Exposed brick wall gap with ceiling plasterboard

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I have taken all the plaster off a bathroom and after cleaning want to leave it that way.

But there are huge gaps between the wall and the plasterboard ceiling with buckets of dust and rubbish piling down from the roof gap above. There is nothing between the wall and the nearest joist about 3" (7.5cm) away under the board with what seems like a waterproof sheet about 6 " (15cm) above.

I will be putting up plywood sheets over the plaster board as a ceiling but need to stop the dust falling through on to the back of it and through the gap between the plasterboard and wall when finished.

Foam filler was one idea but the gap is too wide and there is nothing for it to stick to while setting. I might be able to glue strips of wood to the joist to fill out the gap but no room to nail or screw anything either.

I know it will be impossible to get a clean finish beween the brick wall wall and ceiling but am not sure how to finish it either. Any suggestions and advice would be welcome.
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You're going to have bare brick walls and a plywood ceiling in your bathroom?

That is.... unconventional.

You might like to ask in"building" and see what folks there have to say.
 
Is a bit but I have done it before on walls and ceilings The first is a room where I have lined most of the walls with ply and then waxed it. I have also put ply on ceilings instead of plasterboard as lighter and can paint or stain as in the second. Now I want to try a clear birch ply ceiling and bare old brick walls like in the third pic. My walls are far worse than that.

I have managed to fill the gaps with plastic bags and sponges then filled with mortar to keep the huge about of dust and rubbish out from the roof cavity. I will just need to fill small gaps between the ply and walls now which I think can be done with some sort of coloured flexible filler. I am happy with a rough sort of finish.

The main problem now is cleaning the brick and huge a mounts of mortar I have used to fill the gaps and holes. I have heard that undiluted washing up liquid mixed with salt does the trick. The brick work is about 100 years old with barely one straight course What do you reckon ? Thanks
 

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Expanding foam will do that gap- you have to put it on layer by layer though, which is tedious. Better option would be to junk the existing plasterboard ceiling, put new up and scribe the board to the walls while you're doing it- boring job but you should be able to get the gap down to 5mm very easily, 1mm if you want to spend ages at it. Good luck with cleaning the brickwork down, you'll be wanting to seal it as well (unless you like a brick dust shower when you're having a bath). Plywood ceiling- interesting. And challenging doing it with 1 sheet cos any joints are going to look rubbish. Maybe I'm sick but I could actually imagine having a bathroom with bare brick walls and pine cladding for the ceiling.... (stained down to antique colour or maybe a bit paler)
 
Yep. Tried that for the last few days. Half the foam dropped to the dust sheet but enough stuck to build it up and stop the dust and crap getting through as it did in the storm. I am leaving the plasterboard as it will insulate from the roof when I put up the plywood. Could not get a single sheet big enough but managed to get a couple of sheets at £4 each from the wood yard. It has a "busy" grain and slightly darker than pine so gaps will not show so much. Just a matt oil finish after a bit of sanding and some wood preserve.

I am now tryng to strip the window frame back to bare wood. The heat gun taked off layers of gloss but there is some emulsion and white wash in parts. The emulsion will not come off as all, so think I may have to sand it off of no one has any better ideas. I can get a Titan detail sander which I am told could do the job unless anyone can recommend anything better.

Thank for all the advice
 
Try some paintstripper on the white carp that won't come off- you might get lucky. Wire wool and paintstripper works really well on detail stuff. Trouble with sanding it off is it'll take forever and if you're wanting to keep the bare wood you'll have to sand the whole lot til it comes down to the same shade
 
Probably no use to you now but plasterboard is quite strong stuff (if you use 12.5mm)- it'll cope with a 75mm overhang, especially if you fill the gap to the wall with Gripfill or any similar bonding goo. And just a thought- plasterboard is quite good as a physical insulator (it'll stop rubbish) but has the thermal properties of a sheet of newspaper. If you can't get at the ceiling from above, think very seriously now about getting some thermal insulation in- you'd be amazed at the difference in comfort it makes (my bathroom has a high lath and plaster ceiling with 200mm of rockwool above it. I put a false ceiling in 200mm lower, packed the void with rockwool- suddenly the bathroom is a warm room instead of a cool room)
 

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