New ceiling quote?

deedums

We've just had a quote for £1100 to replace the kitchen ceiling & fix new inset lights. It involves:

removing old ceiling, fitting new plasterboard ceiling and skimming over in kitchen.
fitting approx 6 new inset downlights with all the necessary wiring to kitchen & approx 6 inset lights & wiring to dining area. To fit the lights in the dining area they have to take the floorboards up in the bedroom above.
the kitchen is 12' x 10' and the dining area 8' 6 x 7'

I don't know what I was expecting but felt this was a tad expensive! Does anyone have any idea if this is reasonable please?

cargo

Does the cieling really need removing?Is the cieling constructed of lathe and plaster?The ceiling in some/most situations can be underboarded with plaster board and then skimmed thus saving lots of mess and saving you a fair bit of money.
I don't know where you live but here in Manchester and I can only say from a Plastering point of view to underboard the cieling and skim finish i would say a reasonable price for that part of the job would be around £400.

gods_gift

Hi,The ceiling would proberly need bringing down because of the holes for the lighting and the wiring and transformers etc.(as downlighters get very hot)
I guess the problem is that you will need differant trades to do the work.
Cheapest way would be to replace the ceiling you're self if you can, and only have to pay the spark for the 1st and 2nd fixes.
Also taping the joints on a feather edged board and sanding would save on the plasterer.

feival

That seems a lot to me. As mentioned above they can screw battons onto the ceiling and then put plasterboard on followed by a skim. AS to spot lights yet that is a problem BUT can you access teh ceililgn from the room above. If so that may make life a lot easier - depends upon the floor board. Actually thinking about it the lights won't be a problem. You can bring down teh existing cable for the light fighting and run the spots from that. There will be space between teh old ceiling and the plasterboard to run teh cbale between.

deedums

Thanks to you all for replying. Sorry for the delay in geting back to you but I haven't checked for replies recently.

We actually had the work done last week. We needed the new kitchen ceiling because the roof had leaked previously! When it came to doing the work we also needed a new ceiling in the dining area because that was all uneven as well

Anyway it looks lovely now and I can see what I'm doing again, so hopefully it's been worth the cost