cas wrote:
The ceiling in our bathroom is textured and is cracking. While I'm
prepping the bathroom to paint it I'd like to fix the ceiling. The
texture is cracking in different places but has no water damage from
above. I was going to chip the flaking areas off then retexture it but
I'd like to have a smooth ceiling instead (no idea why the previous
owners felt the need to texture everything).

Would it be best to just put up some sheetrock to the ceiling and be
done with it? if so, what type of sheetrock? (I hear about greenboard,
blueboard, etc). I've never taped a joint...is this easy enough for a
noob to do?

I'm going to be putting a fan in at the same time. To vent it outside,
should I run the ductwork over to the eve of the house and vent it from
there or should I run it to the north end of the house (there the wall
is vertical) and vent it out from there? Either place aren't easy to
get to from the outside since the house is on a hill and is around 3
stories off the ground. :P I could get the hole from the inside but
putting up a cover for it would be tricky.

thanks,
cas

I would just vent the fan up to the ridge of the roof....hopefully you
have ridge vents....or vent it up high in the attic where nothing can
get down into it....again, hopefully you have some sort of
ventilation...

To remove the old textured ceiling...if its that popcorn stuff you can
just spritz it with water, experiment to find out how much, and scrape
off the popcorn and mud with a scraper then sand down any remaining
mud.... you only want to use enough water to remove the popcorn and
mud...you do not want to soak into the sheetrock.

IF you are planning on just hanging another layer of sheetrock beneath
the existing layer.... I would hang the sheetrock..install nay fans
lights etc.... and then call in a sheetrock finisher to finsih the
job...

IF you want...you can finish it yourself.... talk to one of the slugs
at home depot or lowes... they can sell you everything you need.......
when taping joints the secret is to apply enough joint compound to
cover the joint and take the knife and remove as much xtra as
possible...several coats using a wider knife each time to level the
compound out from the tapered edges of the sheetrock....You want to do
as little sanding as possible and doing several light applications over
a day will result in less cracking or defects than a couple of heavy
coatings of mud.

Probably some internet resources on hanging and finishing sheetrock....

search for "hanging sheetrock" or "how to hang sheetrock"..."how to
finish sheetrock"..."how to tape joints in sheetrock".... you get the
picture....I hope...lol