Lath And Plaster Ceiling Collapse
This weak point is usually at the lugs that wrap around the laths.
Lath and plaster ceiling collapse. So far we have removed two joists and caused quite a bit of damage to the ceiling below. The rock lath was then covered with a 3 8 inch thick layer of scratch coat plaster after which a thinner coat of finish plaster was applied. All plaster over wood lath systems used small smooth nails but i have never seen monolithic collapse of the whole ceiling due to wood lath attachment failure.
Plaster is brittle by nature and will crack at its weakest point under vibration or through water ingress. Thursday evening s collapse of a section of the ceiling at the apollo theatre in london brought in to sharp focus the need to maintain ceilings in period properties. The first floor bedroom floor has rotten joists.
The new joists are being help to the ceiling by screws and screws with wire woven through on the ceiling. The lath and plaster ceiling below is being held somehow by these. You thread the drywall screw through a plaster washer and then drive it through the plaster and into the ceiling joists wall studs or wood lath.
A plaster washer is a thin metal disk that increases the size of the head of a drywall screw so that it doesn t pull through the plaster. Silly point but if the ceiling falling down caused damage to the wallpaper the repapering costs would be covered under ad to buildings many years ago when i dealt with claims i fell foul of this one and declined a claim that i shouldn t the ceiling falling pulled down the coving and ripped the wallpaper. Plaster ceilings in newer buildings are not immune from collapse either as you ll see by the catastrophic ceiling collapse shown just below.
Though sections of plaster can fall from the lath it is not the danger that i am referring to in the orig. The two of plaster surfaces commonly encountered. Looking at the pictures of the apollo s interior there is much ornate plasterwork but being built in 1901 the base of the ceiling will undoubtedly be of lath and plaster type.
Beginning in the 1960s several changes to the construction industry started to occur that are now resulting in sudden ceiling collapse. Plasterboard widely used from the 1950 s onwards. This plaster ceiling was applied on expanded metal lath.