cracks in plaster and lath ceiling

[alexg]

we're just redecorating our guest bedroom and my wife decided that i should remove all the original woodchip paper from the ceiling.

i have now got it all off and just need to remove some of the backing paper.

on removing the woodchip i have exposed a number of long cracks across the ceiling which go through the plaster ceiling. These cracks appear to predate the woodchip as they have been filled before, but some of the filler has fallen out...

there is a floor above the bedroom (a loft-space which was converted many many moons ago) and i think that there was once some water ingress from above (the woodchip had water-staining on it, as does the bare exposed plaster).

i really can't face pulling down the old plaster & lath ceiling if i don't have to.. i was planning to simply fill up the cracks once again and then put up lining paper before painting the ceiling.

there is a bit of a bow in the ceiling, but nothing too drastic... i can walk about upstairs without any bits of plaster falling down, but it does look a little dramatic when i can push up the plaster around the cracks and see the plaster move a few millimetres.

am i being completely daft to paper over it all... all can it just be a case of 'what has been fine for the past 25yrs will be fine for another).

cheers

 

[roy c]

How high is the ceilings? I have had exactly the same problem as you in my house, but my house is over 100 years old and the ceilings are 10 foot high downstairs and 9 foot high upstairs. I have left the original ceilings up and formed new ones underneath them with 4"x"2 and plasterboarded and skimmed them. But I have totally gutted all the downstairs walls and got rid of the lath and plaster and reboarded them and now done one room upstairs and another 4 to go.... Just form another ceiling under the old one

 

[JohnD]

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