Cost of a 'new ceiling'?

Kill_Face

We've got a 3 bedroom house with some /lovely/ polystyrene ceiling tiles throughout. We've got a quote for removing the tiles who suggested that the easiest thing to do would be to bring down and refit the underlying plasterboard.

The quote includes skipping out the old tiles and plasterboard, fitting new 12mm plasterboard, tidying up the joints, and re-plastering.

Sounds like quite a major job... but is it £2,000 worth (before VAT)?

I'm pretty handy with a lump hammer... If I attempted the first part myself, could I mess it up and end up causing them more work in the long run? Am I underestimating how hard it will be to tear down the existing ceiling?

Cheers,

Kill_Face

Ohh... and we've been quoted £600 to £1000 for fitting insulation at the same time (depending on grade).

elsien

The tiles might not be that hard to fetch off - mine came down with very little effort at all, and the ceiling just needed skimming afterwards.
Has anyone tried to take a couple off to see what's underneath - sounds a bit extreme (and very messy) to be fetching all the ceilings down without investigating a bit first.

HappyMJ

It's messy but you could easily bring the old stuff down yourself. If you are handy with a lump hammer why don't you try the whole lot yourself. You'll need a mate to help you hold the boards up while you nail them in. Then just plaster over the gaps and paint. The cornicing is a bit difficult getting the angles right so you could just someone in to do the cornice. I'd leave the insulation and then get a grant to get it installed for free in the roof space once the work has been done.

Kill_Face

We thought about having the existing cornicing removed to be honest... Figured a nice square would look nicer... Is there any actual function to the cornice?

Kill_Face

HappyMJ wrote: »

I'd leave the insulation and then get a grant to get it installed for free in the roof space once the work has been done.

This is downstairs and up.

Kill_Face

elsien wrote: »

sounds a bit extreme (and very messy) to be fetching all the ceilings down without investigating a bit first.

The dude mentioned some kind of bonding that's a pain to strip... but you're absolutely right, I should have a go with a spatula at least!

elsien

I think it depends who put it up and how conscientious they were. Mine looked like a diy job and they'd not used a very strong adhesive.

HappyMJ

Kill_Face wrote: »

This is downstairs and up.

You wouldn't need insulation downstairs. You would want a little bit of the heat to leak out of the downstairs rooms and into the upstairs rooms. As long as little heat as possible leaks from the building as a whole then only upstairs is required to be insulated.

phill99

Why take hem all down? Why not just overboard over the existing plasterboard and poly tiles? Much easier, quicker and cheaper all round.

sebastianj

The tiles are there to hide something IMO, may be it needs to come down. It will be very dusty, clearing up is a major problem. Fitting plaster boards and skimming it is much easier. If you can deal with the clearing up then I would suggest, have a go. Because who ever does it cannot avoid dust.
sebastian