Overboard or renew

[Maccapacca]

Hi folks

Pricing a refurbishment of a 187 sq m bungalow. Spec calls for over boarding all the ceilings and removing and replacing the loft isolation plus a full rewire and plumb.

Do you think there will be any cost difference between pulling all the ceilings down and renewing or just over boarding?

Positives

Less time for plumbers and sparky as all the m&e is loft down.
Stripping out of ceilings will bring insulation down as well Saving time pulling insulation up in loft.
Original ceiling may be uneven anyway

Negatives

Additional skips
Additional time

Anything else?

 

[Simps]

It will be very messy on the downside.
You will have (should do) to put foilback boards back up which cost a bit more.
Unless you're plastering the walls too or having coving you will get cracks round the ceiling line. Unless the skrim tape blended in to the wall but you can always see it unless you're wallpapering. Hot room + cold loft = expansion no matter how much insulation you wack up there.

I hate overboarding, especially over artexed ceilings. You get a much flatter ceiling (better finish) ripping old down and putting new boards up providing the joists are running through ok.
The job I'm doing atm is all overboarded ceilings and they are a right shape but that is laff and plaster
Less weight on the joists.
Easier for the trades.

 

[DXP55]

When we brought our bungalow all ceilings were bowed due to previous busts in loft - we had plasterers in and they cross battened and reboarded and also put up the big plaster coving - it is a 3 bed bungalow - at end of referb the plasterers did best job for best price - take my hat off to them - As there was only 2" of insulation I stripped out loft and had it re-done for free.

We got it to habitable condition in three months then moved in and finished off.

Dave

 

[Maccapacca]

It will be very messy on the downside.
You will have (should do) to put foilback boards back up which cost a bit more.
Unless you're plastering the walls too or having coving you will get cracks round the ceiling line. Unless the skrim tape blended in to the wall but you can always see it unless you're wallpapering. Hot room + cold loft = expansion no matter how much insulation you wack up there.

I hate overboarding, especially over artexed ceilings. You get a much flatter ceiling (better finish) ripping old down and putting new boards up providing the joists are running through ok.
The job I'm doing atm is all overboarded ceilings and they are a right shape but that is laff and plaster
Less weight on the joists.
Easier for the trades.

Cheers.

Im trying to convince the builder it's better for everyone and sell the tender as a better job. I hate overboarding as well. It can look like a pillow.

I think with a full rewire and plumb we'll get lower costs from the electricians and plumbers if they don't have to crawl around the loft and can use hop ups.

 

[Maccapacca]

When we brought our bungalow all ceilings were bowed due to previous busts in loft - we had plasterers in and they cross battened and reboarded and also put up the big plaster coving - it is a 3 bed bungalow - at end of referb the plasterers did best job for best price - take my hat off to them - As there was only 2" of insulation I stripped out loft and had it re-done for free.

We got it to habitable condition in three months then moved in and finished off.

Dave

We are moving a few walls so there's quite a bit of patching before the overboarding begins.

 

[Simps]

We are moving a few walls so there's quite a bit of patching before the overboarding begins.

If the ceiling heights are different where you have knocked walls down from one room to the next and you overboard you will see it even more. whereas the joists should be the same height for putting new boards up.
When I say ceiling heights I mean the plaster tends to be thicker on the edges of a room to get over the old cotton skrim cloth. so when you overboard where the wall was you have a belly in the new ceiling if you know what I mean. It can be only slight but it shows up when painted and a light is shining on it.

It may sound daft But you can plaster a flat new board ceiling a lot quicker than an overboarded ceiling for that exact reason.... It's flat. (All depends the the shape of your existing ceiling I suppose)
You can also board it faster as you don't have to faff around finding the joists.

 

[Maccapacca]

Cheers appreciated, I know what you mean about the thickening at the edges of the old walls


On a mess front the idea is to leave the carpet down, rip everything out then clean and clear the bulk then just roll up the old carpets, should save a raft of work sweeping and clearing.

 

[Traffic_Warden]

From a sparky POV, I don't think it'll impact labour time by having the ceiling up or down, either way the cables have to go where they have to go, and the _ceiling_ does not make to much odds on times for running cables in, maybe if the whole place was gutted it would make a fair difference, but not just ceilings.

We do new installs on houses weekly, and the joiners always sheet the upstairs ceiling before we do the ruff in (put all wires in). I find this much easier as all the cables are exactly where they need to be through the plasterboard and not left hanging in a rough spot (joiners are sometimes wrong with placing wires).

but it is upto you, it may benefit a plumber a lot, but i am not a plumber to give advice on that

 

[BigBoy]

Easier to pull the old out and put up new. But as above for the sparky, plumber on the other hand will love you for it!