Corner guard installation?

[viralmd]

I live in a lovely pre-war (1926) apartment building in NYC. With old plaster walls.

In my apartment there's a very small hallway that's suffered at the hands of many cleaning ladies because, it's SO small that the corners jutting out from a column have multiple chips from the vacuum cleaner.

I'd like to put lovely oak corner guards on - both to hide the damage that's there, but also to prevent more damage. How do I do this?

Thanks so much!

[HayZee518]

You say the walls are original plaster (circa 1926) so there must be wooden slats called lath beneath the plaster. The guards as you call it would be, what? oak external corner moulding? Here's a suggestion. If in fact you are going to use external corner mouldings, right on the centerline of the corner, drill a clearance hole for a #8 sheetrock screw and countersink this hole so the screwhead is slightly below the corner. apply a thin bead of industrial adhesive to both sides of the angle and screw into the corner [wood lath] the glue will hold the corner together and the screws will bolster the install. At the corner there is usually a full size 2X4 with the lath nailed on. The screw will be penetrating the stud when fully bottomed.

[viralmd]

Yikes, this is WAY more complicated than I suspected. I guess I can't do this myself. Pity....I have absolutely NO idea what's under the plaster, either. The plaster tends to shatter when I try to do ANYTHING (including hanging pictures - even though I take all the appropriate precautions).

But thank you!

[HayZee518]

Its not waaayyy to complicated. try it! I drew a diagram on the steps to do it!

[viralmd]

Thank you for the drawing, but this does look like it's doomed - these walls are old plaster, that shatters all the time, regardless of safeguards. And, I'm sorry, but I'm not a handy kind of person and this is, I'm afraid, WAY too complicated. I'm lucky I have an electric drill in the house, much less figure out how to countersink something.

[HayZee518]

Doc, just try it. You know how to drill a hole don't you? Find a drill bit that will just clear the upper shank of a screw. drill the corner like in the diagram. now take a slightly bigger drill that will cleat the flat part of the screw. drill the corner slightly so the screw head won't be above the surface. Go in about an eighth of an inch. Now take a pilot drill, slightly smaller than the screw threads, hold the molding against the corner and drill into the corner. The take a screw put it into the drilled moulding, locate the hole in the corner and scre it in. don't reef down so hard as to split the moulding, just enough to secure it. do this every so many inches , say, 8 inches apart. you don't need to remove the moulding for successive screw, just go slowly. Please try it! Don't condemn yourself for being a failure. you weren't that way in med school!