plasterboarding ceiling

[simon beer]

further to an earlier post about fitting halogen downlighters to an old lath & plaster ceiling I have decided to bite the bullet, pull it down & plasterboard it, have told the missus yet though! I have skimmed before with rather pleasing results & I have done ceilings. However this one is a lot higher than the ones I have done before, from stood on a box and probably larger in area. So I thought I would try to just dry line it but never attempted this before. Can a satisfactory finish be achieved first time out the blocks with this job? I will be using P/B laths as will be fitting on my own and find the sheets to hard to manage. Should I just get a plasterer in to whiz over the ceiling with a skim coat. Can I use the fibreglass sticky tape to line the joints or does it have to be the paper stuff. Also thought I might screw these boards into place as I have heard other people do, screw recommendations please... thanks for reading

[Lee Blaver]

I prefer using proper japanned drywall screws, but whichever type of screw you decide on, you really need to use a power driver. Preferably one that disengages at a set depth, otherwise one with *repeatable* torque control accuracy and be prepared to practice on some scrap sheet to get the depth right. Not deep enough gives obvious problems, whereas breaking the paper surface means the head could pull through, maybe later on...

Lee

[Jonathan Curtis]

Did the same earlier this year and it creates an enormous amount of mess and I wished I'd just boarded over the top of the lathe and plaster.

Jon

[Chris and Patsy]

Or just use a drywall adapter, sets the head of the screw flush to the board, see Axminster Power Tools Part No. MERDW2P £2.98 for 5 (they're the only suppliers I've found).

Regards Chris

[Lee Blaver]

snip

That looks like a really useful thing to throw in the toolbox, just in case :)

Lee

[simon beer]

I am well aware of the mess as have done it before, but I intend to seal the room off as well as poss and the room is empty. The results are worth it. I also love getting dirty and wrecking things!!

[Chris Oates]

you can of course deluge it with water first and then attack the lathes with a rotozip