Pull down the Ceilings??!

Arddon

fellow boarders - i am renovating a house and i am becoming a bit pee-ed off with it...

currently i have an issue with the ceilings....these are a beautiful feat of construction...i'm sure some of ye have come across them before...they are latted - 1" strips of wood pinned on every joist...they are then basically the same as the walls...1-2" layer of sand/cement and then a thin layer of lime plaster.

i had hoped to just plate over these, screw plasterboards to the joists, assuming plasterer can locate the joists...and then skim them...however a builder/plasterer, who hasnt priced the job, but is doing some building work for my mother has advised strongly that i rip the existing ceilings out and that if i dont, in 5yrs approx i will see cracks forming around the edges...he has previously worked on neighbouring houses so he does know the construction of them.

what do you think, rip them out or not?

ART6

Arddon wrote: »

fellow boarders - i am renovating a house and i am becoming a bit pee-ed off with it...

currently i have an issue with the ceilings....these are a beautiful feat of construction...i'm sure some of ye have come across them before...they are latted - 1" strips of wood pinned on every joist...they are then basically the same as the walls...1-2" layer of sand/cement and then a thin layer of lime plaster.

i had hoped to just plate over these, screw plasterboards to the joists, assuming plasterer can locate the joists...and then skim them...however a builder/plasterer, who hasnt priced the job, but is doing some building work for my mother has advised strongly that i rip the existing ceilings out and that if i dont, in 5yrs approx i will see cracks forming around the edges...he has previously worked on neighbouring houses so he does know the construction of them.

what do you think, rip them out or not?

How old is the house?? They haven't built ceilings like that since Long John Silver had an egg on his shoulder! Personally I'd rip 'em out since I wouldn't think you'd ever get a good result by trying to plasterboard over them.

PirateShampoo

The house must be well old for it to be done that way.

Like he said above, just rip them down and start over, it will save you alot of hassle and time.

Carpenter

Hi
Is the flooring up over it if so it is 1 easy job but if it is not up man are you in for a hard time best thing to use is a shovel to pry the latthing off by the way they used to us horse hair in them days (Put on a dust mask) the dust gets everywhere.

gsxr1

oh dear god . ripping down that type of ceiling give me horrible memory's of my apprenticeship.

Ye will be spitting dust and spider poo for the next week.

has to come down though.

Arddon

yeah its an old house folks, old as the feckin hills

i've already ripped out a few similarly built walls and i think i've knocked 5yrs off my life, and that is using a dustmask.

its unanimous though - RIP THEM DOWN

in relation to the floors being up - they will be as I have to move rads n need to access the piping so i gues i can put my boot down through them then

cheers for the verdicts folks

i still think the worst part of it all will be pulling the fecking nails out of the joists....tedious or what?

The Hill Billy

I had the same problem myself when renovating my place (almost 160yo 2-storey stone cottage).

I ripped the buggers out. Made a few holes in the lath & plaster with the handle of a spade & then using a 4 foot-long pinch-bar ripped the laths out. It is a dirty bloody job. Get a carpenters pincers for removing the tacks left behind. I pulled almost 2000 of them one afternoon. The rounded head makes it a lot easier than using a pliers.

Wear goggles too, as you never know what cr@p is going to fall on you. On my first pull I got a dead mouse in the face.

Best of luck!

Arddon

cheers hill billy - actually have one of those (pinchers) but never would've dreamed of using them - but will now, anything for an easy life!

hopefully no dead mice though...think i'm gonna lift the floor boards n kick them down, i have to lift the boards anyways to redirect pipes...

qc3

if possible,can you lift the flooring first.you can walk on the joice and knock the ceiling down from above. a lot less dusk in in your face.
sorry,didn't see your last post. was replying to the first one.