ANSWERED!! A wood what is it, but really its a why is it? 110 yr old ANSWERED!!

[william_b_noble]

if I were to guess, I would say that it is left over from construction - a small piece of wood driven into a corner stud would be handy for a snap line, for example, and once you are done, just snap of hte protuding piece - that way you don't waste a nail.

[Branson]

i agree when ur fixing 1 or 2 studs, but all the corners were out plumb at least 3/4" in 8',  none of the studs were on plane with anything, nothing carried centers, so i plumbed corners chalked some lines and strapped on plane. putting sheet up vertical so no butts to tape. no insulation in the walls so we insulated and put new mechanic'ls in.  we call this 10 year project, "fun with dad". been here off and on 7 year now. thanks

I didn't mean the work that you  did, but easier and more practical than making a split in the 2X and pounding in a wedge -- the original whatsit post.
Sorry to have been unclear.

[wrenchguy]

"I didn't mean the work that you  did, but easier and more practical than making a split in the 2X and pounding in a wedge -- the original whatsit post.
Sorry to have been unclear."

no problem, i did think u posted about the work i was doing and it is alot of work. sorry tobe so defensive. i type with 1 finger and can hardly spell or talk coherent most time.

[fflintstone]

The first house I owned was built in 1901 and was balloon framed. There was a fair amount of stuff in both the walls and plaster.  Bobby pins and hair in the plaster and so much stuff I can’t remember in the stud bays. Newspapers stapled to the sheeting. We found an interesting trade magazine called “the washroom” we framed a few advertisements from it and put them in our laundry room.

[rusty]

>Bobby pins and hair in the plaster

Animal hair was more valuable for stuffing furniture and such, human hair (barber shop clippings) had a market tho, and some of it went into plaster as an alternative to horsehair....

Nothing went to waste back then, there was a use for anything and everything, because there was nothing at all that was so cheap you could just throw it away...

I was looking through patent files earlier, and there was a patent for a device for repairing incandescent light bulbs....Remember when a light bulb was worth enough to even consider *repairing* it?

My friends 100+ year old house yielded some clay marbles, and a 3rd grade reading book...
Oddly, they came from the kitchen wall, we surmise that the kitchen was once a bedroom or playroom or such...

(By far the funniest phone call I ever got was from him trying to figure out why his porch light wouldn't work. The fellow is an electrical engineer, and he was totally baffled. The house had single conductor knob and tube wires...going off in opposite directions....)

[clovis]

Okay, I know this thought is really out there, but bear with me for a minute:

I think the wood driven into the corner studs is a way to mark off how deep the base coat plaster should be.

In those days, plaster was the one thing that could be used to true up a room or wall. Considering how much green, native lumber was used in those days shows how out of square a wall or room could be. Supporting this theory is that the OP may have had to shim out the wall with new 1 x stock to make them true.

Sadly, I've seen a number of people destroy perfect plaster walls that were as solid and as flat as you could ever imagine, only because it made them feel like they were "doing something with these old walls" while they "were fixin' this old place up". Once they had painstakingly destroyed the old plaster, they found walls that were so wavy that you could surf down them, and not a one of them true or square, especially for new drywall or trim. And then they cuss the old house because it was so out of square, and fill 1" gaps between the new trim and new drywall with a tube and a half of caulk.       

I don't know if anyone else has worked much with new plaster for restoration work, but I've found it can be a little hard to figure out where to bring your scratch coat, especially if you are coating a wall of lath without any other reference point. It certainly takes a while to get a feel for the depth when applying your base coat.

It is my estimation that the wood driven into the corners, and not found anywhere else is to allow the plaster men to gauge two walls at the same time. Otherwise, one wall might be 3/4" thick. another might be 1/2" thick, and yet another, be 3/8" thick, all in the same room.

These wood shims might have also allowed the plaster crews to start a house with the base coat before the trim carpenters got to the job. It was standard procedure then to hang the trim first, and then start the plaster after the trim was finished.

Those wood shims might have been a reference point for lath crews, plaster crews, or the trim men, but my guess is that they were for the plaster guys for depth and keeping a wall true and square. 
 
     

[Neals]

Clovis I think you have it.

[wrenchguy]

no way, the shim didn't show up till i removed the wood lath.  the lath runs out of the inside corner pictured then to the right.  Einstein the photo and u see where the lath nail hole is left of the shim.  the shim is practically flush with both planes, it looks proud but that is the texture of the end grain creating the effect.  there is no good plaster left in this house.

[clovis]

Okay, it was just a guess.

FWIW, I wasn't dogging on you personally about removing plaster. For instance, I know a guy that bought a two story Queen Anne, and was just about to gut the entire upstairs, with a cost of $5,500 for new drywall, because there were 3 bad spots of plaster, less than 6 inches square each. I offered to help fix the plaster, with a materials cost of $18, and saved weeks waiting for a drywall crew. But in his mind, the only thing to do was gut wall after wall of solid plaster, just to make himself feel like he was really doing something.

Sometimes, those walls are impossible to save, especially if the house has shifted badly and broken all the keys in a wall, for example...and sometimes there is no way around removing them.

[wrenchguy]

Okay, it was just a guess.

FWIW, I wasn't dogging on you personally about removing plaster. For instance, I know a guy that bought a two story Queen Anne, and was just about to gut the entire upstairs, with a cost of $5,500 for new drywall, because there were 3 bad spots of plaster, less than 6 inches square each. I offered to help fix the plaster, with a materials cost of $18, and saved weeks waiting for a drywall crew. But in his mind, the only thing to do was gut wall after wall of solid plaster, just to make himself feel like he was really doing something.

Sometimes, those walls are impossible to save, especially if the house has shifted badly and broken all the keys in a wall, for example...and sometimes there is no way around removing them.

i didn't think u were dogging me. i know u were coming from way out there like u said.
this place was built with undersize floor/ceiling joist and the wood beams in the basement aren't that great either. plaster is badly cracked and powderlike all over the place. the  inside ain't been taken care for 50 year except paint being slopped allover the place. at least we ain't got termites.

thanks

[wvtools]

Are they usually the same distance off the floor?  I noticed that one was broken off and one was sawed off.  Could the carpenter have inserted a piece of wood to hang their hat, coat, or something else on during the construction?  Or perhaps they pinned plans or drawings to the piece of wood?

[wrenchguy]

Are they usually the same distance off the floor?  I noticed that one was broken off and one was sawed off.  Could the carpenter have inserted a piece of wood to hang their hat, coat, or something else on during the construction?  Or perhaps they pinned plans or drawings to the piece of wood?

no, all over the place where i seen them.

if ur interested here are a couple other sites i have this posted, some good stuff.

http://www.oldhouseweb.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=36797
http://www.owwm.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=123455

[wrenchguy]

LINK TO ANSWER I THINK .  I ASKED FOR MORE INFO.
 Scroll up to Davids answer. http://lumberjocks.com/topics/43064
thanks

[Branson]

David's answer looks like the real thing.  That would let moisture escape, not just from the wicking properties of the wedge, but from the split opened by the wedge. 

It's odd to me, though, that so much green lumber would be used.  I'm used to the practice of felling trees when the sap is down towards the end of winter.  I still remember my great-uncle complaining about the lumber available in the late '50s.  He grimaced at what was available to him, saying the wood was so green you could still hear the birds tweeting.  He learned the trade from his father, who was a master carpenter at the turn of the 19th Century.

[wrenchguy]

David's answer looks like the real thing.  That would let moisture escape, not just from the wicking properties of the wedge, but from the split opened by the wedge. 

It's odd to me, though, that so much green lumber would be used.  I'm used to the practice of felling trees when the sap is down towards the end of winter.  I still remember my great-uncle complaining about the lumber available in the late '50s.  He grimaced at what was available to him, saying the wood was so green you could still hear the birds tweeting.  He learned the trade from his father, who was a master carpenter at the turn of the 19th Century.

from 1890 to 1915, plymouth cordage company had a huge increase in building at the plant and the cordage built over 300 homes during this time. this maybe the reason why green lumber was used.  they started a carpenter shop with school in 1885 to keep the work in house and build as fast as they could for new workers. after 1910 they started erecting sears homes.  my daughters house was precut at the carpenter shop.  look at this rafter tails, they show and the scroll cut was done on band saw at shop. the rafters were 2x10 eastern white pine.