Advice on cottage ceilings (bedrooms)

[HB96]

Hi all,

My partner and I have recently moved into a cottage that’s around 200 years old, and this is our first experience renovating a period property.

The external Cotswolds stone walls had all previously been pointed with cement (one wall had a cement render on top) and it looks like it’s been there quite a while. The internal walls are all finished with gypsum plaster. Unsurprisingly, we’re dealing with damp issues, so we’ve started the process of removing the cement and gypsum, and we’re planning to repoint/plaster using lime mortar once its dried out.

The big question we have is: how far should we take this? The ceilings in the bedrooms are plaster boarded and finished with gypsum plaster. Would it be wise to remove these too and replace them with something more breathable and finish with lime plaster? If so, what do you recommend?

Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

[a twig]

For me the top priorities would be exterior walls, ground floor first. See if rectifying those resolves the issues before moving onto other areas.

In a previous place I was able to leave almost all the gypsum plastering well alone upstairs by taking this approach as just sorting out the ground floor and repointing the exterior resolved the issues

 

[HB96]

For me the top priorities would be exterior walls, ground floor first. See if rectifying those resolves the issues before moving onto other areas.

In a previous place I was able to leave almost all the gypsum plastering well alone upstairs by taking this approach as just sorting out the ground floor and repointing the exterior resolved the issues

Thanks! We were actually planning to tackle the downstairs next year, mainly because the upstairs was in worse shape—especially the bedroom walls. I suspect the issue stems from the external wall (or chimney), which had a cement render and is fully exposed on a hill, so it really takes a beating from the weather. Hopefully, removing and repointing the exterior will sort it and things will gradually dry out anyway.