Living in a House with Demo'd Ceilings

[Ed Ferris]

I disagree with TrapperL about demolishing the plaster walls. You don't need insulation in the walls. The important thing is to insulate the attic floor to keep the heat from going out through the roof, the house acting like a chimney. Plaster is lot better for fire safety and sound deadening. Black mold cannot live in lime plaster. It loves drywall (and gypsum plaster).
If the ceilings actually are plaster over wood lath, it's not unusual for them to be falling after 100 years. You can replace them with wallboard, which is cheap and quick. Do one room at a time. Later you can go back and put up plaster over metal lath. DO NOT use drywall. It won't stay on a ceiling when it's coated with enough mud to look like plaster. Or when it's put up by an amateur.
If you're hiring a plasterer, don't allow him to use rock lath. That is drywall covered with plaster. If you want drywall, you can get it a lot cheaper.

[5-all]

Had a next door neighbor who had those plaster stalactites on her ceiling. The new buyers got on ladders and chiseled them off with a hammer and putty knife, then refinished the ceilings.

[SophieEd]

Thanks for all the comments!!! I have lived in Kansas City, Mo for the majority of my life and I am not afraid of the summer (especially after living in a tropical region for two years with no AC). My boyfriend is a different story though, but he will survive.

Ed Farris, thank you so much for the suggestion on metal lath. I have never heard of that before (read: first time home buyer), but after looking it up, it seems like that is the way we are going to go after we remove the badly damaged wooden lath.

I like the metal lath, because it seems easy to install. I don't know if we are going to hire a person to replaster the walls or do it ourself. It most likely depends on the cost.

We have no intention of gutting out the walls in our home. The walls have pretty good insulation. We do want to remove the paint from the walls, but we are going to do so with a heat gun (with protection) instead.

We planned to remove the ceiling with a crow bar and a wooden stick to provide leverage, but I will try out the hammer and the putty knife method as well.

Thanks again for all the wonderful suggestions!!!!!

[chet everett]

Technically speaking finished ceilings ARE an effective FIRE STOP between floors and designers whose homes have "rough look" interiors that mimic a loft or other "industrial space" can be required to increase the size of structural framing to "industrial levels" and/or install fire sprinklers that would add a measure of fire safety...

My gut says that few municipal inspectors would really slap a "stop work" order on this sort of semi-demolishment by home owners, especially if it was clean it was just a couple of younger folks BUT depending on local custom it might be wise to have some work of "plan B" if there is an objection... Top of my head, you could always just get a load of cheap drywall dropped off and take your sweet time attaching one sheet at a time over the course of the next year or so, the sorts of "risk of habitability" are minor and I REALLY doubt that even the most strict municipal code enforcement dept. would go before judge to have you evicted from living in place that was otherwise habitable...

[hotzcatz]

If it were me, I'd chip off the stalactites (not that I've ever seen that sort of ceiling decoration) and only fix things that were structurally in need of it. We bought an old house (1950's)several years ago and my DH got a little too happy in removing the old ceiling. Now we have to replace the sub framing and since we've already moved in, that project just isn't getting done.

So, if your project were my house, I'd remove the stalactites before moving in and maybe put a coat of paint on it to make it temporarily livable. Then move in and do any ceiling replacements room by room. If there's a door to the room, it's easy enough to shut it, if there's no doors, then hang a plastic sheet over the doorway while making a mess inside.

In any case, thank you for saving an old house, it's always nicer to see established neighborhoods with well kept older houses than new characterless subdivisions. At least, that's my opinion.

[Ed Ferris]

One thing I feel obliged to say about metal lath: it is razor sharp and has a nasty tendency to whip. So wear cowhide gloves, sturdy long sleeves, and face protection when working with it.