Flaking ceiling - what to do?

[arg821]

G'day all,

I have a unit which the gyprock ceiling is quite flakey. It was painted a long time ago, and I have applied a temporary fix simply by painting straight over it, which did work quite well but it looks a little rippled in places.

When the current tenant moves out I would like to do a proper job, so what options would I have without simply pulling down all the cornices and gyprock and starting again? It doesn't actually look too bad the way it is, but if I'm going to touch up some other stuff I figured I could at least look into the ceiling at the same time....

 

[The Y-man]

Rain / Water (plumbing) leak............................. Check above ceiling.....

The Y-man

 

[Jacque]

How bad are the cornices? In most cases, you should be ok with stripping and sanding. Painting over flaking paint is only ever going to be a temporary solution so I wouldn't do this again.

Unfortunately, it means getting stuck in with a good old bit of elbow grease, a scraper and sanding block but it will be worth it to obtain a surface ready for painting. Why is it flaking in the first place? If mould or moisture is the reason, you'd want to address this first.
Best of luck.

 

[Scott No Mates]

Pay out the extra $$ and get a tradie to do it. At least you can then complain that they were useless.

 

[arg821]

How bad are the cornices? In most cases, you should be ok with stripping and sanding. Painting over flaking paint is only ever going to be a temporary solution so I wouldn't do this again.

Unfortunately, it means getting stuck in with a good old bit of elbow grease, a scraper and sanding block but it will be worth it to obtain a surface ready for painting. Why is it flaking in the first place? If mould or moisture is the reason, you'd want to address this first.
Best of luck.

I haven't checked above the ceiling, however I can say that all the tiles are in place and appear OK - thats not to say there haven't been issues in the past though, and perhaps this is where things have gone wrong. The cornices themselves are fine, it seems more like dodgy painting in the first place as its pretty well all over the ceiling but there was no discolouration or warped sections.

 

[Propertunity]

From my own experience:
1. Temporary fix is to sand and scrape off flaking paint. Mix bondcrete into the paint and roll it on as normal.
2. More permanent fix is to spray with a mist sprayer to dampen the gyprock and paint. Use a Stanley knife to cut halfway through the paper on the gyprock. Peel off along with flakey paint. Use skim coat to put a layer back on the gyprock. Paint with a 3 in 1 sealer / undercoat. Paint as normal.
3. Quickest (and probably) most expensive option is to re-gyprock.

 

[lizzie]

I haven't used this technique on a flat ceiling, but find it works well on flaking ornate ceilings.

Climb ladder - scrape away flaking using a BBQ flipper - keep going until no more will come off - light sand - paint.

 

[ozsupra]

3. Quickest (and probably) most expensive option is to re-gyprock.

And the only log term solution if it is in fact water damage, which may have occurred some time ago.
A.