Wooden ceiling - why?

Snakey

I just viewed a flat which has wooden ceilings in the kitchen and bathroom. It's hard to explain if you don't know what I mean, someone has covered the normal ceiling with some (very nice, neatly done, professional-looking) varnished wood throughout. It's a purpose-built block of flats and so there is no question of there not being a "normal" ceiling behind the panelling.

But, since it's no longer the 1970s and it isn't in keeping with the rest of the decor, I'm stumped as to why anyone would want to do something like this for any cosmetic reason, and am therefore suspicious...

Could it be covering up damp or mould that had come about due to high humidity/poor ventilation in these rooms? If this is the case, and there's rampant God-knows-what breeding underneath there, would a standard survey pick this up?

Or perhaps there was previously a damp/mould problem and the ceilings were put there in order to avoid a repeat? Has anyone ever heard of that? Is it effective, or does it just move the problem a few months or years down the road?

googler

Maybe it was installed in the 1970s, and the owners couldn't face the mess involved in removing it, or couldn't afford to replace it?

SantaKlaus

googler wrote: »

Maybe it was installed in the 1970s, and the owners couldn't face the mess involved in removing it, or couldn't afford to replace it?

Exactly, My parents still have theirs on the ceiling from the early 80's. It still looks brand new too, so maybe this property ceiling still looks new too and they still like it so it doesn't need removing (in their opinion)

AdrianC

Maybe it's purely cosmetic? Maybe somebody liked it that way?

celyn90

My parents have it in their kitchen too, my dad installed it purely because he liked it. It was in fashion once

When we were looking at houses, we viewed one where the entire downstairs had been decorated in this type of Scandinavian sauna chic. Bizarrely, it didn't look too bad as the rooms were large and airy and it was proper wood rather than the wall laminate you see sometimes - and had we bought the house we'd have probably left some of it in place and whitewashed it.

Ivana_Tinkle

There are plenty of people who were young in the 1970s for whom this is the height of sophistication! My parents recently installed it in their kitchen. God knows why.

It may also have been someone's bright idea to cover up Artex.

You could always paint it white.

G_M

Sounds like my bathroom! Pine panelling to walls/ceiling.

And yes, I can't bear thought of workmen traipsing in, waking me up at 8.30, banging around, wanting cups of tea, using my loo... so I just keep it.

LandyAndy

I have it in my kitchen. It's only going when I have a new kitchen. I have it on one wall of my dining room too.

Owain_Moneysaver

I had it in my kitchen until last week. It comes down surprisingly easily once you've got the first strip out.

Quite often it was put up to conceal a ceiling that was in poor condition.

A standard survey will not pick anything up as the ceiling void is likely to be inaccessible unless you or a surveyor can remove a light fitting and poke a borescope up the hole for a look around.

In my case I found the original ceiling sloped badly and was dented, so it will need re-plasterboarding at the least.

If the original ceilings had Artex or similar textured coating from the 1970s it may contain asbestos. Not a problem if you plasterboard over it without disturbing it.

nearlyrich

We put it on the ceiling in the family bathroom 20 years ago, we had a beach hut theme, we don't use that bathroom so it's still there we will get round to removing it one day.

Old_Git

I put it on 15 years ago to cover the temnants off pollystrene tiles