Thursday, October 8, 2015

Interesting Reuses for Lath

Since our local landfill won't take plaster and lath, we have been exploring alternate ways to dispose of it. My original plan was to simply burn the lath, but I have since found some possibly better ways to use the lath.

Funnily, I didn't actually remember that this trash can I bought a couple years ago was made from lath. I think I'll run some of the pieces through our planer and see how they look.

Another imaginative use is where you simply glue the strips together along the wide sides.


There is actually a company in Seattle that makes a business of selling furniture made from reclaimed lath. This looks like a very interesting idea. I wonder if I'll ever get bored enough to start gluing lath together. LOL

There are some seriously cool projects made from salvaged lath. I'm quite sure I'm not this ambitious.


This one looks to be more within our skill set.

3 comments:

  1. Those look like nice ideas. I've built a few things out of old lath, including a small wooden crate my wife wanted for decoration. I hate throwing things out, so I've saved most of it, and find it useful as shims for various woodworking and construction project. I used quite a bit as spacers when I sided my garage with clapboards in a rainscreen detail.

    I'd be careful about planing used lath, though, as the sand and grit from plaster is going to eat through planer blades quickly.

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    1. What do you suggest then? How do you clean up the lath you reuse?

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    2. I just use a random-orbit sander to clean off the loose plaster and take off the roughness. You can leave some of the rough texture of the wood if you're going for that look.

      There's certainly nothing wrong with running them through a planer, but you'll wear through blades faster than normal.

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