Repairing bathroom ceiling

sansnom · 15 Dec 2019 at 00:01

hey guys

what would be the right way to fix this?

Ceiling in bathroom has flaking/peeling paint and a hairline horizontal crack in the plaster beneath (the ceiling is plasterboarded, meshed, rendered and then painted).

I am thinking first I will need to score the crack a bit to open it up and fill it with plaster mix, scrap it over until its embedded into the crack and wait for it to dry (about 24 hours). Then sand it down.

Next i will then need to scrap off all the existing paint, then PVA the entire ceiling and wait for that to dry, then do 2 coats of bathroom paint.

Does that all sound right?

https://gifyu.com/image/vJy0

https://gifyu.com/image/vJyC

Also, given it is the only shower in the house, would there be a faster way to fill the crack than having to wait 24 hours for the plaster to fully dry?

bremen1874 · 15 Dec 2019 at 00:35

PVA before paint will just result in the paint sitting on the surface. You want dedicated primer or watered down emulsion (assuming you're taking it back to the skim coat).

Trying to stop hairline cracks as plasterboard joints is usually fairly futile. Easier use paint that's designed to flex (e.g. Polycell Crack Free Ceilings).

silverblack · 15 Dec 2019 at 02:39

Might be easier to rip off the existing plasterboard ( or even cover it with new plasterboard ) and put new stuff up.Or you could cover the existing roof with plastic cladding,maybe bung in a few down-lighters while your at it.

koolpc · 15 Dec 2019 at 03:09

silverblack said:
Might be easier to rip off the existing plasterboard ( or even cover it with new plasterboard ) and put new stuff up.Or you could cover the existing roof with plastic cladding,maybe bung in a few down-lighters while your at it.

Agree

chillidog · 15 Dec 2019 at 08:34

1st scrap of all the loose flaking paint and then light sand, with the edge of a scraper run along the crack in the ceiling to open it up a bit,polyfill the crack and leave to dry (you don't need to wait 24hrs at all just a few hours till its dry) sand it down light if you need to refill do so again sand ,when the ceiling is all sanded down free from any flaking give it a coat of unibond thined down or any sealer when dry give the ceiling two coats of good emulsion don't buy any cheap crap.looking at your pics the ceiling is in good shape plasterboard don't need replacing we see these all the time

phil-k · 15 Dec 2019 at 09:33

bremen1874 said:
PVA before paint will just result in the paint sitting on the surface. You want dedicated primer or watered down emulsion (assuming you're taking it back to the skim coat).

Trying to stop hairline cracks as plasterboard joints is usually fairly futile. Easier use paint that's designed to flex (e.g. Polycell Crack Free Ceilings).

diluted PVA is best

Molep · 15 Dec 2019 at 10:03

Mine was similar, I scraped/sanded off all the loose paint, slightly opened crack and polyfilla'd.

waited to dry and sanded down, rollered on 1coat of Zinsser Gardz then 2 coats of Zinsser Perma White.

still good 4 years on.

rubberduck · 15 Dec 2019 at 10:44

Have had good success with the polycell crack free ceiling stuff which generally does a good job of smoothing over small blemishes and acts as a good base.... Agree with opening up and filling the larger cracks beforehand.

LOAM · 15 Dec 2019 at 18:36

chillidog said:
1st scrap of all the loose flaking paint and then light sand, with the edge of a scraper run along the crack in the ceiling to open it up a bit,polyfill the crack and leave to dry (you don't need to wait 24hrs at all just a few hours till its dry) sand it down light if you need to refill do so again sand ,when the ceiling is all sanded down free from any flaking give it a coat of unibond thined down or any sealer when dry give the ceiling two coats of good emulsion don't buy any cheap crap.looking at your pics the ceiling is in good shape plasterboard don't need replacing we see these all the time

This, it's nothing more than minor painting preparation work.

sansnom · 17 Dec 2019 at 00:40

chillidog said:
1st scrap of all the loose flaking paint and then light sand, with the edge of a scraper run along the crack in the ceiling to open it up a bit,polyfill the crack and leave to dry (you don't need to wait 24hrs at all just a few hours till its dry) sand it down light if you need to refill do so again sand ,when the ceiling is all sanded down free from any flaking give it a coat of unibond thined down or any sealer when dry give the ceiling two coats of good emulsion don't buy any cheap crap.looking at your pics the ceiling is in good shape plasterboard don't need replacing we see these all the time

Thanks, that sounds pretty much like what I thought it would be. To be clear, do i need to sand the entire ceiling and remove the parts where the paint is not flaking? I'm not sure I understand if all existing paint needs to be removed first so it goes back to the plaster skim, then unibond sealer / diluted pva then repaint or can the sealer go on top of existing undamaged paint?