lb(shear probably)

    It’s usually tacked to the studs with little hand drive nails probably 15gauge or so.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Btw I know that says drywall anchor but that’s the general type you want with some clamping mechanism

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I hate that type.
      Options I like gallery hooks, bear claw screws, metal twist ez anchors, standard toggle bolts with a nut and washer.
      Those to me are a weird combination of an ez anchor and a toggle. He won't be able to just push them in like gypsum. Some plaster acts like concrete and will want to explode every time you go in, so keeping the predrill smaller is nice. Then there's the off chance the plaster keys are in the way and the toggle isn't deep enough to engage.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Yeah that isn’t the exact kind I was thinking of. Too lazy to run it down, anything that clamps against the back side is what I was getting at. Regular toggle would work I guess if you add some kind of hook-plate but if you back out the screw to hang a wire on they’re kinda janky. Really for less than 10 lbs I’ll pre-drill the plaster away and put a wood screw in the lath.

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous
    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Oh noe!
      Did OP accidentally add an extrae "e?"
      Too bad you couldn't comprehende what he meant!

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >Oh noe!
        >Did OP accidentally add an extrae "e?"
        No, every moron itt did it.
        It also wasn't an "extra" e since there's no e in lath, genius.
        Being that dumb is no accident.

        >Too bad you couldn't comprehende what he meant!
        On the contrary, the fact that every moron itt is positively screaming "I'm a moron" came through loud and clear.
        But thanks for taking the time to defend illiteracy.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          everyone itt is misunderstanding my question

          i dont have plaster and lath
          i have plaster and lathe

          hundreds of old woodworking lathes in my walls covered with plaster. Can I mount to them?

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Post walls or GTFO.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Aww! That babby Monarch belongs at my house.

  8. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    use strips of plywood to connect to the studs then mount to the plywood anywhere you want
    its an industry secret

  9. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >use any normal drywall anchor
    I've been ripping lathe out. some of it is very thick and sturdy and would support whatever. some of it is weak thin and crumbly and falling apart on its own. it's a crapshoot.

  10. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    just use the stud.
    >not what I’m fricking asking
    then you're asking the wrong question.

  11. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    You need a AA or 9v powered mid-level stud finder to see 3/4" deep.

    This blue one can also see studs through drywall on top of plywood if it's tight

    I have a towel bar I use everyday into lath only as well as a corner cabinet that's into studs on one side but only lath on the other

    It depends on what shape the plaster is in and if there's ever been moisture in the wall.
    On interior walls, you should be fine
    On exterior walls, it's super hit/miss because rusty lath nails and deteriorating plaster

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Here are the most common options for seeing through the drywall+plaster+lath

      If it doesn't work in a certain area, push hard to make contact with the studs
      You might also need to take a board on the wall and tap with a hammer to press the wall back into place

  12. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Anything you listed other than an EZ anchor would work for <10lb. A tap in drywall anchor would work. They sell toggle bolts down to 6/32 for light stuff. Find a stud with a wood screw just like you would with drywall. It's not that difficult.

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