Plaster board joins showing

[Botherfreedays]

We have bought a house, roughly 1920s. The ceiling in the living room has the plasterboard joins really showing. What can we do to rectify this? Hopefully I've attached a picture. Thanks

We have the same problem. We've been told it's because the plasterboard was nailed rather than screwed. The best way to sort is apparently to screw the boards and skim. Would love to hear of an alternative solution though!

Ok, I'll get a plasterer to give a quote. Anyone with any other thoughts?

You could tape it.

Gives the effect of a skim without the actual plastering but you would need a trade taper to do it.

If it's all solid then skim it, if it's not fixed properly you could over board and then skim, but it might get silly if it's already overboarded once.

If it is 1920 build it probably has L&P ceilings that gave been overboarded.

Take up some upstairs floorboards and photograph the upper surface of the plaster.

Is it smooth?, ie when you run your hand over the joint can you feel the joint, if you can’t feel it and everything’s solid paint it, if it’s not level and smooth get whoever plastered it back to correct the issue.
You will nearly always see the joints in the boards after the skim has dried out, but as I say as long as they are flat smooth and stable paint the thing, it’s very hard to tell from photos if there is an issue

I am a plasterer by trade. Is the paper still on the ceiling......? Yes.... The ceiling looks like it has been tape and jointed, not plastered. The tape and joint has blown, giving the effect that the ceiling joints have cracked and dropped. when you take the ceiling paper off, you'll be left with bare plaster board, to which, you'll need it skimming/plastering. ( I'm a plasterer by trade and deal with this sort of thing a lot. ) any further questions ask. Cheers

Thanks for all your responses. Palmer85 on closer inspection your answer seems spot on. Thanks.

I forgot, one more question. We're doing the flooring of the room above and wouldn't want to take it up. Can the problem be resolved by a plasterer working only from the underside? Thanks.

Yes it can all be done from inside the room

Thank you! That's great.