New ceiling needed, keep coving

pompeyrich

Hello a corner of our lounge ceiling fell down, no obvious reason. The ceiling is the old lath and plaster type, plastered to slats of wood. We had it redone about 12 years ago but the lad said he couldn't guarantee it would last due to the size, it's about 18'X13'.

The original plaster coving and ceiling rose are a great feature to the room, is there anyway we could keep these but use platerboard or do we have to get it redone over the old slats or lose the coving? Hope that makes sense, thanks in advance, Rich

BuntyB

No reason why the new platerboard ceiling can't be screwed to the original joists with the original coving in position. Although I'm guessing the ceiling rose would need to be taken down first

phill99

It's almost impossible to take down a lath and plaster ceiling while leaving the original coving and rose in place.

pompeyrich

Thanks for the replies, last time the guy pulled down the old plaster and redone it onto the old laths. Is that a specialist skill or should any plasterer be able to do it? Also is it a satisfactory fix or might we have to start again.

diable

phill99 wrote: »

It's almost impossible to take down a lath and plaster ceiling while leaving the original coving and rose in place.

I did it in a house years ago cut into the ceiling by the coving with an old saw all the way around and then used a shovel to take down the old plaster leaving the lathes then screwed/nailed plasterboard to the ceiling then had it plastered.

My uncle was a builder and was full of good advice as the ceiling is stil in place 25 years later but it's the ex that's in the house lol

phill99

diable wrote: »

I did it in a house years ago cut into the ceiling by the coving with an old saw all the way around and then used a shovel to take down the old plaster leaving the lathes then screwed/nailed plasterboard to the ceiling then had it plastered.

My uncle was a builder and was full of good advice as the ceiling is stil in place 25 years later but it's the ex that's in the house lol

Happy to be proved wrong. Not sure any builder would guarantee the work though!

diable

phill99 wrote: »

Happy to be proved wrong. Not sure any builder would guarantee the work though!

I wasn't a builder but I managed to do the donkey work and plaster boarding but had a great Rasta plasterer do the ceiling that my uncle used on previous jobs.

marymary12

phill99 wrote: »

It's almost impossible to take down a lath and plaster ceiling while leaving the original coving and rose in place.

We have just had our lath and ceiling plaster replaced after part came down - like the OP there was no obvious cause. The original (quite detailed) cornice was cracked and loose along one wall so our builders had to replace that by taking a moulding from the rest of the cornice. The cornicing on three walls and the ceiling rose stayed in place.

The ceiling rose is very unusual and cast onto the plaster of a circular section of ceiling which seemed to be quite well fixed to the laths. The builders managed to cut around this section, fixed new plasterboard over the rest of the ceiling and plastered over the join. We will have the ceiling painted shortly but the join appears very good, even smoother than before.

I hope it is all firmly fixed. It looks great now, although taking down the old ceiling and the plastering was very messy.