help please with a flaky kitchen ceiling

[The Mrs]

Dear all;
My husband, who is an avid DIYer (and very active on here) is threatening to take down the somewhat flaky paint on our kitchen ceiling (please see photos), and skim over it. It is not that I do not want to fix this problem (of course I do, I spend most of my time IN the kitchen!) it is just that last time my vacuum cleaner blew up as the result of one of his projects, and it wasn't the only one to have met that fate! As such I am looking for a cleaner, more vacuum friendly solution!
I was wondering if either of these ideas might work:
a) Could I just glue the flaky bits back on, and then paint over them with a thickish ceiling paint?
or
b) Might I be able to just wallpaper over the ceiling with woodchip, or similar?
Of course, if you have any other alternative solutions I would be very pleased to hear!
best regards
The Mrs

 

[Doggit]

Have you considered divorcing him; alternatively, but him his own wet/dry vac for Christmas.

A won't work whatsoever, and B will work for a short while, till the other bits come unstuck, and the woodchip sags off.

You have 2 choices for the ceiling. 1, scrape the loose stuff off, and having ruined another vacuum cleaner, then skim it. 2, overboard the ceiling with plasterboard, and then skim that. Option 2 is the cleaner and quicker of the two, but costs a bit more for the plasterboard.

 

[The Mrs]

Thank you very much for your response!
I am afraid the divorce option is out of the question. Not only am I rather fond of him, he is also rather handy and IS cheaper than getting in a builder! But I do very much like your suggestion for his Christmas present!
Thanks for the suggestions, I guess that option two sounds the better of the two options, but still involves (sigh) skimming...
However I did have another idea, and was wondering if you think this might work.
If we were to scrape of the ceiling and then paper over it, this would avoid the skimming, and it is when he is skimming that he makes the most mess! (And then it is my share of the job to clean all the plaster of the floors, cupboards, walls...)
Many thanks!
The Mrs

 

[Nozzle]

Is it artex? if it might be, don't scrape it all off! DO NOT. Do what you need to do to make it stable, then get it plastered over. (asbestos alert, don't go spreading it about the house by vacuuming it, it just passes through the filter bag of a domestic vacuuum. If it's just paint though? Go ahead with impunity, to hell with the vacuum cleaner, just change the bag one the job is done.

Nozzle

 

[Doggit]

Okay, add dust sheets to Christmas present list.

The problem with scrapping it off (in addition to Nozzles warning) is that you can scrape off the existing loose bits, but you then risk having other bits come loose later; and having had to scrape a bathroom ceiling, I know the problems only too well.

 

[The Mrs]

hello both
thank you for your replied!
fairly sure it is not asbestos as it is not such an old ceiling, last owner just didn't maintain it at all! And there are no sparkly fragile pieces like you'd have with artex.
came home to find the husband scraping already, so yes to the dust sheets! I've no choice but to help him now, so have to go along with original choice 1. Well over four hours later and still stubborn patches remaining!!

 

[foxhole]

A kitchen peeling ceiling is often due to steaming it with food prep and cooking, do you have kitchen extractor fan? If not the repair whatever the method is likely to peel again.

 

[The Mrs]

we're installing a new kitchen, so a new and very effective extractor was my first priority!! Given the state of the old extractor (from our house's previous owner) I feel you are right with your comment on steam causing the ceiling to peel.

 

[Adam_151]

it is just that last time my vacuum cleaner blew up as the result of one of his projects

The thing is the fancy wizzy double cyclone household vaccumm cleaners are not intended to cope with building mess... even if it doesn't wreck them, it clogs the filters and cyclones up, etc.

What you need is two cleaners.... a fancy wizzy one for the normal cleaning duties, and what might be termed a 'shop vac for the proper mess.... a basic cylinder cleaner thats robust and has one filter that can be banged out on the side of the dustbin to remove most of the dust. The henry units are quite popular amost the building trade (and contract cleaners) because you can chuck them in the back of a van and expect it not to break... hell you could almost chuck it down a flight of stairs and expect it to still work... try that with a dyson! (actually don't!)

I just have a a wet and dry machine bought from B&Q for £40 on their boxing day event a couple of years ago.... seems to cope with building dust and other mess fine

 

[chappers]

looks like textured paint that might have been used to cover a multitude of sins.
Incidently HSE now consider artex to be non-hazardous and their recommendation for removal is dust mask goggles and to dampen it before scraping or ideally steam it off. Strangely though they consider it to be hazardous waste and as such should be double bagged for disposal.
Get him a Henry