Bumbling my way through DIY

[hooblah]

BTW. The old laths are fantastic kindling !

I've saved a whole wheelie bin full of them for this reason.

 

[gaz1]

to make furings is easy enough to a degree it depends on what you have

table saw

jig

upside down circular saw with a level and a jig will do the same

or its down to planing wood with a planer 2x1 then plane down on one side planing at one end first then progressing back more and more but that way takes a while to do

 

[brightspark]

If it were my house, I'd put on my air fed mask,, take it all down and board.

If it were a paid job, I would suggest to the client how much money they would save by taking it down themselves, and then I'd come and board and skim.

(Taking down lathe ceilings is a horrible job)

yea only did one ceiling in my house the rest were pretty level so i over boarded them and skimmed. best of both worlds half hour fire resistant and better insulation on heat loss less work and mess

 

[hooblah]

I haven't got an airfed mask, but a filtered p3 mask works well enough.

I've smashed it all out today. Horrible. Black dust is the worst! And some sort of foam insulation chips that were between the joists. I'll clean up tomorrow and get some pics. I'm glad I partitioned the room with a sheet dangling from the ceiling.

 

[brightspark]

I haven't got an airfed mask, but a filtered p3 mask works well enough.

I've smashed it all out today. Horrible. Black dust is the worst! And some sort of foam insulation chips that were between the joists. I'll clean up tomorrow and get some pics. I'm glad I partitioned the room with a sheet dangling from the ceiling.

probably filled with vermiculite it goes everywhere

 

[gaz1]

I haven't got an airfed mask, but a filtered p3 mask works well enough.

I've smashed it all out today. Horrible. Black dust is the worst! And some sort of foam insulation chips that were between the joists. I'll clean up tomorrow and get some pics. I'm glad I partitioned the room with a sheet dangling from the ceiling.

i do it in 2 stages

plaster off first clear up and then the latts

ive actually spaded it off the ceiling often as it slices under the plaster

 

[brightspark]

i do it in 2 stages

plaster off first clear up and then the latts

ive actually spaded it off the ceiling often as it slices under the plaster

mine was upstairs so just went up in the attic with the spade and shoved the lot down digging it off

 

[hooblah]

It was well stuck. I couldnt get the crow bar betwen the plaster and the laths. The last half I managed to get it to separate enough that I could get my fingers in between and bring down a huge slab in one go.

 

[gaz1]

mine was upstairs so just went up in the attic with the spade and shoved the lot down digging it off

oh i did that often until one day the whole ceiling fell down including the woods i was stood upon as the whole ceiling gave way and droped 8ft to the floor

it went with a right bang as well and customer was around when it happened it was dont open the door im ok while hanging like a monkey on the main roof beam

 

[Blobber]

As a young electrical apprentice working on a rewire I can still see my knob of a boss poking a hole for the centre light position in a bedroom and the whole lath&plaster ceiling coming down over him and around him
I was just stood at the door watching and thinking about Karma!

 

[drjim]

Often amazing what is holding these things up. I recently removed a plasterboard ceiling from the scout hut kitchen - had been damaged by roof leak a year or two back. It turned out the two flourescent light battens had 1 inch straight head wood screws holding them up - four each in the middle of the batten. They were holding the whole ceiling up!

 

[hooblah]

Progress report:

I've taken down the whole lot and insulated between the timbers. I'll be adding more.



I found nothing obviously wrong to cause the sagging beam. On the left side it appears that a couple of pieces of angle iron or c channel jut out of the brickwork, which the beam rests on or in.



There's a small amount of dry rot on a couple of non-structural timbers. It appears that it's mostly on the surface. You can see little pin holes all over it. Is that caused by bugs? I don't think it's about to fall down.
I've scraped away as much of the dead wood as possible, then given it a skim of filler to build it up and level it off to allow it to be packed out for the plasterboard (please don't mention my filler skills).



I got a bit carried away with the crow bar when removing the laths and I managed to crack the plaster on the side. The plasterboard has separated and is flapping about. I was thinking of shoving a load of glue in the joint and then fillering over it?



Here are the little polystyrene chips which were used as insulation. Was this a common thing back in the day?



I've got my laser casting a line and then i've packed it out level at 300mm centres with 50x50 squares of timber of varying thickness and plastic shims. I've attached these with 50-60mm nails. Can anyone see a problem with this? Should i use adhesive as well?

 

[addjunkie]

Id use insulated plaster board on that, so you dont get cold spots where the board is fixed to the timbers on the timbers.
Id suggest strips of packing rather than little squares. Plasterboard needs fixing quite regularly.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Might be simpler to just buy some timber and screw it to the sides of the joists and then board on that...less faffing about. I think that's what I did in a few places with ours.

 

[dobbslc]

I got a bit carried away with the crow bar when removing the laths and I managed to crack the plaster on the side. The plasterboard has separated and is flapping about. I was thinking of shoving a load of glue in the joint and then fillering over it?

Some expanding foam in the gap then tack it in place, that stuff will stick anything!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Some expanding foam in the gap then tack it in place, that stuff will stick anything!

I like the PU foam gun adhesive...with the gun it's nice to use and similar to foam it basically sticks anything (including fingers!).

 

[hooblah]

Id use insulated plaster board on that, so you dont get cold spots where the board is fixed to the timbers on the timbers.
Id suggest strips of packing rather than little squares. Plasterboard needs fixing quite regularly.

I wanted to use insulated plasterboard, but I don't have the depth. I've used 9mm ply in the middle. What could I use in place of wood to prevent cold bridging?
Is 300mm centres not good enough?

 

[hooblah]

Might be simpler to just buy some timber and screw it to the sides of the joists and then board on that...less faffing about. I think that's what I did in a few places with ours.

Good shout.

 

[gaz1]

insulation tile backing board

insulation tile backing board - Google Search

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

insulation tile backing board

+1...very useful stuff...comes in a range of thicknesses. Also useful under internal window sills too.