What is our ceiling made of?

andrew-b

Looks like the plasterboard to me. We have got the same woodchip on the bedroom ceilings but when renovating the spare room we just left it up and painted over. However in my renovations of our house (built around1955) i've also found areas of plasterboard (above windows that cover over the wooden lintels) that appear identical to what you have revealed in your ceiling - brownish/yellowy paper outer skin (similar to a thick lining paper) and grey plaster within. So you've scraped a bit too far on that patch and gone through the outer paper of the plasterboard.
I'd continue with it and try your best not to dig your scraper in too far.
When you've peeled all the paper off you'll probably find all the yellowy brown paper of the plasterboard has gone all fluffy..i just diluted down some PVA (5:1 water : pva i think) and brushed it over to seal it. Where you damage i'd use some filler or tub of patching plaster to make good. Rather than getting a plasterer in you could line it with lining paper (gently sand the paper joins with a fine grade sandpaper you won't even notice them by the time you've painted) - depends what the condition is like after the woodchip comes off.

Andy

helping_hubby

andrew-b wrote: »

Looks like the plasterboard to me. We have got the same woodchip on the bedroom ceilings but when renovating the spare room we just left it up and painted over. However in my renovations of our house (built around1955) i've also found areas of plasterboard (above windows that cover over the wooden lintels) that appear identical to what you have revealed in your ceiling - brownish/yellowy paper outer skin (similar to a thick lining paper) and grey plaster within. So you've scraped a bit too far on that patch and gone through the outer paper of the plasterboard.
I'd continue with it and try your best not to dig your scraper in too far.
When you've peeled all the paper off you'll probably find all the yellowy brown paper of the plasterboard has gone all fluffy..i just diluted down some PVA (5:1 water : pva i think) and brushed it over to seal it. Where you damage i'd use some filler or tub of patching plaster to make good. Rather than getting a plasterer in you could line it with lining paper (gently sand the paper joins with a fine grade sandpaper you won't even notice them by the time you've painted) - depends what the condition is like after the woodchip comes off.

Andy

Thanks for that Andy. I suspect then the same stuff is in all the other rooms. We've just painted over the ceilings upstairs, but they are in much better condition. We're getting the whole living room walls plastered, so we figured we'd have the ceiling done too to make at least one room in the house perfect And it'll be the room we spend most time in, so it sort of makes sense.

helping_hubby

I'm confused.

I bought a steamer today and tackled the ceiling. The nail I mentioned seems to go through the brown paper, implying that the paper is part of the board. Is there a paper covering on plasterboard usually? I've been googling and there are mentions of a paper covering. But how on earth am I supposed to strip to the paper cover? That's impossible.

I think it might be time to get plasterers in for quotes so I can ask them what to do.

misgrace

If it was a white chalky substance, then it could have been distemper, and you would normally have to scrape and wash it all off with Sugar soap, but as your going to board it again, then no problem.

helping_hubby

Just called a plasterer. He says we can unibond the ceiling (over the woodchip) and then plaster it. Does that sound like an OK solution or something that might come back and bite us?

He also quoted about £400 for doing the walls and ceiling based on 22 foot room, 10 - 12 wide (a sort of L shaped room), with an archway in one of the walls.

It sounds good to me, sort of what I had in my head. What do you guys think?

Danosaur

I'm not an expert, but I have plastered a bit. I wouldn't plaster over wallpaper of any type myself. It just sounds a bit of a bodge. Preparation is probably the most important aspect of any decorating. I'm fairly sure that experts will agree with this. All that will be holding the plaster on is the paste that held the wallpaper on.

helping_hubby

Just an update...

I had a plasterer around and he said what i thought was woodchip is actually artex stippled. He says it can be unibonded and plastered right over.