Older ceilings on the Mapperley ridge
Mapperley grew in stages. On the east side of Woodborough Road there were around 40 buildings by 1881, houses on Blyth Street and Querneby Road followed from about 1900, and over the next twenty years new streets spread as far as Porchester Road. A mile or so south-west, the Mapperley estate was released for building in 1903, and about 163 houses received planning consent in Mapperley Park between 1906 and 1914, next to the Alexandra Park houses laid out from the 1850s. Homes of that age were usually built with lime plaster pushed onto timber laths, and after a hundred years or more many of those ceilings are tired. The small nibs of plaster that grip the laths snap with age, damp and vibration, and the early signs are a crack that keeps reopening or a ceiling that gives slightly when pressed.
Overboard or strip back?
There are two honest routes. If the old ceiling is still mostly attached, new plasterboard can be screwed straight through it into the joists, using screws long enough to bite into solid timber rather than just the lath. That keeps the mess down and leaves the original ceiling in place as a backing. If it is bowing, loose in patches, or the joists need attention, it is safer to take it down and board onto clean timbers. Pulling down a lath ceiling is filthy work, so we sheet the room and talk to you beforehand about what needs clearing. Either way, the new boards are scrimmed at every joint and given a full skim, leaving a flat, hard ceiling ready for a mist coat.
Walls, lofts and extensions
Boarding is not only for ceilings. On brick walls where old plaster has blown, boards fixed on adhesive dabs give a straight wall without hacking everything back to brick. In a loft room or an extension, boards are screwed to the timber frame, and the type of board follows the room: moisture-resistant sheets for a new shower room, fire-rated board where building control asks for it, and acoustic board if a new bedroom sits over a lounge. Sloping loft ceilings need careful cutting around purlins and dormer cheeks, and every internal angle is taped before skimming so it does not crack later.
Getting a quote in Mapperley
We are based in Mapperley, up on the ridge along Woodborough Road that is the highest part of Nottingham, so getting to you for a look at a ceiling is straightforward. Send a few photos through the enquiry form or ring 07877 353120 and tell us what is happening: where the cracks are, whether anything has come down, and whether there has been a leak above. We work seven days a week, 7am to 5pm, and the same plasterer who fixes the boards also tapes and skims them.
