Skimming mid 1930's shower room ceiling

[wobbly2]

I'm trying to help a friend redo there (2.7m x 0.85m) shower room in a mid 1930's house. There is a problem with the ceiling in that it had several patches of different types of finish i.e. distemper, paint, emulsion and texture. These have now been stripped off (much scraping and rubbing) and the ceiling is back to its original plaster surface.

The surface is not really in a good enough condition to paint. In some places it is quite smooth and others it's sandy, friable and dotted with gouges, some of which contain remnants of the old paint etc. There are also several cracks.

I guess the best option would be to re-skim the ceiling. I've carried out plastering repair jobs in the past with reasonable success but before I make a start can anyone recommend what plaster should be used and how to prepare the existing surface before applying the plaster.

I've got some Cupronol Cuprotect stabilising solution that I bought years ago and I wonder if this would be suitable to stabilise the ceiling before plastering?

I doubt it makes any difference but just in case it does the ceiling has a skeiling across one third of it.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[foxhole]

Quick and easy to board over the original , that's less than one sheet of plasterboard, you could use tapered edge to leave one small strip to tape and fill.Easier than skimming, which could fail if not well prepared.