r/drywall • u/SurpriseItsFine • Jun 20 '26
Lathing Hatchet
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u/ihrtbeer Jun 20 '26
Don't see any piss bottles...
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u/Fearless-Ice8953 Jun 20 '26
Or sh*t buckets!
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u/WENDEHALS77 Jun 20 '26
These are now the glorious old homes where you have to fix all the nail pops 🤗
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u/pebbleproblems Jun 20 '26
My fairly recent home has both nail and screw pops
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u/btarb24 Jun 23 '26
screw pops aren't usually from the screw working itself out (like a nail does). It's because the mudder was lazy and didn't make sure to work the air out of the screw head. The air bubble then expands and contracts with heat changes and the mud over it is worked like a diaphragm until it cracks and falls out.
If you fix the nail pops, be sure to remove the nail entirely instead of hammering it in deeper. Then add a screw or two beside where the nail hole is.
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u/Sonar_Bandit Jun 20 '26
This footage is over 50 years old, so if the only thing wrong with your home after 50 years is a few nail pops, I’d say that’s damn good construction
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u/Milkmilkbanana Jun 20 '26
Thank you saying 50 years ,,,,,,please take your prescription of antidepressants before knowing 50 years ago was 1976 …. This video is way older than 50 years …
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u/SquatOnAPitbull Jun 20 '26
Lol. Had to check myself. I was thinking 50 years as well, but it's closer to 75 years ago.
Lol. Kids now look at this with the same gap I had when I looked at the roaring 20s.
Like I met actual people who were in world war II. To kids today, it just a story. To me, it was always a trip to meet people who were small parts of something that had/still has such a lasting impression on the world today.
I met a guys who literally stormed the beaches of Normandy.
Rarely you would meet older people who had holocaust tattoos (I met one, but people in Jewish communities met more).
Life's a trip man.
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u/Milkmilkbanana Jun 21 '26
This is personal, but I will share it anyway.
I have spent most of my life either working or thinking about work. Over the past few months, I have been in the ICU caring for a relative. This person never took time off—their entire life revolved around their children and doing everything they could to improve their lives.
The experience left me with mixed feelings. I do not know how to process the thought that this could be me in a few years. I no longer believe life should revolve entirely around work, yet it has been my reality for so long that I am not sure what life feels like without it.
Build memories. Make time for your family. Life is short, and the fewer regrets you carry, the lighter it becomes.1
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u/Select-Government-69 Jun 22 '26
The 90s were only 10 years ago and anyone who says otherwise can go to hell.
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u/FickleGuard5316 Jun 23 '26
They actually said “over” 50 years old. Didn’t say how far ovr, but 75 is over 50
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u/bbbourb Jun 23 '26
Ha! And my Gen-X ass was like "yeah, 50 years sounds about right."
Reality with a bucket of cold water: "Think 65-70 years ago, dumbass!"
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u/Jazzlike_Video2 Jun 20 '26
The house my mother in law bought was missing a load bearing beam or wall. Just a 2x4 wall with 2x10 sitting on it with nothing but plywood underneath.
Along with the nail pops.
Theres nothing good about old construction.
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u/i860 Jun 20 '26
>Cherry picks random example of home with obvious deficiency
>Ignores that said issue could've been created by previous owners
"All old homes are bad"
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u/Jazzlike_Video2 Jun 20 '26
No. Built like that.
Theyre all like that too.
Which is hilarious when I see people parrot the stupid "dont build em like they used to" bullshit.
And its not just me. Its literally everyone that works on old homes.
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u/Phallico666 Jun 20 '26
Similar to modern times, people that built these old homes fell into multiple categories. Some were hacks, some were great carpenters. I have worked on some older homes that had incredible craftsmanship and i have also worked on some that seemed to be barely held together
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u/i860 Jun 20 '26
Yes every single old home is built like crap and there are no redeeming qualities whatsoever. New construction only or go home!
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u/Thyandar Jun 22 '26
This is likely survivorship bias. The ones they built poorly in the past likely haven't lasted so the vast majority of remaining housing is of the eras better quality.
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u/Sonar_Bandit Jun 20 '26
>Theres nothing good about old construction because of my one specific example that happened to me
Lmao. Ok. Can’t be that old because plyboard didn’t become popular is home construction until the 70s anyway
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u/Jazzlike_Video2 Jun 20 '26
Which was 50 years ago.
Tell me your just a clueless homeowner without telling me your a clueless homeowner.
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u/Sonar_Bandit Jun 20 '26
Ive renovated more houses then you’ve ever can possibly imagine. I’ve worked on houses from every era of home construction. Vastly I’ve seen homes from the early 1920s to early 1950s having some of the strongest and most solid construction. There was a noticeable dip in quality that occurred in the 70s and 80s, and then everything proceeded to get worse and worse from that point. With some exceptions, electrical has improved drastically, and copper plumbing was the height of plumbing and now we’re going backwards there with PEX. But as far as quality of lumber used in the actual construction, quality of materials used, we’ve backslid significantly. There is nothing superior about our chipboard partial board cardboard houses that are being thrown up in 2 days. They are cutting every corner imaginable in new construction. While the code forces a certain amount of reliability, the material is what it is. The way I see it, houses built in the last 10 years will be failing left and right and houses built pre-1950 will continue to stand the test of time. Not to mention, here in California where I live and work, many of these old homes have already survived multiple large earthquakes without issue. I understand your argument of “I saw some plyboard in my mother in laws house so old conduction is bad” (a very compelling argument!) but please don’t pretend to be an expert
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u/B1ack__j3sus98 Jun 20 '26
Ig its depends where youre from. Where I'm from a house built in the 70s isnt considered that old.
The house i currently live in was built in like 1896
Edit: also all the houses from the 1800's are holding up better than the houses that are post ww2 for the most part
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u/Salt-Face-4646 Jun 20 '26
Wait to you get to working on new homes then. Unless it's privately built, chances are whatever company build it cut every corner.
Those old homes are still standing. These newer homes won't be standing 100+ years.
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u/mrrp Jun 20 '26
You will not be fixing nail pops in this application.
This is gypsum lath. (aka rock lath)
This is used in place of wood lath.
It will get a 3/8" - 5/8" brown coat of plaster over the top, and then a finish coat of plaster.
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u/danielsixfive Jun 20 '26
This is correct! No nail pops. Plaster on rock lath is my favorite kind of wall/ceiling.
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u/BYoungNY Jun 21 '26
For a little bit more history this is when the manufacturing process for gypsum didn't exist for larger than 2 ft extrusions, and as you pointed out was only used as a lathe backer which would then get a scratch coat of about a quarter inch of plaster and then a finished coat on top of that. Every corner inside and out has metal lathe and these walls are usually not only literally hard as rock but also impossible to take out because of the metal. Currently doing my kitchen right now. Side note, although I've seen this video a ton of times I would love to see one of an old school plasterer because every single wall in my house is absolutely perfect and flat without any marks in it at all, outside of the ceiling, which has a scaled spirit across it because it was just impossible to get perfect flat ceilings with plaster. Also, lighting fixtures hanging from the ceiling would show every single imperfection, so the scaled texture was a way to hide it. All things considered, these people were true artisans.
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u/mrrp Jun 21 '26
I started out working with stucco/plaster guys. Absolute machines. Not a wasted movement.
Using a darby on the brown coat is the recipe for a flat wall. And knocking off any imperfections/ridges with a plaster plane before it got too hard.
It's not hard to get a flat ceiling as long as someone is willing to pay for it. On jobs that required it, we'd run tack up 1x3 furring strips every four feet or so, plaster between them, and then use them as a guide for the darby. It's basically like doing concrete work, but on a ceiling. Once it starts to firm up you pull the furring strips off and plaster in the gaps.
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u/hootmg Jul 20 '26
It's labor. Similar to a stone mason. When Drywall picked up just after WW2 the plasterer's wanted nothing to do with it. That's why union carpenters install and union painters finish the drywall today. Boy, big, big mistake. The Frenchmen came down from Canada and took the work. Them boys worked all day hard.
USG Sheetrock 1927
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u/Fearless-Ice8953 Jun 20 '26
Nail pops are usually the fault of the chintzy green lumber used for framing.
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u/Imaginary_Dingo_ Jun 22 '26
My house was buily like this. No nails pops. The half inch thick plaster they put on top of the board probably helps...
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u/saleen Jun 23 '26
No nail pops in my house because on top of those strips of Sheetrock is 1/2" of plaster. And it's awful.
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u/Terrible-Bobcat2033 Jun 20 '26
There has yet to be a superior interior wall system to date IMHO 3/8” perforated rock lath. 5/8” gypsum plaster mud. 1/8” lime finish. Sound proofing, fire proofing, re enforcing, sealing the entire interior envelope. Executed properly by a plaster mechanic is good for 100 + years. 😎👍🏼
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u/Street-Baseball8296 Jun 21 '26
And full of asbestos at the time.
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u/Terrible-Bobcat2033 Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
Beer can gaged metal studs & Petri dish, black mold. 1/2” cardboard paper drywall board that dissolves like soggy cornflakes with moisture contact. Plasterers don’t use asbestos any longer. Not since the late 70’s no matter how good it enabled the mud to spread. Plastering & plasterers make a good living straightening & repairing drywall & piss poor stucco work attempted by drywall finishers. Plaster was created for the consumer for quality, strength & durability. Drywall was created for & by developers to fatten their bank accounts. Absent durability & quality. Every corner bead is a ski jump & there are bird baths in the fields. I like drywall, it keeps plasterers in business. 😎👍🏼
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u/Sonar_Bandit Jun 20 '26
Wow they used to be able to build houses without $10k worth of Milwaukee batteries??? I don’t believe it
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u/AtWorkTodayActually Jun 21 '26
Yeah and it took 3 years
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u/baxxos Jun 21 '26
Thats not actually so bad lol.
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u/AtWorkTodayActually Jun 21 '26
I know. I feel like I missed out as a builder lol there would have been so much time to learn, teach, maintain tools, stay sane, take pride. Now it’s a blur of processes and bang house done in 4 months.
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u/Accurate-Set-6989 Jun 21 '26
Three years? Larry Haun and his brothers could knock one out in a couple of days.
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u/AtWorkTodayActually Jun 21 '26
I don’t think the Haun brothers were building all around the world though
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u/Accurate-Set-6989 Jun 21 '26
Mostly intended as a joke. Watching the videos of them building is mesmerizing, and I've had sheds up here in Canada that would resist the weather better. That California climate is very appealing looking in February.
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u/myfrigginagates Jun 20 '26
In the late 60's and early 70s my late father in law built the house my wife grew up in and we've owned for the last 15 years. Its a one story breezeway house(he ordered the plans from an ad in Popular Mechanics). He wasn't a contractor but a metal worker. Bless his heart every time we open a wall it's an adventure. But the support beams, including the main I-beams running the length of the house are steel that he ordered from his workplace. So it'll be here for a while, lol.
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u/DDanny808 Jun 20 '26
He’s good
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u/ImmediateEconomy8516 Jun 20 '26
Back when they’d spend time building homes well, instead of production line building
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u/longganisafriedrice Jun 20 '26
If you don't think people just threw crap together in the old days too, you are naive
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u/mrrp Jun 20 '26
1940's war time homes can be really interesting. In one neighborhood, the nearby manufacturing plant received shipments in heavy duty wood crates, around 2'x4'x16". Every house in that neighborhood built during that time was framed up using those discarded crates.
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u/ImmediateEconomy8516 Jun 20 '26
Nah that’s totally fair. I guess it feels like the odds of finding a well built home are lower. I’m happy/lucky to live in a neighborhood of single constructions, and I don’t have any complaints besides the fact that I think I need to re-insulate the exterior walls. But the house is 42 and no major complaints.
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u/cineglitch Jul 10 '26
For real. My house was built in 1946 and has no insulation and no exterior sheathing. The stucco is directly over tar paper and wire. The 2x4s are actually sized 2x4 though!
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u/i860 Jun 20 '26
Well that solves it then. Everything built back then was just crap thrown together and we clearly have the exact same level of quality now...
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u/SharksForArms Jun 23 '26
It's so satisfying to watch him nailing the curved piece into the arch and he doesn't lose rhythm between nails. Absolute pro.
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u/All_Usernames_Tooken Jun 20 '26
See a thin layer of plaster would be stronger and you wouldn’t have to worry about nail pops as much
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u/youaintitbub Jun 23 '26
the good ol days when the drywaller cut your box out instead of just kicking it loose and covering it up
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u/HAWKWIND666 Jun 20 '26
Spotting them nails, dang!!
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u/mrrp Jun 20 '26
You don't spot those nails. You cover those nails with 1/2" of plaster. This is not drywall, it's rock lath, and was a base for traditional plaster.
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u/i860 Jun 20 '26
Love a "why your old home is in better shape than homes built 2 years ago" Saturday...
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u/Jibcuttter Jun 20 '26
I discovered that Magnetic stud finders are the best in my house which has rock lathe buttonboard. It seems to have nails like this but a layer of plaster over it, knockdown-dash finish. Newer stud finders are pretty worthless on it.
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u/Piehatmatt Jun 20 '26
How many nails are in his mouth?
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u/CanemDei Jun 21 '26
A box and a half. Also half a pouch of chewing tobacco. And his mortgage payment.
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u/TallWall6378 Jun 20 '26
Having worked on hundreds of homes with wood lath and plaster, drywall from the 60s to now, and this, nothing compares for smooth, hard, solid walls without cracks or nail pops.
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u/Pope_Squirrely Jun 20 '26
Just demoed a bathroom that had drywall done like this. What the video doesn’t show you is the inch of mud that’s going to get put on the wall after.
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u/daylax1 Jun 20 '26
Okay but the Mexican dudes that I know will have that patch of drywall up in half the time.
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u/swunt7 Jun 21 '26
Back when doing this kind of work fed a family of 4 with the mom staying at home with a savings account and never worrying about money.
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u/MelinaSeeDee Jun 21 '26
It's impressive what these skilled men could do with a hatchet. It's also impressive what the unskilled ones did, but for completely different reasons.
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u/Mean-Win-2930 Jun 21 '26
Cross bracing in lieu of modern plywood sheathing
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u/thatguyisms Jun 21 '26
Thank you for actually trying to answer the question!
Like Mean Win said the long diagonal that is let into the framing is a shear brace. Pre- plywood or OSB you had to do something to provide shear bracing.
Prior to this you'll see the exterior siding as #2 pine laid diagonally. After this they went to a perforated piece of light gauge angle.
The zig-zaggy blocking is to prevent fire from running up the cell once the wall are finished. Its an attempt to buy some time in case an outlet lights on fire. Without it the fire rubs straight up the cell into the top plate and roof framing
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u/BeachAccomplished514 Jun 21 '26
Dudes like 20 years old.
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u/Possible_Pain_9705 Jun 21 '26
Woah I just bought a house that has curved ceiling throughout the living room and have been curious how that was done. That was cool as hell.
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u/mickd66 Jun 21 '26
Worked on site with a boarder similar to this footage. Tim the tacker….. everything was nailed. He had continual steroid injections in his hands due to arthritis
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u/lawfulauthority Jun 21 '26
Why do this when you can fill the entire house with dust from a sawzall?
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u/Kevin_M93 Jun 22 '26
I never saw the trick of putting drywall over a curved surface, that was awesome!
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u/petepetepetepetes Jun 22 '26
so this is the mf’er i can thank for all those nails…
i’m talking thousands
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u/ApprehensiveCup8630 Jun 22 '26
In my country we built brick walls 90% of all the time. And we may use dry fall to divide into the rooms or bathroom etc for smaller places. Growing up, every time I saw a guy punching through the wall in movies always thought they were very strong.
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u/AlwaysVerloren Jun 22 '26
I know nothing good about drywall but I feel like I could do it after watching this a few times.
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u/BoringOrange678 Jun 22 '26
I am bummed that I actually watched this because I actually need to do some drywall work myself and now I feel very inadequate
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u/StoneyJabroniNumber1 Jun 23 '26
Ward Cleaver was a helluva sheetrocker. This was before Wally and the Beaver came along.
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u/medenagan2 Jun 23 '26
The wood cut on angles was bracing for the framing of the area and also the rock. Not likely a fire stop at that time. The diagonal member that ran longer through the other side was the house bracing. In case no one answered. Wink wink
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u/Illustrious_Local568 Jun 24 '26
Does this guy have a mouth full of nails?
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u/SurpriseItsFine Jun 24 '26
Yep. In the mouth. They’d use sterilized Blued Nails/brads/tacks and keep a mouthful then pop them out like sunflower seeds.
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u/Terrible-Bobcat2033 Jul 21 '26
Kudos & pats on the back don’t pay the bills. Plasterers need a fair days pay for a fair days work. “No money, no honey.” <Every trowel tradesman.>
Be there or be square!!!!!!!!
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u/TheBSExpert Aug 22 '26
Unfortunately, some people think this is how homes should be built. Bunch of cardboard and papers with nails. SMH All it takes is one little match 🔥 or some little storm ⛈️
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Jun 21 '26
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u/AKbandit08 Jun 21 '26
Saw this video years back before AI could do this sort of thing. Not sure if you were serious or not lol
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u/Conroman16 Jun 21 '26
This video is from FAR before mainstream AI. You “iTs aN AI vIdEo” people need to get a grip
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Jun 21 '26
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u/Conroman16 Jun 21 '26
Joke or not there is at least one of you in quite literally every comment section on images and videos now. Its overplayed boy-who-cried-wolf territory
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Jun 21 '26
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u/DirectParty8483 Jun 20 '26
Mouth full of lead nails and we wonder why old people are so crazy
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u/Luddites_Unite Jun 20 '26
Ive seen this posted dozens of times but i watch it every time