Lath & Plaster ceilings must come down

trv9865

Hi all

We've just bought a house with l&p ceilings and had a plasterer round to give a quote for skimming, but he said the ceilings had "distemper", which means they cant be skimmed. Our options are to either take down the ceilings or board over the existing ceilings.
I'd like to investigate further the route of taking these ceilings down because I'd like to have downlights put in and I suppose to put my mind at ease that the ceiling wont come down on us unexpectedly 1 day (this happened while we were visiting a friend before & the mess was horrendous & turned a beautiful dining room into black dust cave - & this was only in a small corner of the room). We are not living in the property and have about 3 days to take the ceilings down before the plumber starts work next Monday and the walls will all be replastered anyway, together with new flooring.

Can anyone let me know if what I'm thinking of doing will work: If I put up heavy duty tarpaulin about 50mc below the ceiling, then go up into the loft with a saw and cut the l&p down close to the joists as possible and hopefully the mess will all go onto the tarpaulin and clearing/ getting it out will be easier as we can carry it outside/ chuck it out the window (carfully)... Im hoping this would minimise the the dust matter.

Would this work do you think? If not can anyone suggest a way of making it easier?

Barneysmom

I would board straight over top make it cleaner.
You'll save about £100 on a skip too.

wallbash

Im hoping this would minimise the the dust matter.

:rotfl::rotfl:


Dream on .

Three days to do it . One hour to take ceiling down , Two hours to remove the nails , still leaves you two and a half days to clear up .
You will need it.

trv9865

Glad to have made you laugh Wallbash! :-)
Novice DIYer here and I'm hoping my idea will work. Have you done this before? Would my technique at taking them down work though or am I better just pulling it down the usual way?

Barneysmom > I know boarding over would be easier and probably cheaper, but I dont think I'll be able to sleep at night knowing that I've got l&p above me, which is over 120 years old as I've seen the mess it can cause if it falls down unexpectedly!!

keystone

trv9865 wrote: »

but I dont think I'll be able to sleep at night knowing that I've got l&p above me, which is over 120 years old as I've seen the mess it can cause if it falls down unexpectedly!!

But if you board over it it can't because the new boards will be holding it up!!! New boards to screwed into the joists BTW and NOT just anyoldwhere into the plaster. Taking it down is a nightmare - Wallbash is spot on.

Cheers.

ilikewatch

Strangely enough I've just spent today doing this myself. Although your tarpaulin idea sounds good in principle, have you any idea how much a lath and plaster ceiling will weigh when removed? The ceiling I removed today was 12' x 12' and I'd estimate the rubble weighed about quarter of a ton - you might struggle to hold the tarp up!

vaio

I’m sitting here putting off going upstairs to take the other half of mine down, there is no easy way and the suspended tarp idea is a none starter.

My method is get up in the loft and just knock the bulk of it down with your tool of choice, then come down and remove the straggler bits from underneath.

Next stage (after cup of tea or two) is to pick out all the big bits of lath then grab the corners of your trap or carpet and pull to move all the mess into a big easy to shovel pile in the middle of the room. Bag or wheel barrow away and you are done. A room about 10 x 10 ended up in 20 rubble bags.

If the l&p is basically sound & flat then I’d certainly overboard. The reason mine is coming down is because I need access to rafter/wall plate junction and some of the plaster has lost its bond with the lath (hollow sound & moved up when gently pushed)

27col

If the ceiling that you are talking about is on the ground floor the mess should not be too bad. If the ceiling is an upstairs one then there would be a hell of a mess. However, most of the mess and dirt will be due to the accumulated dirt and dust that has built up in the roof space over the years. If you want to minimise this then I suppose that you could get up into the loft with a vacuum cleaner first. If it is an empty house I would just get on with it and clear up the mess in one go after the ceiling is down. But, as others have said the sensible alternative is to get it over-boarded and skimmed. Done properly there is no chance that it would fall down.

wallbash

Have you done this before?

:rotfl:

Yes , have posted on this before, my thread included the words .... like sticking your head in a bucket of soot.Not only did I remove one ceiling , it was all ceilings and upstairs walls ( L&P)As 27col says , its all the mess from '100years' waiting to fall.
The lathes make the best fire in the world!

diable

Seal the room as you enter wear a mask and take the ceiling down, no easy way to do it.

Tom_Jones

Get up in the loft with a shovel, and hit the living daylights out of the ceiling....................wear a mask though