Ceiling Repair

A Bit of Restoration Work

This is some work I did a few weeks ago for a long standing customer. They live in a beautiful old Rectory in a near by village and I love working on the house.

The work was a semi emergency repair to a ceiling in one of their B&B rooms. I say "semi emergency" as I was there to look at some other work they wanted doing and she showed it me this as "future work" but I thought it was a little too dangerous to leave any longer.

A past leak in the roof had cause the lath to rot and plaster to crack

I arranged to do all the work while they were on holiday so there would be no disturbance to them and it would be all painted and cleaned up by the time they got back.

Getting the scaffold up there was the hardest part, it all has to go up slowly to avoid damaging any walls, door or paintings. I also cut sheets of ply to protect the floor and wallpaper.

The loose plaster removed and rotten lath - the roof is no longer leaking!

I only had to touch the cracked area and it came down on top of me! Messy job - I wouldn't have wanted to leave this repair any longer!

Now for the bit of controversy - the modern repair.

I'm afraid to say that no lath went back up. Instead two layers of plasterboard to bring it out to somewhere near the same level as the old plaster. And also no lime plaster was used just multifinish as this repair needed to be finished in the week with paying customers due in the B&B at the weekend - no chance of waiting for lime plaster to dry!

I first framed the hole out to make sure there was plenty of fixings for the plaster board, then cut the boards so there was minimum gaps all the way round.

The hole boarded out ready for plastering

I got my friend, Sean, to plaster the repair and blend it in with the old ceiling, I like using top tradesmen I can trust when it's not my area of expertise and I've known Sean for many years andhis work is always of a high standard.

This repair may crack slightly in the future at the joint between old and new, but that can be filled if needed and will blend with some of the other cracks already in the ceiling, i do think this will be minimal though from past experience.

Sean plastering and blending it in

I then waited a few days for it to dry before giving it about 5 coats of paint and removing all the other evidence that I'd been there.

She was a happy customer when she returned from her holiday! No mess and a B&B room ready to hire out with no risk of a ceiling dropping on any ones head!