# Drywall ceiling in an old house that meets tiled walls.



## tmt007 (Sep 20, 2005)

Did a ceiling in a bathroom of this old house. From what I figure this bathroom was tiled first then the ceiling was furred down to meet perfect with the top edge of the tile which has this little lip thats about 3/8 of an inch wide on the face of the tile, (subway tile black and white). 

The original ceiling was lathe and plaster and covered the 3/8 lip of the tile about 3/16ths of an inch. I've done alot of drywall in older homes and this is the first time i have run into this. I had to fur the ceiling down just right so that i was able to maintain that same 3/16ths of an inch reveil. I used that new XP drywall. Tricky little job.

Would any of you guys done it different, like fur down so you could of tucked the drywall above the tile? 

Here are a few pictures, hope you can tell what i'm talking about. Wanted to post more pictures but could only do 3. Any way around this, how about the gallery forum is there a limit there.


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## Drywall1 (Dec 12, 2005)

Scary part is trying not to bugger up those subway tiles when demoing the ceiling. Expensive and hard to find. Looks good. Tearaway bead might be the trick around the edge. 

Nate


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## tmt007 (Sep 20, 2005)

The demo of the lathe and plaster was tricky. I just took my time and not went crazy fast tying to get it down quick. Whats that tearaway bead you're talking about. I just prefilled and flat taped it all around the edges with 90 min. mud, keeping the paper tight to the tile.


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## theworx (Dec 20, 2005)

Looks great to me!! In this situation I would have flat taped as well followed by a bead of latex caulk.

Tear away is what we use commercially to finish the top of the drywall on partition walls (up to suspended ceilings). It has a flap that prevents the mud from getting on the ceiling tile. When your done taping just tear the flap off the bead and your left with a nice finished edge. Use it at times instead of flat taping when running drywall up to a surface you don't want to get mud on (such as brickwork, etc). Good product.

In this case flat taping was fine because the mud would easily wipe off the ceramic tiles when you were done. Either way would give you a nice result.


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## neolitic (Apr 20, 2006)

Looks like a fine solution to me:thumbsup:
Nice work.


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## woodmagman (Feb 17, 2007)

The upper row of tile is a cove or base tile! Could the ceiling have been tiled at one time aswell?


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## tmt007 (Sep 20, 2005)

You know i never thought of the ceiling being tiled also at one time. I don't think so cause you would think there would some signs of that when i tore the ceiling down. 

But either way an interesting job none the less. Thought i should share it with you guys cause you don't run into this type often.


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## tmt007 (Sep 20, 2005)

You know i never thought of the ceiling being tiled also at one time. I don't think so cause you would think there would some signs of that when i tore the ceiling down. 

But either way an interesting job none the less. Thought i should share it with you guys cause you don't run into this type often.


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## Griffino (Dec 3, 2007)

The work you did looks good and congratz on keeping the exsisting walls intact.

I'm a fan of high cieling and have gone out of my way to gain that extra inch or so, so the only thing i might have done differently (if this was my place and time/money was no object) is keep furring to a minimum as to gain as high a ceiling as possible and cover the top of wall with PVC crown moulding.


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## Frankawitz (Jun 17, 2006)

The thing that gets me is why did you rip the ceiling out when all you had to do is scrape the loose plaster then skim coat, But I guess this is why you do drywall and not plaster.:whistling as for the tiles this is typical of older houses.


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## tmt007 (Sep 20, 2005)

At first when I peeled away a little section of the wallpaper that was on the ceiling, right away i told the home owner that we had to take it all down and drywall. She thought about it for around a week she called and asked me if i could just fix the cracks tape and skim coat the whole ceiling. Been there done that. 

But from all my years of experience theres no way that ceiling is going to holdup down the road. After so many years and all those showers and moisture, it will start to flake and certain sections will start to peel away. Then what scrape it down and do it again. I told her to do it right the first time cause i can guarantee you'll be back fixing it again and again. She liked the idea of it lasting alot longer and so we went with it and i believe she made the right decision.

I'm a plaster lover myself i always try to save old plaster any chance i get but this plaster has seen better days.

Now with that new Xp drywall i hung this ceiling is going to last a long long time.


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## Aaron111 (Nov 24, 2007)

Nice job looks good did you use KIlls primer??


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## Frankawitz (Jun 17, 2006)

Tm how old was the ceiling that you took out? and you think drywall will last that long? You need to check into plaster you can add more lime to your batch and more Portland cement to your scratch coat, then you could be looking at over a 100 years if not longer, drywall aint gonna last that long. From your pictures it looks like the putty coat fell apart and the paint peeled.:whistling
Tm did you fix the water leak from above so that the ceiling doesn't get water damage again, If you look at your photo's the top one shows water stains on the lath also the fiber board to the right has a water stain. also if you look at the lath there is Mold on the ends, the other thing is if you look at the plaster on the wall you can see water damage, this isn't from taking a shower.


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## tmt007 (Sep 20, 2005)

Frankawitz, I don't know exactly how old the ceiling was that i took out. The house was built in 1850 and this part of the house could of been an addition how many decades later. 

Above this bathroom is the outside roof and there's no leaks at all, I think what you are seeing and i also saw is very old water stains. The plaster on the wall that you are talking about, is that the second photo right above the very top tiles? I never seen any water damage there at all i think maybe its just from the photo, i think if you were there looking at it you would agree. That is a very solid base that the old timers installed that tile job on, nothing hollow about it at all.

When i was talking about this new ceiling lasting a long time i meant with the XP board i used i believe it will outlast what the homeowner wanted and that was to fix any cracks and skim-coat the whole ceiling. I never meant that it will outlast plaster. Plaster rules in my book. I just wish i had a little more experience with the Kal-Koat plaster system. Mixing plaster from scratch like you talk about is way beyound me. 

I believe your right about the putty coat failing and the paint started to peel.


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## Frankawitz (Jun 17, 2006)

Tm, If you look at the second photo after you tore out the ceiling in the right hand corner the Fiber board is stained in the back corner, also that blue color on the lath is mold. But where your new furing strip is if you look at the fiber board you can see it's lifting up. You also say it's the roof above has been fix. Did you fix it or did the Homeowner tell you it was fixed? I have had jobs that people tell me "Oh my grandson fixed the roof" and then down the road they call me back saying my repair is falling apart, Well I use Durabond 90 as my base coat on jobs like these that have had water coming in the house, well I don't know if you know this or not Durabond will not let water come thru it, it will make the water run to the plaster, and then the plaster gets wet and starts coming apart. As for the wall in the back of your photo just above the tile you can see paint failures, this tells me water was coming in at some point. If the roof hasn't been fixed it could end up screwing all your hard work up, I wasn't trying to say what you did was wrong, Just that I have been working on houses as old as 1823 and some folks will tell you they had something fixed and in the end you find out they didn't do something right or cheaped the job out to save a few dollars, I tell my Customers after doing a repair "Ok I don't want to hear from you for a 100 years! unless you have another water leak." I am starting a job Monday for a customer who I did work for 10 years ago, I had to come in and fix her cove ceiling in her Living room, Her insurance company told her to use these two guys and well they screwed her ceiling up. So she called me and I ripped out the ceiling and redid it, so now she has water damage in her Kitchen and Den so I'll be starting that Monday. I just posted some pictures in the gallery on here of some crown moulding I'm doing in my grand daughters room. I figured since work is slow I would work on her bedroom. But Good luck with your repairs, Did you take any finish photo's? you should post them also. That way folks can see your finished product. Well Tm Good luck and keep it smoooth:thumbsup:


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## tmt007 (Sep 20, 2005)

"Keep it smooth." I like that. Don't like any kind of texture.
Almost 100% of what I work on is older homes. Work alone most of the time so it's hard to do blue board and plaster, seems more of a two man job as compared to drywall. Atleast the size of the jobs i do anyway.

If the roof leaks down the road, i guess we'll be back again to fix it. But i know it's not leaking at the moment.

I'll get some photos up sometime after it's finished.


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## Frankawitz (Jun 17, 2006)

Tm that's cool, just treat the old houses with the same pride the old timers did when they built those old houses. I look at the new houses they build today and I would take a older house in a heart beat over the crap they build now. they don't even use oil base paints anymore. as far as that goes they don't even paint they Blow and Go, spray everything, very few craftsmen anymore. everyone is in it for the money not the work that they put out.


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