Ceilings in older properties

[oshuk]

Does anyone know what those awful sort of panelled ceilings are called? We have viewed a couple of house with them, and the one we saw today even had lights built into it. Gross.

Also how expensive is it to change a ceiling? I don't even know where to start with this, so any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Would a plasterer be able to board over it and then plaster it?

I would think this would cost about a couple of hundred for an average sized room.

Maybe but I just wanted to check what they are called and how easy it would to remove. Thanks

Do you mean that the original ceiling has been lowered?
They are pretty easily removed, but you don't know what they cover up. it was a bit of a fad in the 70's and 80's as it "kept the heat in" and people thought that high ceilings were old fashioned.

like in shops and offices?? Suspended ceilings I think.

vile!

if it is a suspended ceiling in an older house, then most likely it is to hide something nasty above. Might be ducts, pipes, cables, or a broken and damaged old ceiling, or maybe a mess where rooms have been knocked together.

Sometimes it will be because a large old house with high ceilings has been brought down a bit.

Usually a ceiling can be replastered for a few hundred pounds, but if there is something nasty above it will need fixing first.

In most cases, you can look above a suspended ceiling by lifting a panel. They usually sit in trays formed by metal channels arranged in a grid. The channels are hung off metal wires or threaded rods. Sometimes there will be insulation flopped on top of the panels. It will probably be very dusty.

we had an airtex ceiling in our back bedroom and the plasterer just "skimmed" over it. It looks perfect. The walls in that room were anagalypta (sp?) and wonky as hell -he's plasterboarded and skimmed them.
Plasterers are MIRACLE workers. x