Skim with plaster or reboard first

emactatty

We need our small bedroom redecorating. After removing the old wallpaper, the are some big cracks in the ceiling and on the walls - nothing major but need sorting before painting. We've had someone in who says they can skim all the walls and the ceiling and this should be fine but ideally he says it needs the ceiling knocking down and reboarding first. This will obviously cost more and given that he wants £250 for just the skimming, I don't want to spend more than I have to. Any advice?

leighclancy

if plaster boarding and skimming is all thats needed, id save yourself a small fortune and do it yourself. a sheet of plaster board is about £9 at the moment. sure theres some "how to" videos online. its alot, lot, simpler than you may think.

Rosebery_2

emactatty wrote: »

We need our small bedroom redecorating. After removing the old wallpaper, the are some big cracks in the ceiling and on the walls - nothing major but need sorting before painting. We've had someone in who says they can skim all the walls and the ceiling and this should be fine but ideally he says it needs the ceiling knocking down and reboarding first.

Thats nonsense. Unless you have coving up (in which case overboarding is a tad difficult without ruining the effect) then its far far easier to just overboard a damaged ceiling and skim it. The walls can be skimmed without boarding first.

This will obviously cost more and given that he wants £250 for just the skimming, I don't want to spend more than I have to. Any advice?

Whether this is a reasonable price depends on how big the room is and you haven't said.

Cheers

Rosebery_2

leighclancy wrote: »

if plaster boarding and skimming is all thats needed, id save yourself a small fortune and do it yourself. a sheet of plaster board is about £9 at the moment.

£9 for a sheet of plasterboard!!! :eek: Where?? Is it gold plated? :rotfl:

sure theres some "how to" videos online. its alot, lot, simpler than you may think.

Overboarding is simple if you know what you are doing. Skimming it is not and its not a DIY job if you haven't done it before - particularly when you have spent a weekend of evenings and weekends at it (just add up the hours and how much that has cost in real terms - a lot more than £ 250), decide the result is total carp and end up having to pay a pro to do it properly anyway.

Cheers

lisal0u

Hi, we have just had our house boarded and plastered. We decided to only skim the bathroom and boxroom as the plaster didn't seem too bad! Really wish we'd boarded them now as the cracks have just come straight through!

You could make the job cheaper by taking the ceiling down and plaster off yourself! It's very messy but really easy!

Also make sure you get at least 3 quotes! You might get it cheaper!

Lisa

KimYeovil

Why either?

If you are painting surely you want a rough and ready base?

aliasojo

Rosebery wrote: »

£9 for a sheet of plasterboard!!! :eek: Where?? Is it gold plated? :rotfl:

A sheet of 2400 x 1200 half inch foil backed board is about that from our local builder's merchants too.

If you're just overboarding then thinner board will do and it wont need to be foil backed but if the ceiling's coming down and getting completely redone you're better with the thicker stuff....every little helps with regard to sound transference.

No-one likes wasting money but if a job's worth doing etc. If the bloke said he could skim it and it would be fine...why did he also say it would be best pulled down and re-boarded?

aliasojo

KimYeovil wrote: »

Why either?

If you are painting surely you want a rough and ready base?

Usually a smooth, crack free base is best for a good paint finish.

Rosebery_2

aliasojo wrote: »

A sheet of 2400 x 1200 half inch foil backed board is about that from our local builder's merchants too.

OK but foil backed is assuming the spec. Glad I don't buy mine from your merchant then LoL. - just over £ 3 for an 8 x 4 sheet of standard tapered edge 12.5mm from my supplier.

If you're just overboarding then thinner board will do and it wont need to be foil backed but if the ceiling's coming down and getting completely redone you're better with the thicker stuff....every little helps with regard to sound transference.

Agree 9.5mm for overboarding. It really is NOT worth the appalling mess to tear down the old. Overboard it every time IMHO.

...why did he also say it would be best pulled down and re-boarded?

Yes - thats what Idon't understand.

Cheers

kippen_noedel

KimYeovil wrote: »

Why either?

If you are painting surely you want a rough and ready base?

@KY
Because some people want a good quality finish when decorating their home, not everyone would use roughcasting on the interior,as much you might like effect that yourself.

What a silly thing to say. :silenced:


for the OP
it's not such a hard job to just board over the existing ceiling. Make a few small pilot holes to find where the joists are and screw the boards directly on. you can get seam tape to cover the joints and just fill them in with some ordinary filler.

for the walls, unless the plaster really needs completely redoing, just fill in and smooth over with a wet trowel. rub the walls down with sandpaper, make sure all lumps/lines/bumps are removed and hang 1200 grade lining( £2 per roll) paper horizontally for a professional finish.

thechippy

He's probably suggested reboarding the ceiling because the existing one may be in cracked / poor condition. I agree to overboard with the 9.5mm. Use tapered edge board though. Tape the joints, but don't skim them with ordinary filler. Use something made for the job like allset extra - it will go on very smoothly and sand down 100x faster and easier than standard filler.