ceiling in bedroom

[Penners]

Your observation about 'robot' craftsmanship is an interesting one, Middi. I spent a fair part of my working life in the solid wood cabinet furniture industry. A considerable proportion of the 'craftsmanship' that went into our pieces was carried out by automatic CNC machinery.

Of course, we didn't shout about this in marketing our products. In our literature we preferred to show photographs of the manual work that went into the final assembly of the CNC-cut/moulded/drilled panels. You know - men with leather aprons and pencils behind their ears.

Customers don't want to perceive their furniture as being machine-made - they want it hand-crafted. And yet, for precision work that results in accurately made cabinets, the machines win out every time. They're vastly superior to handwork.

 

[middi]

......" the machines win out every time"..... How very accurate that is Penners.

My sister in law purchased a couple of Princess Margaret's son ( David Lindley's furniture ? ) small pieces of furniture, they were beautifully ( hand ?) made exept that their workshop boasts lots of very modern machinery.

It is inevitable that machinery will produce joinery that is more accurate than hand made, the doubt is not weather these modern age carpenters are capable of producing precision joinery comparable or even better than days gone by, is weather they would be capable of producing the same quality of bygone carpenters WITHOUT the aid of modern machinery .

I am positive that they could but not without the repetitive experience required ,and necessary, to produce joinery masterpieces.

Unfotunately this will never be put to the test on a poduction scale because it does not pay to do so , also not necessary.

I think that on this particular instance. or as long as wood is used for construction, traditional methods of joinery will always be practiced and aided mechanically but never forgotten or substituted.

 

[skier-hughes]

I've decided to go for platerboarding over the top of all the beams. On top of the beams was always going to be the case.
Luckily 8'x4' sheets fit with very little cutting and waste, allowing me to put joins half way over beams.
I'll then skim over the underside between the beams to finish underside.
We currently have thermafleece on the bedroom floor insulating the kitchen to keep it warm, which will move up on top of the plasterboard to provide the loft insulation.

I just have to decide now on how to fit.
Straigh nail or screw or put a piece of say 3mm plywood along the length of the beams to spread the load.
I'm thinking the latter as this will then mark out the beams position for working up there later, ie putting up the insulation.

Graham

 

[Lime]

i.e. precisely what I suggested.

I gather from your description skier-hughes that you are thinking of laying the plasterboard on top of all the beams?
Nothing to stop you also putting some boarding over the plasterboard perhaps just following the beams.
With careful cutting of the plasterboard all joints could probably be under a floorboard nailed/screwed to the joist below with a seal of some sort on the joint.
You'd have the advantage of knowing where the joists are and economise on the floorboarding.

 

[middi]

Graham, if you decide to go down the "plasterboard and skim" road I would suggest the use of screws to fix the plasterboad and the " one coat chalk white finish" usually obtained at outlets like ( God forbid !!) BQ. This finish is not as stiff and brittle like the multifinish gypsum type, it is reasonably flexible and the finish is not "glass" smooth , when dry it has that uneven effect that when painted it is hard to distinguish from the lime rich plasters. It has the same substance as chalk.

Middi

 

[skier-hughes]

I'm pretty useless at plastering, so the guys who come in to lime plaster the walls will do it.

Graham

 

[Penners]

As Middi says, I would certainly advocate using drywall screws, rather than nails. I don't like bashing roof timbers - there's always a risk of the vibration causing some damage to something, somewhere. It's also very easy for a hammer to slip and damage your plasterboard.

Using drywall screws is made considerably easier by one of these: http://www.screwfix.com/search.do;jsessionid=QQRYBBETFBI2ICSTHZOSFFY?_dyncharset=UTF-8&fh_search=drywall+screw+bit&searchbutton.x=10&searchbutton.y=8

It enables you to drive the screws in nice and flush with the board, and without risking an over-enthusiastic screw gun plunging it right through the plasterboard!

 

[skier-hughes]

I screw anything that doesn't move :wink:
The thin plywood is partly to stop driving the screw into the plasterboard, also to help level the plasterboard to the uneven beams and lastly to mark the position of the beams for later.

 

[bournonite]

Graham

if the ducks are eating the reeds, can I suggest duck a l'orange would go down well????

Are we ever going to do that lime plastering....


8)

 

[Jon Maine]

I've decided to go for platerboarding over the top of all the beams. On top of the beams was always going to be the case.

Straigh nail or screw or put a piece of say 3mm plywood along the length of the beams to spread the load.
I'm thinking the latter as this will then mark out the beams position for working up there later, ie putting up the insulation.

Graham

We did that but used 25mm batten over fireboard for the ceiling. No plastering involved. We even painted the ceiling panels before fixing them. Then we put extra packing on top to level and create a void for sound insulation, cabling and underfloor heating.