Thread: Home Improvement DIY - Working on the Ceilings

While ceilings may not suffer a lot of wear and tear, things can go wrong with them. So it pays to check them over from time to time. It is surprising how long a crack or stain can otherwise go undetected!

In upstairs rooms look out for damp patches caused by roof problems and also for signs of stress - possibly through too much junk being stored in the attic.

If an old lath-and-plaster ceiling is badly cracked and sagging, carefully probe it and pull away the loose parts. You may find that the plaster has come away from its backing. In this case you will have the messy job of pulling away all the old laths too so that a new sheetrock ceiling can be fixed in its place.

Normally any repairs and alterations to a ceiling are straightforward to carry out. The only real difficulty is in getting to the ceiling in safety so you can work in relative comfort.

For small localized repairs, a stepladder will provide suitable access. Ideally this should have a platform and handrail for safety. For larger repair work you should work from the base section of wheeled scaffold or staging or stand on a builders' staging board between two pairs of stepladders.

You should be able to stand upright with your head about 3in below the ceiling to avoid undue neck strain. Remember to wear safety goggles if you are drilling, scraping out cracks or cleaning off old finishes.

Some ceiling alterations can have a noticeable effect on the appearance of a room and significantly reduce the heating costs.

A lowered ceiling, for example, will reduce the volume of air in the room and thus create a smaller space to be heated. Cladding the ceiling in wood or fixing insulating sheetrock in place of the standard type will significantly cut down on the amount of heat lost through it, and will also reduce condensation.

Replacing a ceiling or fixing a lowered one also gives you the opportunity to improve the standard of lighting in a room. You could, for example, fix recessed can-lights, spotlights or track lighting instead of the single center light.

Always remember to wear safety goggles if you are drilling, scraping out cracks or cleaning off old finishes.