We're just about to undertake the most dreaded job yet - removal of our bathroom lath and plaster ceiling. After reading a fair bit of stuff by googling, i have learnt that no matter what we do (ie sealing room completely, damping down, hoovering the top 1st etc) there is going to be one hell of a mess. There is only 1 window in the room and the wind never catches that well so through draft not very good and as you can imagine the dust will hang in the air for days if not weeks....
My question - has anyone ever used a dust extraction vacuum for this kind of purpose? Are they any good? Is it worth paying the £40 to hire one or should we just resign ourselves to the *massive* clear up operation?
Secondly, any other tips on the ceiling removal? any silly things we might overlook?
IMO a draught is the last thing you want. Close the window, tape up the door, and get on with it. Once you're done, most of the dust will settle in the first half hour. Bag up ang dispose of.
I like using a long crowbar. Nice and quick. Careful not to hook any cables above the ceiling.
If the laths extend into an adjacent room, and you intend to leave that ceiling intact, make sure you cut through them first with a pad saw or similar.
Really? It settles that quick? So it's not as bad as plaster dust from cutting out then? I thought it would be worse.
Thanks for that - just had another thought as well, should we do it as a 2 stage job ie. remove the thick plaster on the facing side of the ceiling first and then the laths/plaster, or do it all in the one go?
One go, the laths tend to stay behind, the plaster falls through.
Beware of bits falling on your head, especially when doing the 'jab & hook' method with the crowbar. Might pay to do it from steps so that you are not directly under the bit you are working on. Surprisingly heavy stuff.
I like to break it up with a club hammer, to avoid two foot square pieces dropping off unpredictably.
ok, 3rd and final question (for tonight at least) would it be easier to work from above it rather than below? Its easy access to all but about 1m sq area. Here's the plan that we're thinking:
Remove everything from room & seal up
Cut laths (from above/below?) at edge of room
Break up with club hammer (from below)
Stand above it and have fun stamping out the laths (!?)
Knock it through from above, if there's nothing of value below it, like tiled floor or basin etc. Sure beats standing in a pile of dust and debris, I'd keep the windows open though.
Bear in mind that plaster dust plays havoc with domestic vacuum cleaners. It'll split the bags and often overheat the motor. Best to dustpan and brush the bulk. The worst of the mess is usually dirt lying on top of the plaster rather than the plaster itself. With access from above (and a helper below) I'd be tempted to saw along the joist edge and remove in sections which you can stack in a plastic bag. You can then just prise off the 2" sections with a scraper. At least the bulk of the dust will be in one room. A plasterboard saw for about £3 works well.
As posted elsewhere, I have just taken down our dining room ceiling (before it came down of its own accord).
My method (encouraged by the fact that the plaster was peeling off the laths but held together by the ceiling paper) was to ease it off with a small crowbar, jabbing with the end of the crowbar to encourage the paper to rip, and taking it down in about foot square chunks.
Because it came down in reasonably large chunks (which are heavy) I was able to chuck the chunks straight into old dustbins, muck tubs etc. and get the majority of the plaster straight into containers.
I then picked up the remaining plaster debris (which in my case was a sandy mix more like render than plaster) using a 'wet and dry' vacuum cleaner. One of those big plastic tubs on wheels with an elephant's trunk sticking out of the side.
This made the job much less messy than I had been led to believe by other posters.
I then screwed plasterboard over the laths. I left the plaster between the laths as it pushed up out of the way.
This resulted in a slightly lower ceiling (by the thickness of a lath) but avoided all the major mess of removing the laths, and also the problem of removing or driving in all the nails left when the laths were pulled down.
I decided to try an alternative dress code, and used the disposable one piece overalls from screwfix and a breathing mask and a face mask to try and keep the muck away from my eyes and lungs.
It all worked pretty well, but I was no exactly a fashion icon :-)
So; from my experience it may be better to leave the laths and just remove the ceiling paper and the plaster.
I guess it depends on how easily the plaster seperates from the laths.
HTH Dave R
P.S. you could always leave the whole thing up and just screw 9mm plasterboard over it then have it skimmed - least messy option of all.
Ours is pretty solid so i'm not expecting it to fall off easily :-(
disposable one
Clothing i'm not worried about - we have plenty of 'working clothes' now - but have got half decent face mask and goggles.
What and do half a job?! ;-) We already decided when we moved in about (18 months ago) that when it came to doing each room they would be completely gutted and done 'properly' - rewired, replastered, added electrics, replace ceiling etc, regardless of the time taken and mess created. Maybe when we get towards finishing the entire house (like that'll ever happen!) we'll start to worry more about messing up the already completed rooms.. but thats years away yet, we're only on the third room so far...
A pickaxe is a useful tool for pulling down a ceiling (careful of wires!). If you are lucky enough to be able to have access from above push the laths off with a baulk of timber. Pull out any nails that don't come out with the lath.
Rake out the plaster at the top of the walls so that you can slide plasterboard in over the plaster on the wall, it will be much less likely to show cracks at the join then.
If you have to work in the room, an air helmet is *very* good. You could D-I-Y one if you can find a vacuum cleaner which can blow.
Which should be placed outside the room to be done, with the hose blowing clean air in. I'd also change the filters first, if it was me. (However, I've used several 8cm fans in series (with spaces to stop the air rotating) to blow clean air through a hose. Works well.)
I cleared a ceiling area of just 6sqm. The plaster was covered in strings of black cobwebs (there have been coal fires in the house for years). The debris is dirty, heavy & bulky. The dust is the worst part (you will be blowing black snot into your hankie for days). Damping down achieves nothing except damp rubble. Definitely do it from above (I used a hammer & cold chisel to loosen the laths right next to the joists, & allowed parts of the ceiling to fall under their own weight). Make sure you have bathing facilities at the ready afterwards, you will feel like a combination of Mr Grimes and Wurzel Gummidge.
I have to say my hoover - a Henry - coped surprisingly well with the aftermath (considering he is
15 years old).
When plasterboarding, the generous deployment of a spirit level is strongly recommended.
I've done this in a couple of rooms in our flat. Walls and ceilings. Horrendous job.
Couple of things I'd advise:
Watch out for reaaly big chunks of falling plaster. I had one that was 1m x 1m. If that had landed on my head it would have hurt.
You CANNOT stop the dust from getting everywhere over everything you own. Open the window and seal the door of the room you are working on. Do the job as quickly as you can and clean up as quickly as you can. Brushing up the dust will create another dust storm - so dont wait an hour before doing it.
Wear a mask. I didnt on the first room I did and suferred in the chest for a couple of days afterwards.
Get the plaster off and cleaned away before worrying about the laths. You can remove these afterwards, which will create much less dust. Laths make excellent kindling for the fire.
If you have a helper, get them to bag plaster as you rip it down.
Smile when you have plasterboarded over and have a perfect ceiling.
Just thought i'd put an update on for anyone googling for this kind of job in the future (don't ya just hate it when you read through an older thread and don't know the outcome? or is that just me?)
Ok, so today was the day and now the job's done, i've just got one thing to say.... that was fun!
Here's a summary of how/what we did:
Emptied bathroom of all movable objects (except partner - he got the dustier side ;-)
Removed floorboards from room above (all numbered too for easy replacement - screwed not nailed)
Removed insulation (didn't need to vacuum above laths as had done that not long ago when laying insulation)
Released and taped lighting wires out of harms way
No cutting of laths required at adjoining rooms as bathroom has only supporting walls which continue to 2nd floor - so got on with kicking out laths from above.
The laths that couldn't be accessed from above were taken out from below by starting at the accessible edge and pulling down with a claw hammer (crowbar would've been good but couldn't find it) and working our way to the wall.
When all the ceiling was down we got on with the clear up operation - and even this wasn't as bad as i'd expected. Bagged/crated most of the big rubble outside (estimate approx 12 rubble sacks for 8 sq m ). Swept up dust as best we could then bagged as much as poss, then vacuumed with workshop vac and swept again - and vacuumed again. The dust was very dirty black dust, but settled quite quick and was easier to pick up than 'pink' plaster dust (settled much quicker too).
All in all it took 2 of us around 6 hrs today (including clean up time), but we still have more to do tomorrow - still got to pull nails out from joists and tidy up the edges but that shouldn't take too long.
So, anybody reading this in anticipation of undertaking a similar job take it from me - it probably won't be as bad as you expect. This was a messy but fun (if you like destruction) job, and i won't hesitate now when it comes to replace all the other ceilings!
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