A few years ago some leaky plumbing caused water to come through our kitchen ceiling, which is plasterboard with a paper covering. The water caused the paper to separate from the board underneath forming a bulge about 18" across.

At the time I just pierced a small hole in the paper to let the water out, fixed the plumbing and let it all dry out. Now we're redecorating and I'd like to fix the loose paper before repainting the ceiling, ideally without leaving a visible repair. The board itself seems perfectly solid.

Can I just cut out the detached section of paper with a sharp knife, attach a new square of lining paper with PVA and then paint over the top? Or is there a better way that's within the scope of a DIY'er?

Ta
Andy

Could you make a slit in it, spray in some glue and re-lay it flat?

Alcazar

we had a leak mine had asbestos in it

sounds just like yours dont want to scare you mate my insurance paid claim off yours.

we had a leak mine had asbestos in it

sounds just like yours dont want to scare you mate my insurance paid claim off yours.


A friend of mine had the same in is house recently, water damage, and revealed that asbestos was present.

Insurance paid out for the whole lot to be done, he even made a few quid out of it if, (knows plenty of people in the trade).

It's what we have insurance for. :)

The house is only 10 years old, so realistically I don't think there's any chance of finding asbestos - it's just the hassle I could do without.

well mine was mid 70's and it had it, all the neighbours loooked really worried when we told them, it was only the odd fibre here and there,

claim off your insurance.

When you say claim off the insurance, do you mean:

"My house has asbestos" ;);):norty:

or

"My house has asbestos" :(:nono::cry:




;)

no mine really had it had to taken out professionally

houses built after early 90's wont have asbestos in.....

if any of you have that age house and have garages with the corrigated roofs on, and u go to knock them down, be careful as those roofs are full of it

neway back to the original question, u could always like u said cut a square of lining paper out, but try getting it flush with the hole uve cut, and then either rub some caulking aorund the edges to make it dissapear, or a bit of plasterers tape. to be honest ud be better off stripping the paper off the whole ceiling, (im thinking by paper, u mean lining paper) if the plasters ok underneath, paint straight over it. Now....where the leak WAS, no matter what you do (paint or reline) that stain WILL come through your emulsion paint, no matter what. this will be prevented by painting the area where the leak was in white gloss, (a bit thick tho) or even better some thin metal primer (any oil based paint) doing this will supress the water coming through and also stop the stain forever :)

any more questions pm me mate, decorator here ;)

Thanks for the tip. What I've actually done is cut a big '+' in the paper where it's come unstuck, then glued it back down with PVA and painted over the top. We're using water resistant bathroom paint anyway, it needs to withstand all the steam when we brew beer :)

I do have one question, though: we have halogen downlighters fitted into the ceiling, and one of the fittings did get wet as a result of the leak. Normally it just clips into a hole the right size in the plasterboard, but where the board got soaked the edge of the hole has got a bit chewed up and the light fitting is now a bit loose. Also the edge of the board is dusty and a bit crumbly so filler won't stick.

Any ideas please?

try sanding it down nice and clean, if u sand more off than u should of, then get some mesh or something similiar with some really strong filler and make the hole the same size again, maybe that might do the trick, only other thing would be to cover it, but then if u have a pattern of drop down lights it wouldnt go.....are ur lights screwd or jus wedge in ones? iv only come across the elastic ones that stretch out for painting the ceiling underneath, VERY handy, lol

if u fill the gap, buy meshing and cut a square jus larger than the hole, roll it up like u would a wad of banknotes, thread it in the hole and unravel it with ur hand inside ur hole (providing u can get a hand in there) and get some strong bond or filler, pole it around the edges on the other side of the ceiling (where u cant see) tie piece of string to the mesh and bring it down so it sticks to the bonding, then fill over the mesh when dry,sand down and paint.

imagine like filling a hole in a car door, only on a car door u can take the panel out and see both sides and what ur doing, kinda same thing but obviously u cant see through the other side of the celing lol. but try sanding the edges first, nice n clean and dusted off, then try some really good filler and that may help mate. my 2nd idea only an alternative