Hi

Ive got two questions really.

Firstly, we have a small (2.5' by 2.5') ceiling at approximately 45deg over
the stairs between the horizontal downstairs ceiling and the vertical wall
of the stairwell. The plaster on this bit of ceiling was completely shot
falling off. Underneath are the wooden slats attached to three joists.

Since Im not too bad at plastering now (did a course near Bedford and plenty
of practice) I tried to replaster this with the normal sand/cement mix
undercoat. Of course I had great difficulty in getting much of this to stay
in place.

My question is therefore, is it reasonable to cover this ceiling with
plasterboard ? If so, can I leave the wooden laths in place and just screw
the plasterboard into the joists through the laths or should I also remove
the laths which will obviousyl create more mess.

I can then use some plaster or filler or something to fill the curves
between the old plaster and the new plasterboard.

Secondly, the same downstairs ceiling is coming away from the laths in
places although the plaster is still in one piece. The ceiling has been
wallpapered which is holding most of it in place I think.

Is there anything I can do to secure the plaster to hte laths again ? Is an
alternative to fix plasterboard over the whole ceiling ? Again I dont really
want to resort to taking teh whole ceiling down. What is the correct way to
do this ?

Thanks

Tim