Ceiling Question

[Flyfisher]

One of our bedroom ceilings has been affected by a leaking roof, though everything is nice and dry again.

The ceiling is original lath and plaster and doesn't seem to have been structurally affected but it has been badly marked, as the photos show. The flaking material seems to be the paint (modern-ish emulsion I suspect) rather than the plaster and shoult be easy enough to remove. None of the other 'panels' of the ceiling have been affected by the leak and retain their original gentle undulations. So, quite apart from it probably not being necessary, I'm loathe to have the affected ceiling panel replastered or skimmed as it will likely then stand out from the others.

So, my basic question is how best to repaint the affected panel?

I suspect that simply applying new paint will not be sufficient to cover the markings or that that they will seep through after a while.

I'm wondering whether to apply a layer or more of lining paper and then paint that instead. This would hopefully smooth over the damage and markings but allow enough of the underlying undulations to show through so it doesn't look like flat new plaster.

What does the panel think?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Preferring the look of distemper, and having seen the amazing job his plasterer did with turning black mouldy plaster to fresh white, I ignored Dr C's good advice and gave me 2 coats of Claircolle and 3 of distemper. It looks great.

But if that plaster really is sound, is not going to fall down in the next ten years, I'd lining paper and use a nice FnB cream.

Reading the Fowler book yesterday, it said that old paints had linseed in them which discoloured the whites very quickly. So if you hear that Georgians or earlier had white ceilings or mouldings it isn't really true, we'd think of it as cream.

 

[Lime]

The Barry Bucknell solution would probably be to rip it all down and put some hardboard up.
You'd soon get your undulations.

I'd wash the ceiling to see if the marks can be removed or minimised before putting paper up.

 

[middi]

If the messy , tedious and lengthy aprroach does not appeal to you, just screw 9mm plasterboard up against the existing ceiling and get a plasterer to coat the new ceilings with a one coat flexible plaster. You will have nice new ceilings for under a grand ( cheaper if you wack the plasterboard up yourself) whilst making an excellent conservation job :wink:

( food for thought, anyway)

Middi

 

[Nigel Watts]

the Fowler book

I am intrigued - which one?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Martin Wood's John Fowler "Prince of Decorators" - if you haven't got it you'd love it Nigel.

 

[Flyfisher]

Thanks for the thoughts. If the ceiling structure was a lot more damaged then I might have considered plasterboard. Some of our other bedroom ceilings have already had this treatment, but in this one I don't think the ceiling is bad enough to warrant it - quite apart from the fact that it would look odd against the unaffected parts of the ceiling.

I quite liked Dr Carrington's approach (thanks Joce). The amount of filling should be very small and something I think I could easily managed, as is a covering of lining paper. A good wash-down first might also significantly improve things.

Any suggestions regarding the lining paper? Is thickness the main difference or are there material differences? I'm thinking that something with quite a high tensile strength would be good for this type of application.

 

[JoceAndChris]

There is a really interesting thread on here about thick lining - will try to find it. I haven't used it as my top papers have been so thick.

 

[JoceAndChris]

http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11062&hilit=Lining+paper

 

[Nigel Watts]

Martin Wood's John Fowler "Prince of Decorators" - if you haven't got it you'd love it Nigel.

I have it and you are right, I do love it - his curtains especially. On reading it I was pleasantly surprised to find he and I were at the same school.

 

[Flyfisher]

There is a really interesting thread on here about thick lining - will try to find it.

Thanks for finding the link Joce. 'Tis a good job one of us has a good memory. :wink:

 

[Pford75]

FF...I'd definitely advise a non woven for the ceiling as you paste the ceiling (not the paper) and because there's no soaking, you don't have the hassle of trying to getting wet paper up above your head!

 

[Flyfisher]

I'll certainly bear that in mind. My wallpapering skills are few and haven't been exercised for about 20 years! Fortunately the main beams of this bedroom break the ceiling into smaller panels so, hopefully, the paper lengths shouldn't be too difficult to coax into place. I'll let you know when the time comes.

 

[Feltwell]

I'm wondering if a fungicide wash on that ceiling might be an idea FF - although modern wallpaper paste contains fungicide I suppose. Maybe some dilute bleach to wash onto it? I can't see that it would do any harm so long as it's given plenty of time to dry, make sure the black stuff is all killed off.

Myself & PFord are big fans of the non-woven lining paper, although on my last room I did have problems with the paste on the wall going dry faster than I could get the paper up - and that's despite it not being new plaster and my sizing the wall first. Maybe it needed sizing twice, though I've never needed to do that before.

Anyway, it covers a multitude of sins, doesn't shrink and is very strong. Good stuff.

 

[Zebra]

I don't know nuffink, but my inclination would be to go with JoceandChris, i.e. chip away any bad bits, patch it up with lime plaster - and then in terms of paper and paint go with whatever the rest of the ceiling has!
But I don't know, I haven't got any ceilings!

 

[AMc]

I used the nonwoven lining paper thanks to the recommendations on here. I installed some 4m lengths on my own - ceiling is quite low enough for me to reach but not comfortably. I would have to say it was a pig of a job and I turned the air blue throughout BUT if I'd had to deal with soggy paper I doubt I would have got it done at all.
Pasting the ceiling with a roller (IIRC) made it tolerable and the finished job is fine.
You can still see the undulations where we removed a modern stud wall - which wasn't desired in our case - but was inevitable given the mess that was there to begin with.

 

[Flyfisher]

Well, the panel seems to have made a good case for non-woven paper and pasting the ceiling, so I've taken note. I think I'll need to wait for the temperature to get into double figures though (no heating at all that end of the house - yet), though I suppose I could have a go at cleaning off as much of the mould as I can and verifying the extent of any plaster-patching needed. Hopefully something else will crop up to distract me. :wink: