This is my airing cupboard ceiling ......
Yesterday I was cleaning downstairs and heard a noise. Had no idea what it was, went upstairs to investigate, only to find that a large chunk of the airing cupboard ceiling had collapsed into the cupboard. Bum, bum, bum!
As you can see, it's lathe and plaster so will be a nightmare to deal with. They are so fragile and so filthy - 85 years of dust and filth up there just waiting to collapse further.
On the plus side, I had already put away all the clean washing from in there earlier that morning.
I can feel a trip through YouTube videos entitled "Repairing a lathe and plaster ceiling" coming on!
I'm beginning to think someone's got it in for me! 😁
Oh no! We have those sort of ceilings too and they are a nightmare. Our hot water tank in the airing cupboard was repaired under a service contract, only for the engineer to not do it properly causing a leak to the kitchen ceiling below, which in turn caused a great bulge of water held up by the plaster on the kitchen ceiling. It was covered by insurance and so we had the lats taken out and a plaster board ceiling fitted - much easier. We also had problems fitting a curtain pole around our bay window as the ceiling just wouldn't hold anything very heavy. Eventually handy hubby found a way though. Oh for a low maintenance house! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteIt's never ending on older houses isn't it! Mind you, friends of ours recently bought quite a new house, but within a few weeks, the shower doesn't work, the cooker blew up and the dishwasher is leaking, so it's perhaps more luck?
DeleteI wish you luck with your search, at least it happened now rather than in 6 weeks time or so.
ReplyDeleteVery true! One year we did have a flood in the garden and we think damp got under the house. All of the electrics were out on Christmas morning, but we managed to get cooker, overhead lights and one socket working. It made for a funny time although I did nearly burn the house down with a candle!!!
DeleteWe had to replace a lathe and plaster ceiling in our old cottage, It was bucket after bucket after bucket of mess to remove, nightmare!
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm putting off clearing it because I know just how much s#%^ is up there :( I may live to regret it though if the rest comes down by itself......
DeleteThere's always something isn't there :-(
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how you go about repairing lathe and plaster, on the walls would be difficult enough but on the ceiling even harder as you will be working against gravity. Even my 'go to' cure of No Nails glue wouldn't be much good in this instance!!
Thick plaster seems to be the key as well as clearing the existing lathes of 80+ years of toot. Should be fun! If it weren't just my airing cupboard I'd get a professional in, but I'm figuring it's a good place to give it a go.
DeleteI am sure you will manage to do a repair with the help of you tube, its the first place I turn to, the internt is great for finding how to do things, look forward to seeing how you get on good luck :-0
ReplyDeleteIt's great isn't it - I've fixed all kinds of things from Google tips of Youtube videos. I'll report on progress when I'm brave enough to start!
DeleteAre you going to take the rest down and replace with plaster board, that's probably what I would do. You seem to get a run of bad luck I know I do. I've had the day from hell today and its my day off!
ReplyDeleteI would, but I can't find anything to fix the plasterboard to, so I can't see how that would work. I can imagine Mr D and I spending some time looking up at that ceiling discussing what to do before we actually tackle it :~
DeleteSorry, pressed publish before I had finished. Was also going to commiserate on your rubbish day. Let's hope you've had a better one since!
DeleteOh my this is so not what you need right now. I am do hope this is the end of it all for you now, and one day you can look back at this time with laughter and a smile :)
ReplyDeleteI was a little fed up, I have to say, but I'm trying to look at it as an opportunity to try out a new skill!! That won't stop the swearing and sighing when it's not as easy as the Youtube video makes out and I have a house full of dust and hair full of plaster!!
DeleteGoodness what bad luck you are having.
ReplyDeleteBut on the good side this is the third thing so I think (hope) your safe now.
I have to look up what an airing cupboard is.
cheers, parsnip
The airing cupboard is pretty much obselete in modern houses now, but it's where the hot water tank sits. I'm lucky to have an extra large airing cupboard which is warm so I can dry my washing in it during the winter months. They are normally shelved around the tank and people use them to store laundry and towels in. I use mine all the time. In fact when I had a new boiler, I could have had a more modern system which would have meant I didn't need a hot water tank anymore, but I chose to keep it because it's a godsend for getting washing dry in grey and wet england!
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