A lesson learnt

This week we have started renovating what will become a living room on the first floor of the chateau.  We have been removing the old ceiling with the intention to replace it. On some of the other ceilings we have been putting in a slightly lower false ceiling so that we can get an even height. Here we decided to take down the old ceiling and plasterboard directly onto the old beams. First job was to strip off the old plaster work to reveal the wooden lathes. This does not take too long but then you have to clear up all of the mess and put it in the trailer. Then it is down to the recycling centre to dispose of it. All this does take a while!

Then once the mess is cleaned away we take off the lathes. Again they come off quite quickly but then you have to remove all the nails that are left behind - a long and fiddly job! You have to get everything away from the beams and right into the corners and edges so that the plaster board will butt up properly. Then we have to clear up all of the old wooden lathes and put these onto our ever growing bonfire. 

Then comes what we had hoped would be the easiest part, putting up the new plaster boards. Wrong! The room is not at all square and the walls bend in and out. Then we find that the beams are all over the place and not at all level. What we hoped would take a couple of hours in fact took over a day. We could not get it totally level but hopefully when the plaster goes on we can lose a lot of the unevenness. So for the other ceilings that we will do we will be going back to the false ceiling routine!