Victorian ceiling renovation.

[chris French]

Wanders back into the yard after a few months mostly absent, ah yes, a rambling thread about combi'sWell, a few months of frenzied DIY draw to a close and our house is on the market (fingers crossed). I must say, that doing all those 'little' jobs (some not so little....) has made a great difference to the general feel and appearance of the house.

anyway, thoughts turn to buying, in serious way.

One of the top contenders is a nice big old (obviously...) Victorian house - It's not in bad nick, but just been pondering the work we might end up doing.

Still has all the nice old cornices etc. around the ceiling, no of course the ceilings are cracking etc. - and are either papered - but still showing badly, or Artexed. At some point I would like to sort out the ceilings if we bought it, but I'm wondering how we would go about it. Whacking up some knew plasterboard and skimming (as we did here) isn't an option with all the nice cornices - what could be done? Anyone renovated these?

[bigcat]

the people to ask. It can certainly be done. I think you'd need to tell us a bit more fisrt though, ie what is wrong with them: cracking, sagging, bits fallen down, surface disintegrating etc?

NT

[chris French]

In message , [e-mail] writes

I'm sure it can.

Well, this is just speculative at the moment - we haven't even decided to buy the house yet. From the viewing we've had of the house os far i think the ceilings are mostly just cracked.

But really just getting a handle on the possibilities

[Mike]

One problem you may find is that the cornices are only held together with layer upon layer of paint. Once this is removed they look a lot better as the detail is revealed fully but they often crumble into pieces and need restoring.

[bigcat]

If all youve got is cracking theres most likely no need to remove or replace any of it. Probably this would fix your ills and make it stable for many years to come...

1. prop up ceiling using sheet wood to load spread
2. pour pva onto it from above
3. let it set
4. fill the cracks, or if its real bad, even surface skim possibly, avoiding the cornicing.

NT

[chris French]

In message , chris French writes

Well thanks for the various comments, things to think about for while I think.

Well, we are still pondering our options re houses - it was much easier the first time when we were basically choosing from the same sort of houses - 3 bed semis mostly.

Now we've got victorian, rural new builds, beamy cottages etc. all vying for attention, hmm....