Pull down plaster and lath or just plaster

[Guiseley Rhino]

Hi

Working a revised kitchen out of 3 rooms - small kitchen, pantry and utility.

Kitchen has old tiles glued to the plaster and lath ceiling, the rest is plaster and lath only therefore the enlarged room has different height ceilings. In addition removing a couple of non structural walls has left gaps in the ceiling where the plaster and lath was never originally installed (1930's house).

Removing the tiles is pulling off the plaster - should I only pull the plaster off throughout or remove the laths (where present) as well prior to getting someone in to re-board and skim ?

Thanks

 

[mcprinter]

1930s here too. Recently had an upstairs room fully skimmed.

Got a plasterer in early for a quote and had a good chat with him as I was wondering about dropping the whole lot.
He said that the joists are often not level and the laths correct this.
Dropping the whole ceiling then creates extra work packing out the joists so the plasterboard sits flats.

Get your plasterer in for some direction

 

[Guiseley Rhino]

Thanks for the prompt reply

Will get several into quote as we need a number of rooms either part re-plastering or a full skim

 

[tell80]

Laths are not for correcting uneven joists.
Laths will follow the joists contours just like plasterboard.

If you want a flat, level ceiling then you should strip back to bare joists, and bring all the joist edges in line.
You will have to furr out to get the different heights to line up in one plane.
Use crossing string lines as in: X.
You will also have access for any insulation, cables and lights, and maybe c/h pipes.

In most cases, especially older houses, perfectly flat and level ceilings are not necessary, you could always simply overboard.
But in your case you have existing ceilings at different heights so it would be in your interest to drop the ceilings.

 

[Pharun]

I would overboard with i/2 inch plasterboard and use 45 to 50 mm galvanised nails (or screws if you prefer) to affix them to the ceiling , chop a line of the plaster away about 4 to 6 inches from the wall to expose each joist (it does not need to be a continuous line) to find their centres and then with the help of someone flick a chalk line across the ceiling to show the centres of the joist then overboard and skim

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I would overboard with i/2 inch plasterboard and use 45 to 50 mm galvanised nails (or screws if you prefer) to affix them to the ceiling

Screwing is far less likely to give you problems with the lime plaster cracking or breaking off, which can be very messy and dirty, especially in a house which was coal heated (soot gets everywhere). Ripping out lath and plaster is a horribly dirty job and is one of those jobs the OP will wish he never started on.

, chop a line of the plaster away about 4 to 6 inches from the wall to expose each joist (it does not need to be a continuous line) to find their centres and then with the help of someone flick a chalk line across the ceiling to show the centres of the joist then overboard and skim

Or try a rare earth magnet on the plaster. Where the laths are nailed to the joists there are dozens of steel tacks which a strong magnet can often pick up. Doesn't always work, but can save chopping out plaster. OP - once you find one joist the next is likely to be at something like 16in away from the previous one (unfortunately some builders can't measure, so not written in stone...)