Walls and Ceilings - What to do with my sagging ceiling?

Finally getting around to moving to the upstairs of my 1950s story and a 1/2 house... I was going to patch the drywall seams with some Durabond. The other night I went up there and pushed on the ceiling. Not good. It doesn't have an inch of play or anything, but it is definitely flexing.

The walls here are weird, maybe someone else knows what this process was: there are sheets of thin wallboard of some type, followed by between 1/4 and 3/4" of plaster. So to hang anything it's like drilling through concrete.

I have seams up there that were cracked, so I V'd them out to prep for durabond, not enough room for tape. Now I'm worried. Before I furnish the whole room I wanna make sure that the darn ceiling isn't going to collapse. I know this stuff was attached with nails and not screws and I'm concerned. If I try to put screws through what's there I get a lot of crumbling.

Help?

:rolleyes:

What you have is plaster over a drywall lath.

I don't do a lot of plaster repair, usually just cracks and minor damage and I use durabond to make the repairs.

I know there is a special screw or product to resecure plaster to the framing but that's about the extent of my knowledge on it :o :p

Hopefully one of the plaster guys will chime in shortly with better info for you.

cool. yeah, my walls are odd. There is no wood lath there, and no wire mesh either. That's why sometimes the smears of plaster fall off, separating from what seems like drywall. I don't mind working with drywall. I sure wouldn't smear an extra 1/2" of anything over it... but at least I'd know it would stay.

I've heard of plaster and lath ceilings in really old houses just collapsing, that's gotta be a real treat. ...

this "remodeling" never ends :wall:

If you can locate the ceiling joists with a stud finder or other means, use 3" cabinet screws in the ceiling. The large heads (nearly the size of a dime) will hold the entire strata and pull it up into the joisting. Do it one screw at a time, and don't try to pull the entire ceiling with one screw. Do them in intervals, sort of like torquing the heads on a 55 chevy. The heads will countersink just enough for you to skim coat over them.

I can't seem to locate these screws here, any ideas where to buy them? I have a friend that does cabinetry but he uses drywall screws with those decorative washers that make the screw head look inset. I know that won't work for me! And even with pilot holes, I'm afraid to try regular drywall screws, seems like the head would be too small. Any ideas?

thanks

http://www.ultimategarage.com/shop/part.php?products_id=224

These screws seem like an overkill, but they seemed about perfect when I saw them at Menards. I didn't pop for any because they were 27¢ each, but that looks like a bargain compared to finding them online (which was a trick considering they are mostly sold in Europe). These take a "star" bit. T30 or T40.

Any thoughts?

Have you tried locating cabinet screws where the sell and install cabinets?

I'm sorry, I forgot to mention that I did find cabinet screws. My concern is that they are panheads. Well, one pack says "truss head". Looks like a panhead to me. All the others with flat heads (like above) have the drywall type "cone" under the head and would suck up and possibly break the plaster (?) I'm guessing that's why you guys suggested the cabinet screws which are flat on the wall-side.

Will I really be able to cover these? Or should I plan to use a texture paint over the top?

thanks again

If they used 3/8's rocklathe instead of 1/2 "" on the ceiling, thats why it sagged and if you see all the rocklathe joints ( every 16'' X 4').... thats the problem.

The way to solve it is v & open the cracks if any, mesh them all the sagged joints and fill all the hollow's in between the sagged sheets with a setting compound on the first coat and skimcoat the entire surface 1 or 2 more times after if needed.

In these case's , it has nothing to do with the frameing. It has to do with useing the wrong thickness of lathe for the ceiling's.

Take down a ceiling fixture and check for the thickness of lathe used. If its 3/8'' thick, that is the problem and not the frameing.

Good luck