Cost of fixing crack/bulge in ceiling

maki

I have a fairly large crack and a bit of a downward bulge in the ceiling of my kitchen, which is caused by some sort of leak in the shower directly overhead.

It looks like the kind of job where you'd need to saw about a quarter of the ceiling off, fix the leak, patch the hole up, then plane down a few millimetres off the rest of the ceiling and re-plaster the entire surface. That's a bit beyond my skill-set so I'm going to call in someone to do it for me.

Does anyone know what sort of price range this might fall into?
Bear in mind this is a fairly tiny kitchen (about 2.5m x 2.5m), so it's not going to be a huge job.

I need a bit of painting done also, so would a painter be able to handle this sort of job, or would I need a separate plasterer?

dodzy

maki wrote: »

I have a fairly large crack and a bit of a downward bulge in the ceiling of my kitchen, which is caused by some sort of leak in the shower directly overhead.

It looks like the kind of job where you'd need to saw about a quarter of the ceiling off, fix the leak, patch the hole up, then plane down a few millimetres off the rest of the ceiling and re-plaster the entire surface. That's a bit beyond my skill-set so I'm going to call in someone to do it for me.

Does anyone know what sort of price range this might fall into?
Bear in mind this is a fairly tiny kitchen (about 2.5m x 2.5m), so it's not going to be a huge job.

I need a bit of painting done also, so would a painter be able to handle this sort of job, or would I need a separate plasterer?

Plumber first. Hard to know the exact cause without pics, but it should't be too costly to repair. Waste trap or loose water supply fitting perhaps. Once leak has been repaired, for such a small area, and assuming its a plasterboard ceiling, i'd pull it all down, replace, tape & joint, and then repaint. Board and paint is cheap.

maki

dodzy wrote: »

Plumber first. Hard to know the exact cause without pics, but it should't be too costly to repair. Waste trap or loose water supply fitting perhaps. Once leak has been repaired, for such a small area, and assuming its a plasterboard ceiling, i'd pull it all down, replace, tape & joint, and then repaint. Board and paint is cheap.

Cheers. There's a glued on panel in front of the bath which is preventing me from seeing any of the connecting pipes, so I'm thinking about cutting a hole in the ceiling below myself just to see if there's anything obvious that I can fix personally before I hire a plumber.

If the ceiling is going to have to be completely redone anyway, I assume I'm not going to be making anyone's job harder by cutting away a bit myself?

dodzy

maki wrote: »

If the ceiling is going to have to be completely redone anyway, I assume I'm not going to be making anyone's job harder by cutting away a bit myself?

Correct, you're actually making it easier. As I said, take it all down yourself. Get a colleague to assist you replacing with new boards. Not rocket science. As is the usual case, if you're handy, you'll save yourself the price of quite a few ( World Cup ) pints

You could also get a plasterer in for a really neat job. If the boards were in place for him, you should get it done for €100 plus materials, or thereabouts.

jameshayes

dodzy wrote: »

Not rocket science. As is the usual case, if you're handy, you'll save yourself the price of quite a few ( World Cup ) pints

Yip, its one of the easier DIY jobs, buy the plasterboard and a back of screws, get a mate to hold up the board while you screw it in place, then measure the gaps for the remaining area, cut the board with a straight edge and a stanley knife, again, get a mate to hold them and you screw them - job done... that will shave a few quid off the price of the plastering..

Sleeper12

It's possibly the tiles around the bath or shower causing the problem. If it is it'll be a bit bigger job than you are thinking now.

Fingers crossed its just the waste come loose.

jack of all

Sleeper12 wrote: »

It's possibly the tiles around the bath or shower causing the problem. If it is it'll be a bit bigger job than you are thinking now.

Fingers crossed its just the waste come loose.

Once you have the area openend up get an assistant to run the shower and identify the source of the leak. Once you (think) have the leak sorted leave the ceiling alone for a few days to make sure you have the problem sorted before reslabbing.

househero

maki wrote: »

Cheers. There's a glued on panel in front of the bath which is preventing me from seeing any of the connecting pipes, so I'm thinking about cutting a hole in the ceiling below myself just to see if there's anything obvious that I can fix personally before I hire a plumber.

If the ceiling is going to have to be completely redone anyway, I assume I'm not going to be making anyone's job harder by cutting away a bit myself?

Why don't you take off the glued on panel and see what the problem is first before you go pulling your ceiling down. Putting the panel back with sealant is cheaper and easier than your ceiling method.

dodzy

househero wrote: »

Why don't you take off the glued on panel and see what the problem is first before you go pulling your ceiling down. Putting the panel back with sealant is cheaper and easier than your ceiling method.

the ceiling is only a little over 6' square, bulging, so has to come down anyway.

tobsey

dodzy wrote: »

the ceiling is only a little over 6' square, bulging, so has to come down anyway.

Are you sure all the pipe work is under the floor? If it's a bath in the bathroom then all the pipes might be above the floorboards so you won't see anything when the ceiling cones down.

househero

tobsey wrote: »

Are you sure all the pipe work is under the floor? If it's a bath in the bathroom then all the pipes might be above the floorboards so you won't see anything when the ceiling cones down.

That's what I was thinking.

Let us know how you get on anyway.

househero

maki wrote: »

I have a fairly large crack and a bit of a downward bulge in the ceiling of my kitchen, which is caused by some sort of leak in the shower directly overhead.

It looks like the kind of job where you'd need to saw about a quarter of the ceiling off, fix the leak, patch the hole up, then plane down a few millimetres off the rest of the ceiling and re-plaster the entire surface. That's a bit beyond my skill-set so I'm going to call in someone to do it for me.

Does anyone know what sort of price range this might fall into?
Bear in mind this is a fairly tiny kitchen (about 2.5m x 2.5m), so it's not going to be a huge job.

I need a bit of painting done also, so would a painter be able to handle this sort of job, or would I need a separate plasterer?

Did you fix it Maki?

maki

househero wrote: »

Did you fix it Maki?

Not quite yet.

I managed to tear the side panel off the bath and find and replace the leaky pipe, so that's one problem sorted.

There was a fairly large hole cut in the floorboards so I could have actually gone through from below, but no matter at this stage.

What I did notice is that there is fairly big pile of sand and various debris lying directly on top of the plaster of the ceiling below. I'm guessing it was the weight of this when the plaster got wet that actually caused the crack and bulge.

Regarding the ceiling, there's a decorative plaster border "thing" that runs along the edge of the whole ceiling which is cracked and deformed too. I know for a fact that I won't be able to fix that, and any plasterboard that I put up will probably have to come down to fix that. So I've decided it's probably best to just call the professionals in rather than me making a balls of it.