Ummm, just how easily are walls supposed to fall down?

So, we are (finally) doing the bathroom. When we moved in (nearly 6 years ago) we decided it needed doing and have been putting off ever since. Well, a permanently dripping tap which turned into a running tap tipped me over the edge….”I’ve found a plumber”, I said “and here’s the bathroom catalogue – pick something!”

So, we settled down to lots of shopping, decided on suites and tiles and all sorts and finally made up our minds. So far, so good!

The next job was to start ripping out the old suite and generally make good before getting ready to re-tile and the get the new suite fitted. We live in an old house – its Victorian – which is very nice, but sometime means your floors and walls are a bit on the wonky and worn side. In fact, sometimes these things get patched up relatively unsuccessfully – usually by previous owners. One of my personal pet hates was the fact that we had Victorian 8” moulded skirting board on one wall and 1960’s 5” plain on another. It will all have to go we (I) decided and be replaced with new (Victorian style) skirtings. Well, we knew that the plaster on that one wall was a bit dodgy, and taking off the skirting would make a bit of a mess, but I’m OK at filling (I’ve had a lot of practice over the years on various walls, cars and of course the wrinkles on my face) so we thought we’d go for it. Well, after pulling it off, there was a bit of a mess and a bit higher up the wall a large chunk of plaster had fallen out. Never mind, we thought, we’d just hack back to a good bit and re-plaster the little hole as necessary.

Tap tap with hammer…..

Oops – umm, how did that happen (three feet away a 2ft by 1ft section of plaster lands on the floor)….

….never mind, we’ll just hack back to a good bit and re-plaster the 'little' hole as necessary.

Tap tap with hammer…..thud, crumble crumble…thud…oops…

“Umm, hubby – have you found a good bit of plaster yet?”

Well, finally we had hacked back to good plaster and we stood back and surveyed our work. There it was – a 2ft by 3 ft section up in one corner of the room and apart from that the whole wall lay in bits on the floor.

“So, that’ll be rebuilding the wall then, before we start the tiling?”