In an old house with lath and plaster ceilings, all the bedroom ceilings have cracks and uneven finish that at some point someone has Artexed to try and cover the poor condition. This failed dismally and they now look in poor condition but with Artex on, so even worse!
Had the Artex texted for asbestos and it was present in one of the bedrooms, but not all thankfully. Had that ceiling professionally removed and now have just the joists exposed.
The loft space was not previously accessible, so I have added a loft hatch in an adjoining bedroom and would like to board the loft and use it for storage. I have added another 2x4 on top of all the existing 2x4 ceiling joists to increase the height to allow for a deeper amount of insulation. This seems to have also added some strength as previously the joists would sag heavily with just a bit of weight on. With the extra C24 2x4, it seems much sturdier.
One of the joists was rotten in the middle, perhaps an old leak from the roof pooling water in the middle perhaps? So that one has been replaced, you can just about see it missing in the photo below.
Now the problem is that there are two vertical ties from the middle of two joists to the top of the roof, shown best in the first picture and these two are bowing downwards quite badly, as can be seen in the second photo. There is about 5 - 6cm between the straight new timber and the old joist (before they are fixed together).
For all the other joists, adding the new 2x4 helped to pull them back to level. I was expecting the two joists with ties to the roof to be level and the rest to be sagging, but the opposite is true!
It also doesn't help that the one that needed replacing was next to the one with a tie, so the next one is nice and straight and there's a 5cm difference in height between them. What do I do about this, can I cut the tie, push the bent joist up and reattach? I assume that the joist is hanging from the roof and not that the joist is supporting the roof??
Had the Artex texted for asbestos and it was present in one of the bedrooms, but not all thankfully. Had that ceiling professionally removed and now have just the joists exposed.
The loft space was not previously accessible, so I have added a loft hatch in an adjoining bedroom and would like to board the loft and use it for storage. I have added another 2x4 on top of all the existing 2x4 ceiling joists to increase the height to allow for a deeper amount of insulation. This seems to have also added some strength as previously the joists would sag heavily with just a bit of weight on. With the extra C24 2x4, it seems much sturdier.
One of the joists was rotten in the middle, perhaps an old leak from the roof pooling water in the middle perhaps? So that one has been replaced, you can just about see it missing in the photo below.
Now the problem is that there are two vertical ties from the middle of two joists to the top of the roof, shown best in the first picture and these two are bowing downwards quite badly, as can be seen in the second photo. There is about 5 - 6cm between the straight new timber and the old joist (before they are fixed together).
For all the other joists, adding the new 2x4 helped to pull them back to level. I was expecting the two joists with ties to the roof to be level and the rest to be sagging, but the opposite is true!
It also doesn't help that the one that needed replacing was next to the one with a tie, so the next one is nice and straight and there's a 5cm difference in height between them. What do I do about this, can I cut the tie, push the bent joist up and reattach? I assume that the joist is hanging from the roof and not that the joist is supporting the roof??
