How to deal with a lath and plaster ceiling

[MinimalistMommi]

We've taken our walls back to brick and are having a lime putty plaster, now what to do with our lath and plaster ceilings? We are renovating whole cottage.

So far we have stripped off wallpaper to reveal lime plaster ceiling. What do we do with it now? Our plasterer is pushing to have it over-boarded with plasterboard and the builder agrees. Is this right? I know that pulling down a lath and plaster ceiling will make an incredible mess and he says we will gain nothing from doing that.

Is he right?

Is there anything wrong with it? If it ain't broke and all that? Or you could skim with lime plaster?

We can't leave it like it is as it looks a state once the wallpaper has been removed, old lime plaster isn't pretty ;)

I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to skim directly on top of old (lime) plaster when it comes to ceilings.

We decided to over board a lime and lath ceiling. Very messy to take it down and it preserves the original fabric for the future, if anyone wanted to expose it again.
We've just spoken with a lime plasterer about the same and he recommended we paper over it again as he can't skim it with lime without scratching the surface which would actually pull more of it down!

I would pull the lot down and fix new boards. Old ceilings can become unstable.

We overboarded ours, a whole cottage worth. Do not take them down! The mess will be unbelieveable...

Locate and achieve good fixings to the ceiling joists then yes overboard.
All i am saying it is a lot of weight

We pulled ours down. Yes, it was a huge mess but the guys that did it were very good and cleared up after themselves (no way would we have attempted that ourselves).

Ours were already very unstable so I wouldn't have been happy fixing plasterboard on top. Once they were down, we were able to get good access to the roof which allowed us to treat and check all the roof beams, then we put in a good layer of insulation, and also a couple of ceiling hatches in the bedrooms which give us ongoing access to the roof space.

Depending on when they were done, they either will be just, or will be definitely at the end of their life span. If you can safely cover it up- ie it won't pull the whole thing down- then do so.
Otherwise pull them down and do new- yes it's a hideous mess (our builder got hit on the head by a saucepan that was fell out of the roof space ) but if you're re-doing a whole place I guess the house is bare or at least not filled to the brim with soft furnishings? May be the best time to re-do them tbh.

Don't know how that 'was' got in there...

Board over to save the mess, then they can be skimmed. Lathe and plaster can be unstable and collapse without warning, so make sure when boarding over you screw the boards into joists where possible.

Thank you for all the replies, have spoken to our builder and we have decided to take them all down, I'm too much of a perfectionist to over board! I know it will make a whole load of mess but I figure it will clean up! we will be getting new furniture after the ceilings have been done

Taking the walls back to brick have made lots of mess so I figure I might be semi-ready band not too shocked...

Messy! I had to repaint but had to be done as it was coming down.

munch we are replastering anyway! it is a whole cottage renovation.

Is the property listed? Are you aware of the thermal properties of lath & plaster? Are you storing up damp problems for the future? Older building need to breathe so please be mindful if it part of the historic fabric of the building - it's normally performing more than just a lumpy ceiling. Personally, I'd repair it.

Little going to try and answer some of your questions.

The cottage is not listed.

We are having all the walls plastered in lime putty plaster so the cottage can breathe as much as possible which is why we have chosen lime putty, which I think is a lot more than most people would do these days with a victorian terraced workers cottage. 95% of the time gypsum plaster will go straight on without a second thought. I am aware that buildings breathe through ceilings as well as walls but we can only do as much as we can. If we chose to overboard the ceiling, it would stop the ceiling from breathing anyway?

We can't afford to put up new lath and plaster ceiling. Also from what I've read new lime plaster on ceilings can't be walked on once done for a while because of cracking etc and we have two DC so we can't leave bedrooms/bathroom out of action.

The bedroom ceiling is starting to come down in an area above bed in our bedroom (the ceiling wallpaper is bulging) so I'm not sure how long it will be until other areas start to give way.

Thermal properties did cross my mind when deciding but I don't want to risk putting up new plasterboard everywhere and then sections of lath and plaster coming down in the future onto new plasterboard if we over boarded.

100% aware it is a historic building which is why I have done lots of research about choice of plaster etc. We are trying our best but we can't do everything IYSWIM.

Out of interest Little how would you repair it? Bearing in mind that if at all possible I don't want a papered ceiling as none of the rest of the house will be papered. I knowI have bought an old terrace so I should expect lumpy ceilings etc but with the renovation I would like to have a lovely finish. We are keeling original floors etc.

Also, we took original lime plaster back to brick on stairwell because so much was coming away from walls. We will save orginal lime plaster where we possibly can and fill/skim with lime putty by our plasterer (Background information: we are currently having staircase taken out, new one built and reversed) the old staircase wasn't going to last much longer...

So I guess what I'm saying is we are trying our best! X

*keeping

Hiya OP, I didn't mean to scare/lecture you and I can see you've thought about all those issues! Personally I'd get a traditional plasterer to repair it, this may result in the majority of of being replaced though, and its not a simple job and probably messy.

You should be able to replace any missing/damp/decayed sections of lath, the use a lime based plaster to repair with a course lime plaster then skim.The areas of repair usually need to be of a size not too big, otherwise the weight can pull the rest down & sometimes it can be best to replace the whole thing which is expensive.

The undulations in the texture of the plaster gives the ceiling it's historic character. Such ceilings (and walls) were never originally supposed to be perfect, the building techniques of the time didn't allow that, although there will be more smooth texture in say a Georgian townhouse ceiling, than a vernacular cottage owing to the historic status of the building.

An excellent book/source to read is the Old House Handbook by the Society for Protection for Ancient Buildings. There website is www.spab.org.uk. A greener alternative to plasterboard could be a reed board product.

Good luck!

when I had an Edwardian house, some of the ceilings were overboarded while retaining cornicing; some were taken right down and new put up with skimmed board, and some were stripped but leaving the old laths in place and then replastered.

the old lime plaster was very thick, and it was noticable when it came down how much noise it had muffled. If you have ceilings boarded, consider using two layers of plasterboard plus skim for a more soundproof ceiling. You could also add dense mineral wool batts to muffle sound still more, it is cheap and easy if you DIY and are taking the floor up.

little that's that the problem, if I bring a traditional plasterer in and he starts doing the ceiling and discovers entire areas need to be replaced we would be stuffed money wise.

We have so much still to pay for, floors being sanded and lifted, internal doors, plastering everywhere (apart from kitchen/bathroom) new kitchen, the list goes on. We will be getting bill for staircase soon too! I'm would have thought, ripping down old ceiling (as awful as that is) and replacing with new plasterboard would be by far the cheaper option, but please tell me if I'm wrong. It basically comes down to money in the end. We are really stretching ourselves putting lime putty everywhere so the walls can breathe better (they had previously been covered up with thick wall paper.) We also need our sash windows renovated too...Plus, about the lime plaster on the ceilings, I'm sure I read online that the floor above can't be walked on for quite a while because of cracking, our bathroom is upstairs and we can't move out long term while that drys so I don't think it is realistic option? I would LOVE to be able to retain the lath and plaster BUT I just don't think it can happen. And once the wallpaper is ripped off it, it looks a mess so it's not just like I can leave it and skimming it is not an option . I will take a look into reed board, I wonder how it compares to the cost of plasterboard? Do you know? Thank you for your reply by the way I'm an awful perfectionist so I find all this quite hard!

Piglet thank you for you reply! Did you mean mineral wool batts in between upstairs floorboards and ceilings downstairs? Thank you for letting me know your experience.

yes

Thank you I will look into it.