Repair or board over?

[PZero]

Today I'm tackling the ceiling in our bedroom. The plaster is quite cracked and where an electrician about 20 years ago has done a crappy job it is sagging off the lath. Over most of the ceiling the cracks could be filled (probably to reappear again later on) but the area around the long hole you see in the photo, well an area about 1600x600 needs taking down and renewing.

So my question is, would you fill the cracks and replace the required area, or just overboard the whole thing? At the moment I'm leaning toward overboarding. Less mess and a much neater finished ceiling.

 

[joe-90]

Over-boarding would give better insulation but it's not beyond repair.

 

[Richard C]

Not beyond repair but will involve a fair amount of work. Over boarding & skim will give the quickest/easiest/best looking solution & remove the risk of some of those cracks reappearing.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I agree with the above replies, it's not beyond repair but looks like it has had it's day and problems will reoccur at a later time.
So I would overboard it, giving you a nice new ceiling, be sure to locate the joist prior to fitting boards. Looks like a small ceiling, so staggering joist may not be needed be is good practise.

But before you do that, sort the electrical cable out and make sure it is within the permitted safe zone in the wall and run above the existing ceiling, not trapped between boards.
//www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:installation_techniques:walls

 

[PZero]

Thanks for the replies chaps.

Staggered joist?

I've just been trhough and located all the joists and marked their locations on the walls. The electrical cable is already above the existing ceiling so I'm good to go.

Off to the timber yard

 

[Richard C]

Staggered joist?

Think PBD meant staggered boards

 

[PZero]

Staggered joist?

Think PBD meant staggered boards

Ah

Will do that for sure.