Hey Ya'll

I'm in the process of exposing a brick wall in the main living area of a circa 1880 brownstown. And by in the process, I mean I've cut out a couple 4'X4' test patches...and it took significantly longer than it should have.



Luckily the brick is in decent shape thus far. Unluckily, the contractor who rennovated the home a few years ago glued drywall directly onto the plaster. There also seem to be a few random wood pieces in the plaster so he might have screwed the sheets in place as well.

The plaster comes off of the brick easily with a chisel...but removing the drywall layer has been a real struggle. My neighbor works in contruction and recommended taking a sledgehammer to the drywall and using a crowbar to pry off larger chunks and then taking a chisel to the rest.

Im concerned that his approach will damage the underlying brick. Chiseling the drywall off is damn near impossible. Are there any other options? Perhaps wetting the drywall? I'm really open to any suggestions on this.

 

Welcome to the forums!

The drywall should come off fairly easily, it's water soluble for the most part. The issue is going to be removing the adhesive. I suspect the pieces of wood you've found were used to shim the drywall out to make it level. I doubt there are any easy methods to remove the adhesive but if you continue with your plans, I suspect you'll become an expert on what does and does not work

 

Is the plaster applied directly to the brick? It looks like there is some space there. If the plaster is applied to the brick and the drywall to the plaster then get a hole big enough to start and use a floor scraper to get behind the plaster. Once you get the hang of it the plaster will come off and the drywall with it.

 

Scoring through the paint into the gypsum layer of the drywall is one tip. That might not work well with tightcoat's suggestion, though, since his method relies on the material being stiff and brittle.