Skim Coat vs. Sheetrock?
Beginning a lite reno on our new house (new for us, it’s circa 1920). The plaster ceilings in the top floor have some old water damage and our contractor recommended that he sheetrock them instead of skim coating. He said we’d be pleased with the results. He’ll be skim coating the walls where there is…
Beginning a lite reno on our new house (new for us, it’s circa 1920). The plaster ceilings in the top floor have some old water damage and our contractor recommended that he sheetrock them instead of skim coating. He said we’d be pleased with the results. He’ll be skim coating the walls where there is damage anyway. There is no ceiling detail in the areas in question. My gut is telling me to do the skim coating on the ceiling too, but want to be fair and see if there’s a good reason to do sheet rock or if it doesn’t really matter much. Any thoughts? Thanks!
Don’t sheet rock OVER the ceiling, but using sheet rock to repair areas of the ceiling that have come loose from the lathe completely is fine — as long as your contractor is a genius taper.
Also, how bad is the water damage? If it’s discoloration only, paint with something like Killz. If the surface is uneven, skim coat. If the plaster has come loose in large areas and it’s sagging and cracked, then remove those areas only and replace with sheet rock.
I am sure there are plasterers around who could reattach the plaster to the lathe using traditional methods, but I haven’t done this so don’t know the details. Maybe call some to compare price. If you can get the real thing, why not?
With sheetrock you can always eventually see the seams, even if it is done perfectly. It’s subtle but when the light hits the ceiling at an angle you’ll be able to see it. A skim-coated plaster ceiling will have very gently rolling slopes in raking light. These are very subtle differences but they are visible and may or may not bother you.
Part of the issue is how much repair work the ceiling needs. If it’s just some old stable cracks, why not mesh and skim?
We’ve sheetrocked over damaged plaster ceilings several times; it’s less labor-intensive and works fine.
definitely sheetrock the ceiling. It’ll prolly come out nicer and you’ll lose very little from it in terms of height. They’ll probably use 3/8th sheetrock sheets.
put the sheetrock up. you lose 1/2″ of ceiling but save a lot of time which you would have to pay for. you aren’t gaining much by skimming unless you want to spend money needlessly.