Polystyrene ceiling tiles

[eloisah]

throughout a 3 bed house! anyone have a clue what we should expect to pay to get them removed and the ceilings skimmed?

How old is the house? One of our houses had lath and plaster ceilings covered by polystyrene tiles. When the tiles came off, the ceiling came down! Cost a LOT to replace the ceilings and skim in a two bedroom, but it was quite a long time ago.

They are the work of the devil.

They are dead easy to remove yourself but cause a lot of mess and its a bit arm aching. We removed them all ourselves and then had a decorator sand and paint the ceilings. They weren't too bad so we didn't bother getting the ceilings skimmed (but in places is a bit "textured effect" so maybe with hindsight we should have done.

Can't give you an idea on painting costs as cost includes painting everything- woodwork etc.

Agree that queribus was unlucky - I've removed them several time, they usually have a blob of glue in the middle and you just jemmy them off with a paint scraper. I imagine that if you have these on the ceilings, the walls could have all sorts of hidden surprises too so you will be probably looking at a fair whack for replastering throughout.

Agree that they are easy to remove (have removed them and polysterene coving from every room in our old semi. DH played a game of jumping up, catching the edge and pulling it off - I'm too short to do that, so had to stand on a step ladder. All that was left on the ceiling were small glue marks. If you are trying to save a little money, I'd suggest you do this part yourself, then get a plasterer in.

Thanks for your replies

Think we may experiment with removing them in the smallest bedroom to see whats underneath. Hope you are right lalaonglegs and its just glue underneath. What sort of hidden surprises will we brace ourselves for? What did you do to contain the mess?

OMG at your ceiling coming down Queribus,they are indeed the work of the devil.

Any other advice or experiences?

We have just renovated a 1930s house - woodworm was our problem. DH is now a leading authority on the subject.

What age is your house? Woodworm and rot can be present if the house pre-dates central heating. They arent a disaster or necessarily expensive if you can do work your self but do need to be dealt with.

1930s house here too - where was your woodworm

not.. under the ceilings tiles?

Hi Eloisah - no, not under the ceiling tiles! In ours it was in floor boards, skirting and floor joists. DH ripped out all the floor boards, replaced rotten or worm eaten joists and then put in a nice new floor having painted all remaining joists with an anti rot/worm gloop (screwfix sell it).

Woodworm, like rot, need a damp atmosphere which of course is dried out by central heating. The big problem is that they both leave behind spongy, crumbly wood. We were renovating a bungalow and I could see my mother or one of her cronies leaning on a walking stick and going right through the floor.

None of the above were particularly expensive but took extra time to deal with. Just look out for spongy wood and deal with what you find.

Good luck!

This has brought back all sorts of deeply buried traumatic memories

Our house had polystyrene tiles on the walls as well, so most of the walls were ruined too.

We didn't have a damp proof course and there were no foundations to the (disgusting) extension on the back of the house.

Oh, and no inside loo.

Can't think why we bought it really ...

I know exactly what you mean Queribus. Some of the walls in our bungalow appeared to have been filled with toothpaste. We too had a dreadful shack leaning on the back. When DH took it apart he found that it was an assemblage of greenhouse, brindle blocks and any old bits of crap the previous owners could find.

The question is - what posesses these people? What on earth was someone thinking when they put the tiles on your walls?

I take it that you dragged your house into the modern age Queribus? Or are you still trotting out in the night with a torch?

ok am back to report ceiling tile removal trauma. One ceiling after removal was a bit dodgy (and damp in a corner) but we decided to prime and paint anyhow- cept the sodding paint wont stay on at all- keeps peeling off- the decorators have tried loads of tricks to no avail so now we have to have it skimed (but other ceilings still look fine post removal and sanding and painting with no need for skimming) so you may be lucky like we were with the other rooms.

Thandeka thank you!

I am hoping for the achy arm and sanding scenario rather than the collapsing ceiling and or replastering.
Any other positive tile removals?

We had them in every room in our house when we bought it! We decide room by room whether it needed reskimming, over half did need it but the rest were ok with just painting. None of the coving was damaged, luckily. Reskimming just the ceiling isn't that expensive, but it is very dusty!

The worst thing for us was removing wood panelling from the ceiling in one room to find tiles underneath and then no plaster!!

Ceiling tiles were covering a ghastly and sagging ceiling in my old house. A handy bath overflow allowed me to get it sorted out via insurance and they suggested (the ceiling was high) that putting in a new false ceiling would be much less messy as taking down the tiles would have probably brought the whole ceiling down.
Ceiling tiles are usually hiding horrors. I'd budget for worse case scenario.

Best option with those horrible tiles is to remove the ceilings completely as the tiles are usually placed there to hide all manner of faults, this will allow acess to the joists above and allow for any treatment needed to the timbers. In the long run it is much better to remove the old ceilings as this helps clen the building from built up rubbish under the floorboards etc and it is not that more expensive to have a new ceiling plastred as opposed to having a knackered ceiling skimmed with the added benefit of knowing the building will need no further ceiling work for many years.
If the tiles are in a rental propery then that is illegal and the landlord must pay for ALL polystyrene fixtures to be removed.

Re, putting a false ceiling in to cover the ceiling tiles- what did they say about fire issues. One of the big issues of polystrene ceiling tiles is the poisonous fumes they give off if they caught on fire- our surveyor strongly reccomended getting rid of them for that reason alone.

Gnome - we did drag it into the modern age, then promptly sold it. Unfortunately, we then bought a much bigger, older property which eventually needed a new roof.

Not just new tiles, but new joists, everything. We spent about 6 weeks without anything above our heads other than the bedroom ceiling (iyswim) and had a crane in our front garden to get the new beams/joists into place. The roofer told us afterwards that the beam was actually heavier than the crane was strictly supposed to lift ...

We also had a room which we called 'the damp room'. Speaks for itself really. When it rained water used to flow through the room (although the previous owners had helpfully carved a channel out of the floor so the water had somewhere to go).

We also had small creatures (can't remember what they're called) which lived in there and used to pop their heads out every now and again.

The electrics were a death trap and the boiler took up an entire room.

And that is why I now live in a new build.

We had them all over the ceiling on the top floor of the house -- I think the previous owners though they were some kind of substitute for proper loft insulation. Ours were nailed in as well as glued, with some kind of weirdy tacks. They came off quite easily despite all that. If you have access to some older dc (age 10+) you may find that they are really quite keen to do it for you, for some reason. Maybe for the same reason that kids like to pick scabs...

They did make a mess, but it was worth it for me not having to spend umpteen hours up a ladder with my arms above my head. I was prepared for some real horrors underneath, but it wasn't actually as bad as I feared. All the ceilings were a bit lumpy and bumpy, and some required really a lot of polyfilla, but they came good in the end without us needing to get them skimmed.

i would definitely do as much as possible now to make the ceilings look lovely! Once you've had rooms finished, it is such a pain to go back to do ceilings if the crack start to reappear etc. It really is worth spending the cash now to have them properly plastered and looking at those beautiful smooth surfaces, rather than spotting the bumps and undulations, will be worth it in the long run.
We have a 1930's house and ended up replastering most rooms and ceilings. It didn't add a huge amount to the budget. Everyday I look at the bathroom ceiling
(this got patched not replastered)and I really regret it as I look at the little bumps etc.

As my gran would have said, don't sink the ship for a happorth of tar!! {grin}

Just had decorator round who suggested paper lining them crossways rather than skimming. Anyone done this?

noo noo nooo don't line them. My dad always says a lined ceiling is often indicator of a buggered ceiling as the paper dries and tightens and will often be the only thing holding the ceiling up! So he would never trust a house with lined ceilings so you may find other buyers wary or maybe it's just my -dad's house paranoia

Get them skimmed it will look better in teh long run and would take almost as long to cross line. I did this last summer made ds spend a week scraping them off and paid him as it was such a nightmare! Then had the whole lot re skimmed 3 beds terrace cost 3.5 k inc walls

paper on ceilings is a bugger.....the lines start to show - no matter what the decorators say!! Once plasterd and painted they are pretty much maintenance free as they dont get scuffed like walls, so it really is worth doing them well and then enjoying the view of ceilings that look like royal icing!!!

Ok thanks for that advice, is cross line the technical term Noddy?

I will hold out for a decorator who will sand and paint or get them replastered then. Is it best to find a separate plasterer or do most decorators do this?