Remove stiple ceiling - help!

birdie89

Hi everyone,

I am due to complete the purchase of my first home in the New Year. The house is an ex-DCC corporation terrace house.

I have to admit that I dont have the first clue about renovation etc and am buying the house as a single girl in my late 20s (dont want to be taken advantage of).

The house has stiple effect ceilings throughout which IMO are an eyesore that I need to have removed before I can rent out the second bedroom.

Can anyone give me an estimate cost for such work? I understand that it is a case of attaching plasterboard and skimming over?

Any help or insights is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks

the_pen_turner

some or that artex contains asbestos so bear that in mind . not sure of the years

basically its a job of re boarding and skimming the ceilings. not a huge job but messy

well worth it in the end

drunkmonkey

Or if you want a cheap way out just take the back of a brush to it and smooth it down as much as you can without cracking it...make sure and wear goggles and a mask...we had it in every room one or two we redone completely but back or a brush worked on some of the non main rooms, will also look freshly painted after the brush trick.
Cost = free

exaisle

Given the difficulty of finding a room, I doubt it stippled ceiling is going to stop anybody taking a room should it become available....just paint it...nobody will pay too much attention to it..

birdie89

exaisle wrote: »

Given the difficulty of finding a room, I doubt it stippled ceiling is going to stop anybody taking a room should it become available....just paint it...nobody will pay too much attention to it..

If I am getting the rest of the other rooms I might as well do them all. Its really not to my taste.

Does anyone have any idea of cost?

the_pen_turner

birdie89 wrote: »

If I am getting the rest of the other rooms I might as well do them all. Its really not to my taste.

Does anyone have any idea of cost?

what sizes at the rooms.

have you considered putting an insulated slab on to help keep the room warm.

Teyla Emmagan

No idea of cost but I agree completely as to how hideous it is!

LirW

My whole hall and landing has strippling, made with plaster. I have no words for how ugly and a pain to remove that is. It's definitely a dirty job with a lot of dust, nothing that can be done when furniture in anywhere close to it.
If you get someone to do it, it's a few days worth of work plus at least a skip bag/small skip if you strip it down.

birdie89

the_pen_turner wrote: »

what sizes at the rooms.

have you considered putting an insulated slab on to help keep the room warm.

The house is 72 metres squared (two bed).

Would the insulation be expensive? Is this the same as dry-lining?

the_pen_turner

birdie89 wrote: »

The house is 72 metres squared (two bed).

Would the insulation be expensive? Is this the same as dry-lining?

that's around 24 sheets of plaster board . so allow 30 for a round number including waste . at 1-15 euro a 12mm sheet that's 450 euro roughly

25mm insulation is 35-40 a sheet which is 1200euro roughly.
fitting and skimming will be the same


its imposible t judge the labour without seeing it. it could be a 2 day job or 5 day job to board it out . 2 days skimming maybe

the_pen_turner

it is like dry lining. only on the ceiling. we did it in our bathroom and its a great job.

birdie89

Just been quoted 4k for these works - seems very steep?

GreeBo

birdie89 wrote: »

Just been quoted 4k for these works - seems very steep?

Do your ceilings have coving?
What's included in the quote? Personally I wouldn't pay half that, but it depends on what they are quoting for.

I'd probably just get a plasterer in and not bother boarding over them.

He will knock off the peaks and skim over.
It's still a messy job bt will save you buying and cutting boards.

Should be about 2-3 days work, depending if you need the stairs/landing done or not.

If it's just 2 bedrooms it's half a days work for plasterer + labourer/washer.

the_pen_turner

birdie89 wrote: »

Just been quoted 4k for these works - seems very steep?

its hard to know without seeing it and seeing what complications are there.

does that inc vat
does that include any electrical work
is that overboard or strip down and reboard

it takes time to find all the joists especially in older houses when they can be going all over the place

alias no.9

It's a horrible job. You don't need new boards. The stipple can be stripped by first steaming it to soften it and then scraping it off. The existing plaster boards can be skimmed but to get good adhesion, get the plasterer to skim with bonding compound rather than regular skim coat. It's a more difficult material to work with but it will save having to do it twice.

We had it done a few years back when tradesmen weren't particularly busy so I can't really help with costs. Its the kind of work many tradesmen would be happy to miss out on so expect high quotes.

mylittlepony

Just an idea maybe add planks to ceiling.
Depends if you like the look.

Friend's house have 'popcorn' ceiling you get used to it. depends how high ceiling you forget it there.
Maybe give it time if you only just move in.
Is it white. If not paint white less noticeable.

exaisle

If you're getting work done, remember that if you are spending more than €5000 including VAT in any one calendar year, you can get the VAT back under the HRI scheme, so it may be worth your while getting more than just the ceilings done...maybe consider ceilings and dry lining/insulating the external walls and/or attic...

jmBuildExt

As you can see lots of opinions .. heres another
personally Id slab over and re-skim... few reasons;
1. cleaner job
2. No need to worry about anyoone getting poisoned scraping asbestos off the wall (before some time in early 70s theres a good chance the stuff they used had asbestos in it)
3. The plasterer will prefer plastering onto clean plasterboard and is more likely to stand over the result. He will tell you that there's a chance the plaster will come away if he plasters straight onto what is there.

Save yourself the expense of putting insulating plasterboard on ceiling. Its not worth it. There's no real benefit in insulating ground floor ceilings (unless your heating is zoned and you intend to heat different parts of the house individually, but in a house like that you will most probably have all the rads on at same time).
As a separate project, make sure there is plenty of insulation in the attic above the ceiling.

Re price....To me 4k is a little bit steep (but just a little) - if he had good references and you're sure he will do it right (i.e. you've seen the work hes done before) id probably go with him.

But get more quotes... (tradesmen.ie used to be good - not sure what its like now that everyone is busy again)
I got similar job done on a slightly bigger 3 bed semi but included hall and landing walls and a couple of others which were in bad nick - cost was 2500 i think - but that was in 2013/2014 when builders still werent v busy... thats changed now.

I'm getting this done at present, in my downstairs (not doing anything upstairs for a while, just focusing on the ground floor).


I was adding an extension so in the kitchen it made sense to completely remove the ceiling and start fresh (as while the ceiling was down, I could access electrical wiring etc.). In the hallway the stippling was scraped and then a blue gritty substance was painted over it. It's like paint and sand mixed or something. Not sure what the name is. And that will just be plastered over.


Either way, a messy job, but I'd if you're planning to re-wire the house or such, it might make sense to remove the ceilings altogether. Beware, though, that this is an extremely messy job. Extremely. I couldn't believe the dust and dirt that was involved. You simply could not live in the house whilst this happened if you were doing the whole house.

the_pen_turner

thistle bond is the blue primer being referred to.

taking down a ceiling like that really is a messy job especially in an older house that has exposed floor boards. the amount of dust and crap that finds its way in there is amazing.
it can be a nice treasure hunt though