Replacing lath and plaster ceilings?

JuanBallOfWimbledon

We bought our 150 ish year old house in April, the ceilings are original lath and plaster. At a glance they look fine, but there’s thick wallpaper covering them all. We had an electrician round a few weeks ago to fit an extractor in the bathroom, which was put into the ceiling. He said it was the worst ceiling he’d ever worked on ‘an absolute nightmare of a mess’.

We’re planning to totally redecorate next year, and obviously don’t want to do that only to have the ceilings collapse all over our lovely new decor a week later. What are we best doing? We know tearing them down is going to be the job from hell, but would we lose much height by overboarding? We have lovely high ceilings, which was a big selling point when we bought. 

Any solutions we’ve not considered? Which would you go with? 

Thanks in advance. 

dogshome

The difference in thickness between a lathe and plaster ceiling and plaster board which will replace it, is minimal.

However, removing the original ceiling is more than the job from hell - the entire room must be sealed off and and the workers should wear full breathing apperatus

fenwick458

I wouldn't recommend over boarding it's a bodge. can the ceilings take the extra weight? 
removing a lathe n plaster ceiling may be horrible job but it's hardly expensive, just remove all the furniture, protect the floor, tape up the doors to seal all the dust in and smash it down (wearing PPE, a white suit goggle and a mask etc), then bag it up and take it to the tip, it's an easy DIY job

rob7475

I've had a couple of houses with lath and plaster ceilings. The mess from ripping them down is awful. No matter how well you seal the room, the dust will get everywhere. If you're renovating the house, make this one of the first jobs.

It's usually fine to overboard if you want to avoid the mess - I've done it myself in some of our rooms. If you overboard with 9.5mm board using 75mm plasterboard screws into the joists above (I use a detector to find the original nails going into the joists - find both ends of the joist and snap a chalk line along it), it will be solid. Make sure you scrim tape the joints before skimming. Some of my rooms have been done for over 10 years like this with no issues.

FreeBear

Have got lath & plaster ceilings here - They all have cracks in them and some of the nails securing the laths have rusted away. As a consequence, a few small sections are (were) at risk of collapse. Taking the ceilings down is indeed a very messy job, and de-nailing the joists is laborious. You do get a decent pile of very dry kindling though.

Once the ceilings are down, you have an ideal opportunity to sort out any plumbing & electrical issues as well as stuffing more insulation between the joists. The downside is you lose mass which can result in more noise being transmitted through the floor/ceiling. There is also a small loss in fire protection which can be mitigated by using a double layer of fire resistant plasterboard in the kitchen.

If you are ripping down the ceilings, give some thought to insulating the external walls at the same time. It won't add a huge amount to the bill for materials or the plasterer's time - All subject to how much of any period features you wish to preserve.