reboard ceiling please help with quotes

halia

Hi all, we're redecorating our main bedroom (16x12) in a Victorian house.

The ceiling is pretty old, not lathe and plaster but probably not modern plasterboard and its got old (and fully dried out) water damage from leaks etc.

We'd like it either skimmed or if needed reboarded and then skimmed. There is coving round the room but there is a good 2-3cm of 'step' where the coving joins the ceiling and I'm okay to lose that slight lip if new board is added.

I had a plasterer today who insisted that he couldn't reboard or skim the ceiling that he'd have to take the entire ceiling down, take of the original coving (which couldn't then be replaced) redo ceiling, replaster walls as they would be damaged by taking down coving and then fit new modern coving. He quoted at least £1,500 and probably closer to £2,000 for this.

I KNOW the 'proper' way to do it would be to completly gut the room, rip off everything to bare joists and brick and replaster etc but I simply can't afford it.

Anyone any ideas of quotes for just doing the ceiling as I originally wanted? and how to convince tradesmen that I DO want that and not advice on far more costly work.

jason_s_2

:eek: £2000:eek: Can you hear those 2 words....'JOG ON' :rotfl: . Serious tho £2000, he's taking you for a mug. If you want it just skimmed then the price would be approx £150-£200. If the ceiling was to have to come down then i would say approx £1000.
To take the coving down - approx 1 1/2 hrs.
To take the ceiling down - approx 2-3 hrs.
To reboard ceiling - approx 3 hrs.
To reskim ceiling half a day.
Then when dry half a day to do the coving.
And another factor that sometimes comes into it is where you live. If he charges those rates he must drive a bentley :rotfl: .

Jase

madeane

£150-£200 is about right for a skim, extra for the plasterboard and fixings. Any reputable tradesman will give you advice as to the achievable end result etc. This joker is on the make, as jason_s says, tell him to jog on!! If you're anywhere near Nottingham, PM me and I'll come and have a look.

halia

Thanks, I had another plasterer today who agreed that it could be reskimmed and there was no reason the board that was up there needed to come down unless I WANTED to replace the coving or do something clever with lights.

He quoted £200 for the skim which sounds about right.

nelly_2

I'll do it for 2 grand please

paintpot

Plasterers can take the absolutely p**s so believe these guys. Another point to note, when taing down old ceilings in Victorian houses, it creates a terrible mess - I've done it. Black soot everywhere, yours may not be the original and so not so bad but who knows. The plasterers look like they have just walked out of coal mine when they have done mine so I try and void if at all possible! It's pretty horrendous especially on a furnished house.

nelly_2

paintpot wrote: »

Plasterers can take the absolutely p**s so believe these guys. Another point to note, when taing down old ceilings in Victorian houses, it creates a terrible mess - I've done it. Black soot everywhere, yours may not be the original and so not so bad but who knows. The plasterers look like they have just walked out of coal mine when they have done mine so I try and void if at all possible! It's pretty horrendous especially on a furnished house.

I refuse to take ceilings down these days its not worth the agro overboarding is far better

ukwoody

halia wrote: »

and how to convince tradesmen that I DO want that and not advice on far more costly work.

As tradesmen we should always be able to give both the "correct" way to do things, and suggest alternatives and ways of reducing the costs and complying with the wishes of our customers.
Any tradesmen who refuses to listen you your wants and try to incorperate, is probably not worth having.
That said, please bear in mind when for reasons of either saftey, longetivity or "best practice" the advice really should be adhered to.

In this instance as Jas has said I cannot see any reason why the ceiling cannot be skimmed.
woody

nelly_2

ukwoody wrote: »

In this instance as Jas has said I cannot see any reason why the ceiling cannot be skimmed.
woody

I can...well heres some things I have encountered anyway.

Serious cracking...its alwways safer to re-board.

Serious bumps humps and old leak damage

Spongeyfloppage <

---

my own word

Some really old lath ceilling become seriously spongey and floppy and you can push then up half an inch or more between joists.

Re-skimming any one of the above is not a good idea.

However I seriously agree with everything else you said mate

jason_s_2

Yup agree with ya there nelly had one of those a couple of months ago(spongyfloppy thingymagigy's), customer was saying it only needed skimming, when i gave i a little push the ceiling moved a couple of cm. Told her that it was not safe just to reskim, and if she still only wanted it skimmed then i wouldn't do it. Luckily she saw sense and had it boarded aswell.

halia

nelly wrote: »

I can...well heres some things I have encountered anyway.

Serious cracking...its alwways safer to re-board.

Serious bumps humps and old leak damage

Spongeyfloppage <

---

my own word

Some really old lath ceilling become seriously spongey and floppy and you can push then up half an inch or more between joists.

Re-skimming any one of the above is not a good idea.

However I seriously agree with everything else you said mate

I'd agree with all of that and I was okay to overboard it if absolutly needed but I went up on ladders and did a 'prod' test.

No damp
No floppy ness
None of it came down whilst I was Steam Stripping the woodchip off despite some fairly heavy duty push and scrape tactics to shift the stubborn wallpaper
Old water leak STAIN but only minimal damage (ie an area 20cm long and no more than 1cm wide at edge of one board which was a bit damaged)
No cracks

So I'm happy to get it skimmed, I do think some tradesmen do themselves out of a job by trying to hard to upsell you.