House taken back to brick, any good alternative to skimming?

[SteveInHerts]

Hi, new poster here, got a home renovation that could do with input in a few areas right now.

I bought a house in December, knowing from the survey that it would need quite a bit doing to it . The "big item" was that the downstairs ceilings were close to the end of their life and would need redoing in the next few years. It's basically a pretty good house, and our budget allowed quite a bit of contingency for undiscovered issues.

Unfortunately more serious issues were revealed when we started on the works. It turned out that under the plaster, there was widespread loose brickwork and mortar crumbling everywhere, and joists needing reinforcement as they'd been so poorly set that it was endangering the structure. The extent of mortar issues was such that we ended up stripping back to bricks and joists throughout and on every ceiling, hardwalling the entire property from subfloor to 1st floor ceiling, and replacing or adding joists - there wasn't any other way to tackle it. Everything they looked at showed up further problems. (The severity is genuine, not made up to get more work, the issues are clear to anyone now they're exposed, and we know the builders well and they're good). That's on top of the dangerous bodged electrics and unplanned rewiring we had to deal with, the dangerous heating, and so on.

(Surveyor's response summary? "I know you asked for a full report in depth, but blah blah, legal disclaimers, always some things couldn't be inspected as inaccessible, not something we should have noticed. Yours truly")

We're happier now, the family turmoil bit is okay, and the property is back on track, in terms of control and no more unexpected problems, at last. But having to make good on this kind of scale, plus the rewire, has pushed my contingency for renovation work way beyond "overrun" and into real difficulty.

Right now the main work and expense by far that's outstanding is the time-cost of a total re-render (if needed on top of hardwall) plus ceiling boards, and skim throughout, so we can get decorating. I really need to find a way to reduce costs if I can - but not at the cost of crap workmanship or disastrous decor, or follow-on problems than mean having to redo it all in a few years. We've discussed it with the builder and he's fine if we want to do something else than traditional plaster skim, but I'd like more input on it before we next discuss it.

So my question is, do we have any real options that make sense, or how do the various options compare? Are there any boards (Google suggests fermacell? cementboard? unskimmed plasterboard?) which can really be made to substitute for a proper plaster skim, or give a plaster-like strength and smoothness, if sealed and painted appropriately, to help us keep down the remaining costs if we can? How much difference compared to a proper skim would we notice once decorated, or after a few years?

Thanks, and help is really appreciated on this.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

The simple answer is no!
The traditional methods of boarding and skimming are your best cost and time efficient solution.

 

[roy c]

You could go down the "dot and dab" route then either skim or dry line the boards, your builder should be able to explain this to you.

 

[tombodge]

In shop fits they tap and join plasterboards. Basicly they just filler the joints of the boards and then paint the lot. Or you can wall paper ontop of it. Ive hurd they also do a primer so you can remove the wall paper at a later date without destroying the paperboard but im not sure how this works out in reality.


You can't really tell that its not a proper plaster job but personally I don't like it

 

[clive12345]

Hello,
You say the whole of the property has been "hardwalled"
If you mean a floating coat of hardwall , applied by a plasterer ,then all that is needed , is to skim it.
In a house electrics and plumbing are 1st fixed then the ceiling is tacked before floating .
As your ceilings are not yet up , your 1st fix electrics are probably not finished .
A photo would really help .
Or, tack , dot and dab , skim as previously stated by PrenticeBoyofDerry
and roy c .

 

[SteveInHerts]

Hello,
You say the whole of the property has been "hardwalled"
If you mean a floating coat of hardwall , applied by a plasterer ,then all that is needed , is to skim it.
In a house electrics and plumbing are 1st fixed then the ceiling is tacked before floating .
As your ceilings are not yet up , your 1st fix electrics are probably not finished .
A photo would really help .
Or, tack , dot and dab , skim as previously stated by PrenticeBoyofDerry
and roy c .

Thanks everyone!
clive12345 - the first point in your post was especially helpful. Now it's gone a bit further it looks like that's exactly what they have done - a full ~11mm of hardwall render direct onto the brick + mortar, leaving the walls squared, smoothed, and ready to take a final skim. I was pretty concerned it would need plasterboard as well, in which case could a skim on *that* be avoided. Now I understand I had completely the wrong idea (oops ) So I'm a lot less apprehensive.

The builder's confirmed that their existing work has taken care of all but the final smooth surface, and with the walls square a skim should be quick. They've quoted about 10 man days to skim throughout and an "all-in" price including materials, I would have guessed 50% or 100% again, so I am okay as heck with it. The quality of their work suggests this isn't based on a "bodge" but because of good previous work etc.

So in the end this resolved itself. Thanks everyone though, for the help. I was really very apprehensive of how much more we'd have to find, to get a final surface after all the repairs, if traditionally done, but now I'm fine with it. After 3 months we finally have walls!

 

[NickB_99]

The builder's confirmed that their existing work has taken care of all but the final smooth surface, and with the walls square a skim should be quick. They've quoted about 10 man days to skim throughout and an "all-in" price including materials, I would have guessed 50% or 100% again, so I am okay as heck with it. The quality of their work suggests this isn't based on a "bodge" but because of good previous work etc.

You're going the right way. The skim only is not the most expensive bit and as they will do it day-in/day-out you will end up with a decent result.
Sounds it's sorting well after a tough road!