IMO that textured ceiling needs to anyway. Is that piece od mesh folde up into the ceiling ? Make you life simpler and the finished job nicer looking if you do the ceiling in a smooth finish just like the walls I hope.

that looks like metal lathe and plaster. Why are you being so careful? I've always just used the back of my hammer poke a hole and pull like hell. Or put 5/8 drywall up on wall and 1/2 where the metall sticks out an 1/8"

That type of mesh was used with plaster in the 50's. That is plaster that you are messing with, not drywall. It is a lot more work, and dust and dirt to deal with than drywall. Here is your old post. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5894551/plaster-drywall-need-help

following

As opposed to fake metal mesh?

You are demo'ing a bathroom with mesh/cement walls? or a plaster wall?

You need a 4" grinder and metal cut off wheel. Dangerous tool if you dont know what your doing. Wear a FULL FACE mask not just goggles or glasses the discs can break and when they do they explode and the disc become shrapnel.

It is most likely also a plaster ceiling and is under the ceiling so either cut it off of your going to pull the perimeter of the ceiling down.

If you can hammer down just sheetrock over it.

By the way thats when things were built to last and were done correctly.

Use a 4” angle grinder with a metal cutting blade to cut it off at the inside corner. I’ve tried everything and this was by far the easiest.

In areas where you haven’t demoed cut the corner with the grinder first so the wall plaster comes off cleanly. Saves a ton of time. I mean it’s still a pain...

thanks for all the input. I ended up just calling a pro to come do it. I am glad that I did because I would have driven myself crazy and ended up tearing down the ceiling. the ceiling is in good condition over all which is why I am not tearing it down. It looks worse in the pic because that's the part close to the demo. And I am 95% certain that what I was dealing with was not plaster. I posted about it a week ago asking what it was and everyone told me it was a older technique of drywall they used from the 40s to the 60s. I know it's not plaster because it is a layer of 1/4 inch drywall with about a half inch layer of a cement-like texture. Besides, since doing research, I realized that the texture of my walls was too smooth and uniform to be plaster. and there was no lathe. The metal mesh was only around the corners and no over the entire wall areas. I thought plaster had to have lathe behind it. In any case, it's all gone now... i'll be putting up the modern drywall sometime this week. thanks again for the help guys.

and I realize that that stuff was made to last. it was hell taking it down. I wouldn't have taken it down if it had been salvageable but it wasn't. The prior owners had ruined it when they put up the wood paneling so when I tore the panels off, the adhesive and the nails left it in such disrepair that there was no way I was going to be able to save it. There were huge gauged out holes in the walls everywhere from the nails... some holes were as big as golf balls and you could see inside the wall haha. I jus didn't feel comfortable slapping a "band-aid" over it so that I could save some money. I think it would've been more work than just replacing it because all the adhesive needed to be scraped off and then to patch the holes left behind and remud the wall to make it smooth again... just would've been more trouble than it was worth. Most of the other rooms still have this drywall and is still in decent or good condition so I won't be touching those. There is just one bedroom and the bathroom that have the wood panels that I will be taking down. But not sure if I should take them down and just do a 1/4 drywall over the existing drywall to save myself from having to demo it all like I did to this living room. Or even just not take down the panels and redryall over them... what do yall think?

The drywall-like backing board is called rock lath, and it was used in place of wooden lathe, probably starting in about the late 30's. It usually came in smaller sizes than drywall (4'x4' sheets?), and sometimes it had holes in it (1/4"-1/2"?) so that the 2nd coat (of plaster) could push through and adhere better. The metal mesh you found was used in the corners to reinforce the joint between the wall and the ceiling.

Plaster walls in my area were made with a very smooth finish, and sometimes they added thin white wallpaper on top. I've been told that new plaster needed to cure for about 30 days, and the white paper was used instead of paint when someone wanted to occupy the house right away.

I've had to cut through quite a bit of the metal mesh and its a lot harder and/or thicker than it looks. It will really chew up a sawzall demo blade very quickly, so I agree that an angle grinder probably works better.

Bruce

Call a pro. They are good.

"Call a pro. They are good."

If only that were always true.