Lowered ceiling - what timber for studwork

[santaslittlehelper]

After 5 years my house is nearly in order. the last remaining task is to get the plasterers in to skim the walls in the hall and landing.

Unfortuntely the landing ceiling is a mess (sagging) so I'm looking at fitting studwork to make a lowerered ceiling.

It's an old terraced house with high ceilings so losing a bit of ceiling height isn't a problem.

The area is approximately 1.50m wide by 4m long and will have a generous gap for the loft hatch at one end.

Two sides of the supporting framework (one long, one short) will be attached to (non load bearing) stud walls, the third (long) to brickwork (the party wall with my neighbour), the fourth (not sure, probably brick)

What size timber should I be using for the studwork? I've looked at cls timber and the 38 x 63 looks too insubstantial. What about 38 x 90mm cls or would 40(?) x 70mm scant do?

Also, what would be the most sensible way to position the studs. Should I just fit the outside perimeter then equally spaced cross pieces spanning the width (i.e approx 1.50m span)?

 

[jeff_bobbins]

I had a similar issue with a sagging ceiling in the stairwell of a victorian terrace, and also needed to accommodate the loft hatch. Access was tricky as I had to support a platform partly on the stairs. My solution? The plasterer did it for me....
An extra 150 quid, they know what they are doing...I know sometimes it is cheaper to do things yourself (I'm always too skint to pay for tradesmen!) but this was a no-brainer - consider getting it level and finishing round loft hatch and the frustration involved.
Hope I didn't put you off!!! I'm sure you'll do a fine job.

 

[JoinerMike]

If the loft hatch going to be a means of accessing the loft space for maintenance or is it going to be used as a storage area as well? If its just to support plasterboards then 3"x2" is fine. Scant or cls. I would do the outer framework first then space them at 16" 400mm centres depending on the size of your plasterboards. You want each plasterboard falling half on the joist. Run the joists across the shortest distance. Any more questions then please just ask

 

[santaslittlehelper]

If the loft hatch going to be a means of accessing the loft space for maintenance or is it going to be used as a storage area as well? If its just to support plasterboards then 3"x2" is fine. Scant or cls. I would do the outer framework first then space them at 16" 400mm centres depending on the size of your plasterboards. You want each plasterboard falling half on the joist. Run the joists across the shortest distance. Any more questions then please just ask

The woodwork just needs to support the ceiling plasterboard. The actual loft floor is already over a foot higher than the landing celing. It'll end up about 2 foot higher. Loft floor is a bit of a bodge (previous owners) but I'm certainly not going to take it out and start over!!!

I'm a tad confused with material sizes. i.e. the 3" x 2" cls actually measuring 64 x 38mm . Comparing this with the bigger size of 90 x 38mm it seems very light. The 90 x 38 cls seems almost twice as heavy. The 'scant' in B&Q was someone in between.

The 38mm width of the machined stuff also seems like if doesn't offer much leeway for nailing/screwing the plasterboard without the fixings being very close to the edge of the boards.

I'd like to keep the weight down as part of the weight will be supported by a partition wall - no idea how big the studs were.

One last thing, 9.5 or 12mm plasterboard? Ceiling approx 1.5 x 3m

 

[JoinerMike]

any 3x2 version will be good enough. Like you said it's only to support the plasterboard. If you feel more confortable with the wider 2" side so you can get a better fix to your plasterboards then go for that. I wasn't expecting u to remove loft joists but thought you might be using new ceiling to slide boxes on top of as well, thats why i asked if it was going to be used as storage. I would use 9mm 3ft x 4ft boards and just put more joists in if your worried about it sagging, 12mm plasterboards can be a struggle at times especially on landings where there are stairs. The small boards are easier to handle

 

[santaslittlehelper]

Thanks Mike.

I don't think its going to be too bad a job, it's just planning it right first (i.e considering plasterboard sizes - something I hadn't thought of). It's going to be a faff working over the stairs but as I'm also going to have to strip wallpaper prior to any plastering and then paint afterwards it's worth sorting out a safe working solution.

Mind you, all this hinges on our ability to remove the homemade metal spiral staircase which currently goes up into the loft space. It's hideous and also allows all the heat in the house to disappear through the roof!

Thanks again