I have a an old lath and plaster ceiling (c.1880) which has been papered before my time with horrible 'textured' paper. I suspect this was done because it is essentially knackered and all needs to come down (all of the other original ceilings in the house have passed their sell-by date and been replaced). It does have some rather nice original cornice (or is it coving??) around the edge though. The cornice extends from the wall across the first eight inches of the ceiling. Any idea whether it's possible to get the ceiling down while leaving the cornice up? It would cost about £600 to get replacement cornice :(
Used a wood saw to cut old ceiling 1-2cm from cornice, very carefully as to not disturb it, and pulled down old lath and plaster ceiling. This is a surprisingly easy job, but very very messy and dirty. I have done many a dirty jobs in my time, but this one definitely goes straight to the top of the list. Once the ceiling joists are exposed screw new plasterboards to cover the hole you created, and plaster over (well, let the experts do that...).
As good as new!
PS: I was lucky that I only had to pull down a third of the ceiling - the rest was ok.
I doubt it. You would have to cut the lath and plaster 8" from the wall and bring down the centre of the ceiling whilst not cracking the cornice.
Would it be possible to put a finishing batten around the perimiter of the ceiling close to the cornice, paint it the colour of the cornice, and then infill the ceiling area with plasterboard screwed through to the joists? i.e
This would preserve the original cornice, stabilise the lath ceiling and provide a reasonable base for decoration - and avoid all the mess of bringing the old ceiling down. It also means that someone else can turn up here in 120 years time and witter on about previous owners of the house who propped up old ceilings with plasterboard instead of using magnetoholographic levitation and can anyone imagine anything so stupid. IMM will then divert the subject onto how two combined heat and power personal nuclear reactors are better than one.
Although somebody else has posted to say they managed this, I share Owain's opinion; I think the other guy must have been very lucky!
If Owain will let me pinch his ASCII art, how about this as an alternative suggestion... cut through the lath and plaster around the edges, 2-3" away from the cornice, but first, apply a length of 3"x2" timber to the ceiling first (the 2" side against the ceiling), and hold it there, adjacent to the cornice all along its length.
Now reach for another length of 3x2, which will be about 0.5" longer than the distance from the floor to the bottom face of the batten on the ceiling, and use it as a prop to hold the batten firmly against the ceiling - its length will mean it will wedge in rigidly. Repeat with another prop at the other end of the batten, which you've been holding up with your third hand! The batten will now be firmly holding the lath and plaster to the ceiling joists, and you should now be able to saw through the laths, right along the batten, without disturbing the cornice on the opposite side of the batten. You could use one batten for the whole ceiling, just reposition it for every saw cut.
When you're done, you should have exposed ceiling joists everywhere except the periphery; fix up new plasterboard and replaster; this method would obviously require a layer of skim plaster to cover the 2" remaining border.
Haven't tried this but I think it would work!
Second bit of advice is to hope that Anna Kettle will be along (and I'm sure she won't be able to resist your subject line!), since she is this group's indisputed expert on cornicing matters, amongst others...
Personally, I would try doing something similar, but cut through the plaster only, and not the laths. Then fix the plasterboard through the laths to the joists, leaving the laths in place. I did this for a small repair. If I had taken the laths out too, I would have needed a very thick 'skim' on the plasterboard, or two thicknesses of it.
Not so, I've replaced a victorian ceiling & preserved cornice by cutting along edge of cornice. Just take your time. This job is a perfect excuse to buy a Fein Multimaster, wish I'd had one when I last did this job. Toby
I've never done this one though! I think it should work if the mortar and laths are of good quality so no rot/woodworm/turn to sand/be hairless/rusted nails but David is right, I would prop the cornice with padded wood before removing the centre.
If the old laths were riven they might be too twisty to successfully pin plasterboard to, if sawn then they should be reasonably flat
If you are only removing the plaster then a stanley knife will cut round the edge, if removing the laths too then some sort of small power saw would help cos you don't want to damage the cornice with your hacking
Anna
~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|
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