Any Wall but THAT One!

Not long after moving into my current house, disaster struck in the form of a cracked stack. For those who have not had to go through this, the "stack" is the main waste drainage line for the entire house. It is that massive pipe in the basement that all the pipes in the house tie into. It then drops under the basement floor, and runs out to the main sewer line.

In old houses, if it has not been replaced, the stack is generally made of cast iron. Another little tidbit you may need to know if you purchase a house...if a house is vacant for a long time, a cast iron stack will "dry out" and will often crack. Yeah, yeah, I know it sounds like bullshit, but I have the awesomest plumber in the world and he is the one that told me this. If I ever paid what I should for the work he does, I would think the he was handing me some kind of line (just like the mechanics who want to recharge your air filter for $150.00), but he has actually done work for free here, so I think he's on the level.

Well, I bought a house that had been vacant for a year and as it would turn out, my stack cracked.

Now, when your stack cracks, especially in a two story home, the ONLY way to repair it is to cut out whatever wall it is behind. As my luck would have it, the stack sat in the corner of the downstairs bathroom. Meaning, that the wall that would have to be cut out was not a drywall wall, but a plaster wall. And not just any plaster wall...a plaster wall with an ornate combed treatment on it. NOOOO!!! ANY WALL BUT THAT ONE!! I recognized immediately that I was in for total financial rape. Here is what I was left with after the stack was replaced:


A cracked stack is not something that you can undertake on your own, and for the repair you may be looking at anywhere from 2-4 days of work at a cost $1500.00 to over $4000.00. Pretty frightening, right? But, there are some things that you can do to mediate the expenses.

1. When considering purchasing an older home, look into purchasing a home warranty. Your realtor can help you with this, or you can go directly to AON and American Home Shield. I have had warranties with both companies and was pleased with both of them. For about $600.00, you can get a year's coverage which is renewable. My stack replacement was covered by my warranty, and I ended up paying under $300.00 for the job after I was reimbursed by the warranty company.
2. Do what you can to prepare and to repair before and after. Rather than having the plumber cut out the section of wall at $50.00 or more an hour, do it yourself.
3. In my case, there were other things I could do to prepare that would cut down on the plumber's time. I cleared everything out of the bathroom (mirror, window treatments), shut off the water, and removed the toilet and stored it in the basement. While this might not seem like much, it saved me an hour in plumber's labor.

And the thing that saved me the most money of all...do your own wall repair after the stack replacement is complete. Now, I could have made the drywall repair. But, it was a corner, and I didn't want my first drywall project in the house to be all ganked up. Fortunately for me, since I had done such a good job preparing for the plumber to do his work, he offered to insert the patch for me....for free. Yep, for free. See, good preparation buys you goodwill with people who are used to dealing with assholes with ridiculous expectations. If you live in St. Louis, and need an excellent plumber, email me. I will hook you up!

After the plumber put in the drywall patch, he left the rest for me to take care of:


The next step was to figure out how to recreate the combed plaster on the wall. For that, I would need to make a trip to the hardware store. But how to match some kind of a tool to the combs in the plaster? Ahh...a stroke of brilliance! I grabbed one of the crayons and a sheet of drawing paper from the toybox I kept for my niece and nephew. I peeled the paper off the crayon, and using the side of the crayon, ran it over the paper as I held it up to the wall, making a "rubbing." I folded up the rubbing, tucked it into my pocket and headed for the hardware store where I was able to compare various different tools to the impressions from the plaster.

What I found was this, a trowel for applying tile adhesive:
Now to create the combed pattern, I had to get some additional materials, including a giant tub of drywall mud and also a sanding block. This is how I recreated the combed pattern in the original plaster:

First, I spread a layer of drywall mud onto the patch about 1/8th of an inch thick. I started by covering only about a 2-foot length. If the mud dries, don't worry, you can sand it off. It will be messy, and the dust will get everywhere except the crack of your butt, but you can do it. I then drew the short side of the trowel across the mud in a curving pattern:



As I recreated the pattern, I drew the mud over the undamaged part of the wall, so that there would not be a visible "seam" between the patch and the old wall. I allowed the mud to dry for two full days, due to the thickness. Then, I took a foam sanding block and "knocked down" the high points, as it was a bit rougher looking than the original treatment. Once I took a light sanding pass over the tops of the combed portions, it looked exactly like the previous treatment.

This left just painting. The bathroom was red to begin with, so you must use a primer when covering a white wall. Primer for red paint is bright pink...very fun!

I then painted the rest of the bathroom a deep wine color, assuming (correctly) that the original red paint would serve as a primer. When painting a patterned wall, it is necessary to use a roller with a very, very thick nap on it and be prepared to use lots of paint. I used nearly a gallon for the bathroom, and had to apply three coats in some places to get complete coverage deep in the combed pattern. However, in the end it was definitely worth it. Here is the completed project, new paint, fresh white trim, and window treatment and mirror back up.


Sometimes, big, expensive repairs are unavoidable, but if you get a little creative you can save yourself a lot of money by doing those things that are time consuming but not exceptionally difficult. After speaking with my plumber, we estimated that by preparing the bathroom, cutting out the wall myself, and finishing the wall repair myself, I saved approximately $1250.00 of his labor, materials, and time.

Be creative! You can do it!