New medicine cabinet install--old walls!

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GaryNYC

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Hi all;
I have a small repair job on a bathroom wall in my old apartment in NYC. I removed the original medicine cabinet from the late 40's, and will put in a wall-mounted unit I already took delivery on. The walls are lath and plaster. The hole the cabinet was in had been framed framed by 2 X 4's, so I just screwed in two more 2X4s vertically/in the center of the hole to give the sheetrock something to bite into. I screwed the sheetrock in and now I have two issues--there is about a 1/4-1/8" difference between the sheetrock and the depth of the actual original wall, the other being the really ragged gap between the old plaster/lath wall and the new sheetrock. What is the best material to use to fill the gap, and what material should I use over the sheetrock to build it up and ultimately meet the depth of the wall? I don't need to do an incredible job, as the new cabinet will cover about 85% of the hole to be patched. Thank you in advance!
 

Gary Swart

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There may be other ways to do this, but what I would do is to start over. If you have a table saw, rip slats off of a 2x4 to the thickness needed to fatten the studs so that they are 1/2" below the old wall level. This would mean the sheet rock will be level with the wall. If you don't have a TS, then try to find lath and/or other material. These pieces would just need to be tacked to the stud, and it doesn't have to be pretty. Another possible approach would be to use screws to sister 2x4 pieces to the sides of the studs to bring the sisters out to the needed depth. I think the shims would be easiest, but whatever method you use, the end result should be the same. It would be very difficult to get a decent looking finish by adding a filler or plaster to the top of the drywall.
 
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