Challenging Handyman Project – Repair Or Replace A 100 Year Old Ceiling?

We had a challenging project recently. A 100 year old federation home in the inner west had a bathroom with a ceiling in extremely bad condition. It was an original ‘horse hair’ plaster ceiling that had sagged and warped from over 100 years old bathroom steam and moisture. It was still structurally sound and was not likely to fall in but its appearance was very poor. The bathroom was due to be renovated and the entire ‘look’ of the renovation would well and truly be spoiled be the old saggy ceiling. Ok, so what to do? Many would say that you should simple pull down the old ceiling and cornice work and replace it. no so fast!

Taking A Look At The Old Ceiling Up Close

The manhole into the loft area was via an access hole in the bathroom ceiling. We climbed up into the roof cavity to take a look from above. There was, to our shock, about 2 to 3 inches of dust, dirt and grime and a maze of electrical wiring and pipework on top of the old ceiling. Added to that, the timber work was not in great order. After due consideration we decided that removing the old ceiling would be a major job in itself and looked at another option.

Installing a ‘False’ Ceiling

We elected to build a timber frame below the exiting ceiling (about 6 inches below) and then mount the new gyprock ceiling onto that. This involved dynabolting horizontal timber battens onto the brick walls and then attaching cross members onto that frame. We ended up with a very strong timber frame onto which we could then mount the new gyprock ceiling. The benefit of this was avoiding a huge mess taking down the old ceiling and possible damage. The new ceiling was structurally very sound and a new access door was cut into the ceiling to allow access into the ceiling.

Adding New Cornice Work

We then cut to size and installed new cornice work and glued it into place using cornice cement and temporary supporting nails to hold the cornice in place while the cement dried. We then applied gyprock sealer and finally 2 coats of dulux kitchen and bathroom ceiling paint. We have used this paint beore for ‘wet’ areas and find it is excellent in repelling mould growth and maintains an excellent finish for many years.

Project Complete!

So, the new bathroom ceiling was complete and we were relieved that it was not necessary to takle removing the old ceiling with the huge mess and potential issues that could have created. The new ceiling was in a bathroom with 3 metre ceilings so losing a few inches of height for the new ‘false’ ceiling was not an issue. job done!