Sanding or lining paper?

[raine]

I've just stripped the lining paper off a ceiling as it was in poor condition.

My question is - what's my best option to decorate the ceiling? Lining paper or fill & sand?

The ceiling has a few long cracks but is otherwise quite level. It has two thin layers of paint, both of which are peeling in many places. There are also quite a few discs (bigger than £2 coin size) of plaster on top of the paint, and other similar-sized discs of brownish-yellow type stuff which is rock hard (might be glue of some kind?). Some of these discs flicked off with the scraper when I removed the paper, but some were too hard.

I could probably sand the discs without too much trouble, and filling the cracks won't take too long, but the peeled paint is what I'm more worried about, as I've tried sanding that flat before and it took forever and made an awful lot of dust.

I'm hoping someone will suggest some kind of magic self-leveling ceiling paint!

So, fill & sand or lining paper?

 

[footprints]

Polystyrene tiles!

Combination of both get it as level as possible then either plain lining paper or if it is still ****e a fine random textured paper.

 

[Doggit]

Not sure if modern polystyrene tiles are fireproof, but personally, I'd avoid them. You need to scrape off all of the loose paint, or whatever you put on it will just peel or drop. It's more than possible that you'll get ridges etc where the old paint has peeled, so lining paper will cover a lot of the old sins. The other option is textured paint, but that's 80's in style as well.

 

[raine]

I've been reading up on this, and saw a suggestion to use a latex-based high-hiding primer. Would that work?

Dulux do one called Glidden Ultra Interior Primer.

Will that do the job of the "magic self-leveling ceiling paint" that I'm looking for?


I've heard that papering a ceiling is a lot harder than walls - is that true?

 

[Doggit]

Haven't seen that before, so can't comment I'm afraid, and yes, papering a ceiling isn't easy. Ideally, you need a helper with a broom, but it can be done on your own.

 

[Tigercubrider]

Can the ceiling be pushed back in place?

I did see a tip where the solution was to force a ceiling that drooped back up using several bits of wood as a prop, lifting the floorboards, and pouring a fairly sloppy plaster mix from above

Dunno if it works!

 

[Doggit]

That trick works where the the plasters come away from the lathes. The sloppy mix will overcome the inevitable dirt that's accumlated, and also get in all the crevices, but if the water tank has wacked the joist, and dislodged it, then that's another matter altogether. But I think you're refering to another thread that's going at the minute

 

[Tigercubrider]

Oops!

My bad

 

[footprints]

Haven't seen that before, so can't comment I'm afraid, and yes, papering a ceiling isn't easy. Ideally, you need a helper with a broom, but it can be done on your own.

Yes you will need help unless you are super good at it (my father in law papered an 18 ft long ceiling on his own at his old place!) I quite like ceilings no corners to wrap around and just the light fitting to cut in.
Make sure you can walk unimpeded on scaffold boards from one side to the other. Size the ceiling then ping a chalk line along to work to, paste and fold the paper in a concertina fashion, get an assistant to hold the folded paper on a short plank or batten. The assistant walks in front of you holding the paper and you follow behind applying it to the ceiling, the thicker the paper the easier it is.

 

[raine]

Just coming back to this thread in case someone else has the same problem.

Two things that helped me end up with a pretty good finish:

1. Bought a "heavy duty scraper" from Screwfix, which was much better at scraping off high / loose sections than the filling knife I was previously using.

2. Painted the ceiling with Polycell Crack-Free Ceilings paint, which seems to be the "magic self-levelling ceiling paint" that I was looking for.

I'm really pleased with the result - the ceiling looks great.

 

[geraldthehamster]

Save yourself some time, spend a hundred quid or so and get it reskimmed