Overboarding lath and plaster ceilings

[Taylor James]

Previous owner installed suspended ceilings. I am taking them out to expose the old originals some 18" higher. The original ceilings are lath and plaster. In some rooms they are intact but cracked and in others some areas have come down, several of which are quite big, say 1m square. I want to overboard original ceilings and skim.

My questions are:

should I be concerned about weight with the plasterboard over the lath, secured into to the joists with appropriate drywall screws?
how to deal with the damaged areas? Roughly patch them with more plasterboard before covering to stop any bowing/holllows when fixed?

I'm interested in hearing from anyone that has done this. I'm confident I can do it and the plastering will be done by a pro but I'm sure there must be some tip and traps.

[Little Lofty]

Fine to overboard and use long screws into the joists, use 1800x900x12.5 if doing it yourself, they are much easier to handle. Patch first using plasterboard or if feeling brave bonding, small areas will easily cover with plasterboard so I wouldn’t fill every hole.

[Mr Pointy]

Take the lath & plaster down. It's easy & will provide a better foundation for the new ceiling.

[Taylor James]

Little Lofty said:

Fine to overboard and use long screws into the joists, use 1800x900x12.5 if doing it yourself, they are much easier to handle. Patch first using plasterboard or if feeling brave bonding, small areas will easily cover with plasterboard so I wouldn’t fill every hole.

Cheers - the lath and plaster looks very thick in places - certainly more than standard plasterboard. Would you just double up on the plasterboard patches, using a combination of different thicknesses as necessary? I'll have help so I can use full size sheets and I assume they should overlap like brickwork?

[bungz]

Have just had the entire downstairs of a property overboarded.

Its fine as the boards are screwed into the joists as mentioned.

Would I do it again?

No, I would rip it all down and do the boarding myself. Would have saved a fortune.

Far far easier for the boards to go up ( as you can see all the joists!) and gives you full height of the ceiling.

Downside is it makes a right mess.

[Taylor James]

Mr Pointy said:

Take the lath & plaster down. It's easy & will provide a better foundation for the new ceiling.

That's not happening. It will be overboarded.

[ClaphamGT3]

Either repair the lath & plaster and leave as the ceiling or take it down completely. Over-boarding is a shoddy solution

My preference is always to keep lathe and plaster in a property that was built with it - plasterboard & skim just looks too jarringly wrong. That said, I know that some people prefer the more modern look of plasterboard and it is easier & often cheaper to get an adequate plasterboard finish than a good lathe and plaster repair.

If you're taking the lathe and plaster down yourself, just remember that it is properly filthy, messy stuff and often includes rather nasty materials - particularly horse hair - that need handling very carefully

[Taylor James]

bungz said:

Have just had the entire downstairs of a property overboarded.

Its fine as the boards are screwed into the joists as mentioned.

Would I do it again?

No, I would rip it all down and do the boarding myself. Would have saved a fortune.

Far far easier for the boards to go up ( as you can see all the joists!) and gives you full height of the ceiling.

Downside is it makes a right mess.

Thanks. It's messy enough ripping down the suspended ceiling plasterboard. It would be on another level with lath, plus double the disposal issues and would mean reinsulating the loft. I can find the joists easily enough when I overboard. I did get some quotes which were way too high for what seems to be not particularly skilled work, unlike the plastering, so I can imagine why you'd do the boarding yourself next time.

[Crumpet]

Taylor James said:

Mr Pointy said:

Take the lath & plaster down. It's easy & will provide a better foundation for the new ceiling.

That's not happening. It will be overboarded.

Yeah, don’t pull the old ceiling down! For the health of your family, if nothing else!

[Magooagain]

Over boarding done well will be fine. Don't scrimp on the amount of screws.
Another easy method would be to cross batten it that fix boards to the batons. Normally a sound job. And you can use the batton void if you wanted to move some cables etc.

[Evoluzione]

I've done every type over the years. Overboarded the lot, pulled plaster off only and left lats and also taken the whole lot down.

Overboarding everything means screwing into something spongy so the screws pull through easily. If they don't pull through then the plasterboard moves up and down anyhow and knocks the plaster off the heads of the screws.

Boarding onto lats only was ok, but a bit of prep needed to get a level surface.

Bring the lot down similar to the above, but obvs whatever is on top will also come down and need to be put back.

[Taylor James]

Magooagain said:

Over boarding done well will be fine. Don't scrimp on the amount of screws.
Another easy method would be to cross batten it that fix boards to the batons. Normally a sound job. And you can use the batton void if you wanted to move some cables etc.

Thanks and that's a good tip. Fortunately the re-wire can be accomplished easily enough with access via the loft so there won't be a need for a void.

[netherfield]

Builders came in here, joiners took all the doors off to avoid them getting damaged, then all the upstairs ceilings were pulled down, it's not just the lath and plaster, there's a hundred years of dust and muck and pathetic old insulation. Every room in the house gets a dose of it, just glad we weren't trying to live in it at the same time.

[paulrockliffe]

Mr Pointy said:

Take the lath & plaster down. It's easy & will provide a better foundation for the new ceiling.

Never type that again. It made me feel ill just thinking about it :-)

I had to take down a bathroom ceiling because it was hung off the roof and the roof had to come off. I taped myself in the bathroom and had the most disgusting two days of my life getting it all onto the floor. I was lucky that I could park a trailer under the window and empty it out that way, there's no way I'd have got the house clean ever again if I'd had to take it out via the house!

There will be tonnes of it, it'll have a layer of filth on top and it'll go everywhere. Over-boarding is quick and easy.

[Little Lofty]

Pulling them down is the better job, but incredibly messy. Skimming over existing lath and plaster is ok if they are very sound, which they usually aren’t as that’s why you are skimming them. A decent size ceiling will use 2 or 3 bags of plaster so 50-75 Kg, some are just about hanging on in there to start with, adding extra weight can be the straw that breaks the camels back, I’ve seen a few that have come down without warning.

[Alucidnation]

We never overboard lathe and plaster ceilings in any properties we refurb.

Rip it down and do it properly.

[Jakg]

Rip it down!

[J6542]

Rip it all out is the proper way to do it. If you don’t want to do that then frame it all with 2x1 or 4x1 then board that. It will be easier to get everything flat doing it that way instead off fixing through potentially blown plaster with 2 1/2 inch screws. If you cross frame it then you can space them out so your not cutting so many sheets of plasterboard.

[Wozy68]

paulrockliffe said:

Mr Pointy said:

Take the lath & plaster down. It's easy & will provide a better foundation for the new ceiling.

Never type that again. It made me feel ill just thinking about it :-)

I had to take down a bathroom ceiling because it was hung off the roof and the roof had to come off. I taped myself in the bathroom and had the most disgusting two days of my life getting it all onto the floor. I was lucky that I could park a trailer under the window and empty it out that way, there's no way I'd have got the house clean ever again if I'd had to take it out via the house!

There will be tonnes of it, it'll have a layer of filth on top and it'll go everywhere. Over-boarding is quick and easy.

This ^^^. Its a bloody horrible job .... Mine has been overboarded and skimmed....

Dependent on how old the house is and how flat the ceiling but my house is a bit over a hundred years old and it looks like a brand new ceiling.

[paulrockliffe]

Wozy68 said:

This ^^^. Its a bloody horrible job .... Mine has been overboarded and skimmed....

Dependent on how old the house is and how flat the ceiling but my house is a bit over a hundred years old and it looks like a brand new ceiling.

Mine is a similar age too, the ceiling is still perfectly flat. Well flat enough that it looks flat, I've never looked for any bows.

Surprised anyone refurbing professionally would remove it as it's time and mess = money for slightly less fire protection and slightly less insulation. The only benefit is you're not adding weight to the ceiling joists, but doesn't lathe and plaster pre-date cheapo ste ceiling timber? Mine is hung off 3" square pitch pine, the ceiling is massively over-built.