SFGate

Ironwood Builders First, are you certain it is stucco? If it is a small sledge hammer, a pry bar and a lot of muscle and willpower are needed to take it down. Stucco is laid on wire mesh usually attached to a plywood substrate with staples. It is reinforced concrete, ferrocement. Hard as hammered hockey pucks. Taking it out is dirty and makes a huge mess so site protection and clean up are important. There is a possibility it is a drywall texture (yow!) and can be scraped off. Try that first. If it is super hard you are back to the hammer and wrecking bar.

Ironwood Builders I once took a tour of the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky(?) They have asphalt paved walkways in the cave. I asked the Ranger how they got that done in the fragile cave environment. He said, "With great difficulty".

rinqreation If it is what I think it is (is the plaster a bit chewy?), a heat gun, a trowel/palette knife and lots of patience will do. If it's dry&hard&white, it's probably stucco, you could try a grater. Good luck.

maureenroth We had very heavily textured walls and ceilings in our basement, done 30+ years ago. It took tons of spraying water and scraping and a huge mess, but we did it ourselves. The key was to get it wet.

Interiors International, Inc. I just tore out an archway in a penthouse. It was originally an out side wall. The former owners enclosed the terrace. It took two guys a sledge hammer and metal cutters to do the very messy job. The metal cutters is for the wire mesh holding the stucco on the wall.

maureenroth Best to try a small test area. If it's real stucco, good luck. If it was an inside wall though, it might just be one of those lightweight finishes that used to be popular (for the life of me though, I can't figure out why).