I love the character of old homes. And all those lovely curves and embellishments certainly add some complexity when repairing, restoring, and renovating.
I was recently contacted to do a “simple repair for a 2 foot hole in the ceiling” (due to a bathroom repair above). I was thinking this was a 4-6 hour job, requiring a few visits between coats of plaster and paint.
So I was surprised when I arrived, it wasn’t as simple – of course it never is 🙂
The hole was considerably bigger than 2×2″, and much of the surrounding ceiling was damaged by water and gravity. And closer inspection revealed previous repair “techniques” that needed to be remediated.
I ended up trimming the damage across the full width of the ceiling, and back to the solid part of the ceiling, resulting in a 3×5′ hole to replace.
Removing old lath and plaster requires care so that minimal damage is done to the adjoining walls and features (eg. the bannister).
It’s normal to find more problems in old homes, so containing the scope of the project requires care and constant communication of options with the customer.
Plywood strapping was attached to some studs to provide a secure and level foundation for the new ceiling drywall.
So then came time to cut the drywall.
3×5′ sounds pretty simple, but… the hole wasn’t square. It’s a century home, nothing is square anymore! So the drywall was less of a square, more of a parallelogram. It’s good to get the drywall to fit within 1/4-1/2″, but in this case the gaps were bigger, because it’s not worth the time carving out the perfect shape; we can fill in those gaps with tape and mud.
Day 2: At this point in the process there are 3 coats of mud on the new drywall, and will be ready in 24 hours for sanding and painting. My customers are looking forward to gettin their home back, and not have any more dust to deal with. This is sometimes called “divorce dust”, because renos can be so stressful for homeowners. All good in this case, lots of discussions about progress and outstanding steps.
And finally the project is complete. Home restored to it’s original beauty, homeowners are delighted with the results and understand why the project took 10 hours instead of 5. All in an honest days work (3 days actually)