Repairs to ceiling plaster on baseboards cracking at joins and sagging

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dezy

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I cannot find any advice on this specific issue searching online and thought that this must be the place where there is an expert with experience of this.

Our house is 1960s built and I have finally got around to filling the ceiling cracks ready for a long needed repaint. I have tens of metres of fine cracks up to 3mm wide to fill . They run in straight lines at right angles. Obviously running around the edges of boards. Tackling the worst crack I found a couple of metres of board had sagged 1-2mm on one side of the crack. No problem I thought. I can get some drywall screws and tighten the plasterboard back up again before filling the crack.

I was wrong. This is not plasterboard. I thought the surface was very hard and the bits I raked out of the crack had fibre in them and I was puzzled. I thought it must be fibrous plasterboard. I went up into the loft for a look and pulled back the lagging. I was surprised to see that there were no noggins. I found a makers mark on the board 'Thistle plaster baseboard'. I now realise that the ceilings were wet plastered over some kind of composite board.

I am not sure if can tighten up the sagging panel with drywall screws because the surface is very hard. It might be very damaging to force the heads in flush or just not possible. I could drill pilot holes and use flat head nails but the heads would be slightly proud, or could I punch them into the surface perhaps? I am also thinking of drilling and countersinking for wood screws, they should grip the baseboard and if the plaster crumbles a bit I can fill over. Or I could try to use a batten with screws or glue in the loft space but the working space is very confined. By probing the cracks I have found that there is 19mm overlap run of timber truss available to fix into.

I welcome any advice on the best way forward on this.

As a final thought I must give credit for the amazing job the plasterers did on these ceilings in the 60s. It must be back breaking to wet plaster ceilings and the results are so smooth and level that I was convinced the ceilings were plasterboarded. I would be interested to know how the fibrous material got in there.
 
dezy said:
I cannot find any advice on this specific issue searching online and thought that this must be the place where there is an expert with experience of this.

Our house is 1960s built and I have finally got around to filling the ceiling cracks ready for a long needed repaint. I have tens of metres of fine cracks up to 3mm wide to fill . They run in straight lines at right angles. Obviously running around the edges of boards. Tackling the worst crack I found a couple of metres of board had sagged 1-2mm on one side of the crack. No problem I thought. I can get some drywall screws and tighten the plasterboard back up again before filling the crack.

I was wrong. This is not plasterboard. I thought the surface was very hard and the bits I raked out of the crack had fibre in them and I was puzzled. I thought it must be fibrous plasterboard. I went up into the loft for a look and pulled back the lagging. I was surprised to see that there were no noggins. I found a makers mark on the board 'Thistle plaster baseboard'. I now realise that the ceilings were wet plastered over some kind of composite board.

I am not sure if can tighten up the sagging panel with drywall screws because the surface is very hard. It might be very damaging to force the heads in flush or just not possible. I could drill pilot holes and use flat head nails but the heads would be slightly proud, or could I punch them into the surface perhaps? I am also thinking of drilling and countersinking for wood screws, they should grip the baseboard and if the plaster crumbles a bit I can fill over. Or I could try to use a batten with screws or glue in the loft space but the working space is very confined. By probing the cracks I have found that there is 19mm overlap run of timber truss available to fix into.

I welcome any advice on the best way forward on this.

As a final thought I must give credit for the amazing job the plasterers did on these ceilings in the 60s. It must be back breaking to wet plaster ceilings and the results are so smooth and level that I was convinced the ceilings were plasterboarded. I would be interested to know how the fibrous material got in there.
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Why don't you just batten across the joists then board and skim? Less painful then filling hundreds of hairline cracks which will come back eventually

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Thanks for the response.
Unfortunately it will need someone younger and stronger than me to do this. We are looking at six rooms here including hallway with staircase. Difficulties doing a boarding over job are further compounded by floor to ceiling built in closets. We are only likely to be here a few more years so I hope my fill and paint will look reasonably tidy for this long.
 
baseboard is a basic board, the same as tintest board, essex board. these boards had no bonded edge and no strength that is why they have gone out of shape. this is the sort of rubbish that went into council housing to keep the costs down.
have the ceilings overboarded with 12mm board and skimmed.
 
Lining paper is an interesting thought. In the past I have papered a few walls but never a ceiling. This might be a single handed do-able diy job for me, something to think about.
 
dezy said:
Lining paper is an interesting thought. In the past I have papered a few walls but never a ceiling. This might be a single handed do-able diy job for me, something to think about.
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Leave about a 2mm gap between each length and fill with easy fill it leaves a better job, I know it sounds like you might aswell fill the cracks but them cracks will return.
 
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