Removing plaster from walls is never easy even if the plaster has blown and is barely attached to the wall anymore, it is still a dirty and messy job. You can remove plaster from walls using a hammer and bolster chisel but it is time consuming, in some cases where the plaster has blown completely you can remove it using a spade. Before attempting to remove the plaster it is a good idea to close the door to the room and seal it completely, perhaps using a zip door. You will also need some good quality PPE before starting this job such as Safety footwear, safety glasses, hearing protection, Safety gloves and a dust mask. You will also need either a pair of old overalls or a pair of disposable overalls.
Removing plaster is much easier with an SDS drill that has a Roto-stop function and a tile removal chisel, this is probably the quickest way of removing plaster.
When using the machine it is essential that you keep it on an angle to the wall of approximately 45 degrees, if you use it at 90 degrees to the wall you run the risk of loosening the bricks.
You can see here that the machine really makes light work of removing this plaster. One person removed the plaster from a wall measuring 2.4 metres by 3.2 metres in about 30 minutes, but cleaning up afterwards took a couple of hours.
This is the wall once the plaster had been removed, this was cleaned up further using a wire brush before it was plaster boarded. The plaster was bagged up into rubble sacks and taken to the local tip. Once the plaster has been removed you might want to take a look at these pages- Direct bond plasterboard | Plasterboard fixing foam | How to plaster a wall with backing plaster | Plaster skimming
