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Textured paint on walls/ Textured plaster on ceilings - help!

16 years ago

Our house is a circa 1910 Colonial (maybe Victorian wannabe due to some pretty ornate crown and window mouldings). Have two current issues:

1- Previous owners covered cracks in the plaster ceilings by doing a deep-grooved plaster layer over all the ceilings in the house. It's hideous, and the cracks are starting to come through with pieces of ceiling falling to the floor. Not good with small kids in house. Can/should this be re-plastered, or should we sheetrock? Can this be done while we live here? It's not a big house and the rooms are not big so it would be next to impossible to empty out room by room to fix. Can DIYers do this on weekends?

2- Previous owners also "upgraded" the bathrooms using the world's cheapest and ugliest tiles for wainscotting and then shiny, deeply textured paint from about 3'6" up to the ceiling (and yes, the ceilings are then textured plaster. Pretty.). I am determined to neutralize the tile by getting rid of the texture on the walls and painting. Any suggestions on getting rid of the wall texture, again, greatly appreciated.

I have learned so much from lurking on these forums, and owe a lot of our budget kitchen reno to threads found here. Looking forward to hearing any / all advice on this.

Mary

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Comment (1)

julieann_grow
16 years ago
Unfortunately, you do not really have an easy task on your hands there. I've done this numerous times since I renovate old houses. Without seeing exactly how deep the grooves are, there a possibly 3 options:

1-install smallish sheetrock over the ceiling plaster (3/8"). I don't like to do this b/c it is usually hard to hang as you have to make sure you get a stud and not screw into plaster or lathing. And, sometimes it is not really level. To save on removing plaster, I just had an idea but have never done. You could run 1x4 wood furr strips across the ceiling, then run sheetrock.
2-You can do the same for the walls, but then the reveal around the doors and windows is messed up and does not look good. Can work if you have really thick trim and use thin sheetrock. But, sometimes this is wavy.
3-Remove the plaster and sheetrock. Best approach. Then you can open a bit of a can of worms: studs that need to be replaced, need furr strips, maybe new wiring... Will look great when done, though.
4-You can apply a wide fiberglass mesh to the entire wall and mud it in. Use hot mud on the first coat---very important! They come 3-4 ft wide. It is kind of expensive, but less than demo. However, if the grooves are too thick then this may not work since the finishers would have to apply way too much mud to fill it in.

Julie
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