Polystyrene Ceiling Tiles

[Haggishunter]

Hi folks,

My first post here so be gentle with me.

I have just bought a house that needs quite a bit of work done to it. I am happy to take on all the work required, but I have never plastered/re-plastered a roof.

Unfortunately one floor in the house has all the ceilings covered with polystyrene tiles (approx. 150 square metres). My plan is to proceed with the lengthy process of scraping them off then getting the ceiling underneath skimmed.

Is this a good plan or can I cut my time by doing it another way?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[TheVictorian]

Either scrape them off or just overboard them with new sheets of plasterboard.

Negative is that you would lose another 12.5mm of ceiling height, positive is that it would offer a little more sound insulation between floors.

 

[trowelmonkey1]

Agree that overboarding is probably your best option. Wouldn't bother trying to scrape the tiles off though as you could spend hours if your life doing it only to make a mess of the boards behind anyway. In all likelihood the adhesive wouldn't come off nicely enough for the ceiling to be just skimmed, would probably need bonding out first. If u don't want to lose another half inch off your ceiling then it'd be quicker to rip the ceiling down.

 

[Haggishunter]

Excellent, thanks for the replies. The thought did past through my mind, but wasn´t too sure. But now I have some firm believers in it that´s what I´ll do since ceiling height isn´t too much of an issue.

Thanks!

 

[Haggishunter]

Is the standard spacing between ceiling joists 16" like walls?

 

[roy c]

400mm centres to accomadate metric size boards (2.400x1.200 mm)

 

[TheVictorian]

No such thing as standard on old ceilings! Mine are different in every room and sometimes in the same room.

You'll have to go poking holes with a screwdriver to find your centres.

 

[huddsspread]

I will probably get shot for this but.....when you take the tiles off ( if you do ) set them on fire in a bin, they go proper mental! Its quite funny and disturbing at the same time.