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Ceiling repair and replastering
Overboarding and skimming an average ceiling costs £350 to £650 and takes a day. Taking an old lath and plaster ceiling down first adds £200 to £400 for the labour and the skip, and it is a great deal dirtier than anyone expects.
What this covers
What it costs. Overboarding and skimming an average ceiling costs £350 to £650. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Overboarding a cracked or bowed ceiling and skimming it
- Taking down a failed lath and plaster ceiling and reboarding
- Making good a ceiling after a leak from above
- Repairing a ceiling where a wall or stud has been removed
- Filling and skimming hairline cracking across a whole ceiling
What is involved
Most ceiling work is one of three jobs. A ceiling that is cracked but sound gets overboarded: new plasterboard screwed through into the joists, then skimmed, which is faster and cleaner than pulling the old one down. A ceiling that is bowed, springy or coming away has lost its key and has to come down. And a ceiling that has had a leak through it needs the cause fixed and the plaster dried before anybody decides which of the two it is.
Lath and plaster is the pre-war construction: thin timber laths with hair-reinforced plaster pushed through the gaps to form a key behind. When the keys break the ceiling sags between the joists and sounds hollow. It can be reinforced from above in some cases, which is worth asking about in a listed building because it keeps the original fabric.
The practical thing to know is that ceilings are priced above walls of the same area. Everything is done overhead, it needs two people or a board lifter, and the finish is harder because gravity is working against the plaster the whole time.
Overboarding a cracked or bowed ceiling and skimming it, one of the jobs a ceiling repair specialist is hired for.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask whether they are overboarding or taking it down, and what made them choose. Ask what they found when they tapped it. Ask who takes the waste away on a strip-out. And if there is coving or a rose, ask before they start whether it is being saved, because the answer after they start is no.
Common questions
Can you plaster over a cracked ceiling?
Over hairline shrinkage cracks, yes. Over a ceiling that sounds hollow or moves when pushed, no: the new plaster is only as sound as what it is stuck to, and it will crack along the same lines within a year.
Is it cheaper to overboard or take the ceiling down?
Overboarding, usually by two or three hundred pounds, and it is far less mess. It loses you about fifteen millimetres of height and it does not work if the old ceiling is heavy, loose or already overboarded once.