Plaster and lath ceilings

[blackpoollad85]

Just bought an edwardian house and the surveyor flagged issues with the plaster and lath ceilings including one that was sagging and a plasterer has advised needs ripping down and replacing and two that had cracking and undulations.

The plasterer couldn't see any big issues with the two ceilings that had undulations and cracks but recommended we could skim them to strengthen them and cover the cracks. Does anyone know if skimming them actually help strengthen the ceiling? Just don't want to spend money on a really short term fix

 

[malcolm]

A skim won't strengthen the ceiling. Long term fix is to patch up any cracks and leave it be. If the ceiling has been stripped back to bare lime there is a really good argument for patching in the gaps and papering back over with lining paper if only to make it easy to get back to lime again after too many bad coatings have been applied over the next 100 years. Lining paper is good for covering cracks too.

Photos of the sagging ceiling would be interesting. Could it be the ceiling is fine and the joists are sagging a little? So maybe no work is needed.