wonky ceiling

[1912]

have just gutted the uopstairs of my house and changed nearly everything except the floor joists, im going to start on the downstairs soon new but have noticed that the downstairs ceiling in the kitchen at least is a hell of a mess prob the most uneven ceiling u can get ( i noticed it wealking down the stairs) its artex now and im just goin to plasterboard it, problem is i dont want a bumpy ceiling. will it be more noticable without artex? or how can i even it out? it is pretty bad when looking across it. The ceilings are only 2.1 downstairs so cant really drop them much more. Any ideas? im not changing the joists now!!

 

[Symptoms]

1912 - clearly you have an easily offended eye so if you don't take the offending ceiling down it'll bug you forever. Is the existing a lath & plaster jobby or plasterboard covered in Artex? How long's it been up ... older Artex contained asbestos ... so take appropriate measures when taking the ceiling down. Some folks apply a skim coat over Artex to hide it ... this is OK if the ceiling's structure is OK (no cracks or bulges). Don't bodge-it by applying plasterboard over the old stuff 'cos of the assorted difficulties of fixing it in position. Take the old stuff down (½ hour with a garden spade - but longer to clear the debris, especially the laths), and as you'll now be able to see the joists, screw the new plasterboard in. before you fix the new stuff consider running new lighting cables (for lots of halogen, or LED, downlighters) and extractor pipes in the ceiling void.

If the joists are pis*ed shim-out before the p/board goes up.

 

[1912]

Its just plasterboard and artex, no laths. I'm 90% positive its the joists that are making it uneven so will need to sort them out, all new wiring in already.
Can u explain more about " shim-out before the p/board goes up." please

Thanks

 

[Symptoms]

1912 - once the old plasterboard is down and all the fixing (probably nails) are removed you need to survey what's left. Using a very, very long 'straight-edge' (this can be a length of selected timber which IS straight) placed along the bottom of the joists you'll get an idea of how bowed they are (up or down). Then repeat the exercise across the joists to see if any are lower or higher than their neighbours. You now have a choice to add lengths of tapering timber (shims, hence "shim-out") along the joists to make-up any gaps. Or, you can add battens at right angles to the joists to take-up anything that's uneven; these battens are applied across the whole ceiling and it's onto these that you fix the plasterboard (they're a bit like new joists).

Another approach which can only be followed if say only one or two joists are sagging SLIGHTLY, is to plane these bulges off - WARNING ... don't take too much off as this has the potential of weakening the joist if you go too far. You'll probably find that your ceiling may well fall into this category.