Whats Old Wrinkly And Sagging In Places

Ceilings are just like the elderly over time they grow old and wrinkly which is nothing to be ashamed of it's a sign of a good long life ... Having said that our ceilings could do with a bit of a face lift to straighten out those wrinkles and sagging!

 

When we renovated the Living Room we attempted a DIY ceiling lift because it was sagging in parts. It was a full on job that took us a few days to do but the bonus was it cost us less than $100. While we fixed some of the sagging it wasn't perfect and the wrinkles no matter how much we sanded them we couldn't get rid of them.

 

Our DIY ceiling lift in the Living Room

So when we did the Kitchen we decided that lifting the ceiling wasn't going to work if we wanted it to be smooth and new like the rest of the room the whole ceiling had to be replaced. Another factor was the holes that were cut out of the old ceiling for the old stove vent and the pantry when we knocked it down would need to be patched which wouldn't look too good. So we had no choice really we had to install a brand spanking new ceiling.

 

The old ceiling before the pantry was knocked out

Now we could have attempted to install a new ceiling ourselves but we have so many other jobs to do on the kitchen renovation that it just wasn't feasible to attempt this job as well. But as always we did the prep work ourselves which was to remove the old cornices ... if you can at least do some of the demo work yourself you'll save yourself some money.

Mr P removing the old cornices

The old ceiling sheets had handles so they could hang them up to dry!
 

All the old cornices and vents removed

We left the new ceiling install to our roof carpenter who built our garage roof and ceiling. It was a 2 day job for him which was spread over a few weeks, he put the new ceiling up and then once the kitchen was installed he came back and put the cornices in. Mr P helped him put the cornices in so we could get a discount and we saved $400 by helping and paid $1500 in the end for a totally new plaster board ceiling installed in the kitchen and dining area with cornices cut out around all the kitchen cupboards and 2 plaster corner vents for the dining room corners to match the vents throughout the house.

 

On day 1 the new ceiling was put up sheet by sheet underneath the old ceiling in the kitchen and dining area. It was good news to hear we didn't need to remove our old ceiling - could you imagine the 40+ years of dust and crap that would fall through if we had cut out the old ceiling to put the new one in? Yea it wouldn't have been pretty!



Ceiling cement was mixed up and used to install the ceiling boards

New plaster boards installed under the old ceiling

A few weeks later once the new kitchen was installed the roof carpenter came back to finish off the ceiling and Mr P was his helper for the day. All the new lights that we just had installed had to be removed so the new ceiling could be prepped and sanded. Cornices were cut out to fit and installed all the way around the ceiling around the new kitchen cupboards. We also had 2 ornate plaster corner vents fitted into the corners of the dining room so it looks the same as the old ceiling.

 

The cornices cut to size and ready to go up

 

New cornices going up around the kitchen cupboards

 

Cornices going along the walls

 

More cupboards to cut around - note the hole left for the range hood

 

All cornices finished

 

Installing the ornate corner cornices

So there you go all the ceiling cornices are neat and fitted and there's no more gaping holes in the ceiling. Having holes in the ceiling for weeks and with Winter upon us now it was really getting a bit draughty and we were losing the warmth from the gas heater too quickly!

 

Now we can get the paint brushes out and paint the ceiling and cornices ... After all the projects we've tackled in this kitchen renovation painting is going to be a walk in the park! 

 

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Sharing with link up parties:
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[All images my own]