Plaster Ceiling and drywall

dprasan

Hello people. I am brand new to this site and I hope you can help me.

I am remodeling my bathroom and decided to take down all my plaster walls which was the easy part. My ceiling is also plaster and I would prefer leaving it as is. I really don't want to replace the ceiling or cover it with drywall. At all the joints there is a metal mesh strip. What is the best way to get around this mesh without tearing up my ceiling and having a good joint where my walls meet the ceiling.

rjniles

I assume you are going to up drywall on the walls and retain the plaster ceiling. What I would do is drywall up to the ceiling and cover the junction with crown molding.

Handyman50

If you can flatten the mesh, you can run your drywall over it and up to the ceiling. You can use the mesh to your advantage. At the ceiling, I would leave a gap of at least 1/8". Fill this gap with drywall mud (The mesh will hold it.) and bed the drywall tape flat to the wall up to the ceiling (Over the mud in the gap.). The mud in the gap will keep it from cracking later. Now, simply finish the taping as you would if it were a flat joint. You can use blue painters tape on the ceiling to protect it from the mud. I did this in my entire living room and hall. It worked and looks great! It is still holding after 10 years.

There is a term in the trade for this type of application, but it escapes me at this moment.

amdspitfire

you can always apply another strip on top of it all with the new corner you create

chrisn

Quote:
Originally Posted by dprasan
Hello people. I am brand new to this site and I hope you can help me.

I am remodeling my bathroom and decided to take down all my plaster walls which was the easy part. My ceiling is also plaster and I would prefer leaving it as is. I really don't want to replace the ceiling or cover it with drywall. At all the joints there is a metal mesh strip. What is the best way to get around this mesh without tearing up my ceiling and having a good joint where my walls meet the ceiling.

If you can flatten the mesh, you can run your drywall over it and up to the ceiling. You can use the mesh to your advantage. At the ceiling, I would leave a gap of at least 1/8". Fill this gap with drywall mud (The mesh will hold it.) and bed the drywall tape flat to the wall up to the ceiling (Over the mud in the gap.). The mud in the gap will keep it from cracking later. Now, simply finish the taping as you would if it were a flat joint

That's what they did in my house and it loooks great.

AtlanticWBConst.

The advice given is the way to do this project. Cut away what mesh you can (using aviation snips).
What is left = pound flat. You can use a small block of wood and hammer.
Install your sheetrock as close as you can to the ceiling. If needed, you can also do a beveled cut on the backside of the sheetrock "top edge" - to sit "over" the protruding metal mesh.

Mudding: As stated, fill in the ceiling corner gap areas with compound. When dry, sand it smooth (If this is your first attempt at drywall, you should sand it at this point), then install your paper tape over the corner as you would a normal sheetrock "wall to ceiling intersection".

Good Luck...

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- Build Well -

tdavis

I have done this countless times. we use a grinder with a steel cutting wheel. Full face respirator is a must. You can cruise around a room.

Almost every project gets new 3/8" rock on the ceiling, just to make it pretty and also makes the light installs easier. Knock a big hole, install the light, pretty with new drywall install.

Enjoy
TD