Jim Doolittle
Active Member
I know a lot of cocooners are involved in "This Old House" sort of stuff and figured this was a definite Wiring Closet item. I am looking for opinions (someone to talk me out of
) on tearing out plaster walls in a corner room that tends to be colder than the rest of the house. We consider this room to be a mud room and plan on adding floor tile and possibly a hot tub.
My first mistake with this room was to tear out a box that extended about 18" out from the wall and 12" down from the ceiling. The entire box was built to hide a vent pipe that goes up from basement within the wall and then it came out from the wall via 90° elbows so that it could protrude from roof. That is when I saw that the wall insulation is in bad shape. Looks like it was installed by shoving it between studs and severely compacting it.
My second mistake was removing old wall board. Actually, I do not regret that so much because the wall board looked awful. Problem is that the installer used really good glue and it is very tedious to get it off the wall.
So, I suppose I should tear out the plaster wall (about 1-1/2" thick) and remove old insulation. I can then put in new insulation, vapour barrier, and drywall. If I do this, it will make it easier to add wiring for cable as well as several runs of CAT5. Room already has phone line.
Plan B would be to cover walls with a nicer wallboard that provides some insulation. I would have to account for trim around two windows if wallboard were appreciably thick. Any suggestions on such a wallboard?
Regardless of what I do with the walls, I will be adding cable/CAT5. It will be a little more work with walls intact but not so bad. Since I am thinking of a hot tub (or if not, maybe an elliptical trainer and treadmill), I will likely want to provide cable outlet for wall mount TV.
Any suggestions? Other HA opportunities with this room?

My first mistake with this room was to tear out a box that extended about 18" out from the wall and 12" down from the ceiling. The entire box was built to hide a vent pipe that goes up from basement within the wall and then it came out from the wall via 90° elbows so that it could protrude from roof. That is when I saw that the wall insulation is in bad shape. Looks like it was installed by shoving it between studs and severely compacting it.
My second mistake was removing old wall board. Actually, I do not regret that so much because the wall board looked awful. Problem is that the installer used really good glue and it is very tedious to get it off the wall.
So, I suppose I should tear out the plaster wall (about 1-1/2" thick) and remove old insulation. I can then put in new insulation, vapour barrier, and drywall. If I do this, it will make it easier to add wiring for cable as well as several runs of CAT5. Room already has phone line.
Plan B would be to cover walls with a nicer wallboard that provides some insulation. I would have to account for trim around two windows if wallboard were appreciably thick. Any suggestions on such a wallboard?
Regardless of what I do with the walls, I will be adding cable/CAT5. It will be a little more work with walls intact but not so bad. Since I am thinking of a hot tub (or if not, maybe an elliptical trainer and treadmill), I will likely want to provide cable outlet for wall mount TV.
Any suggestions? Other HA opportunities with this room?