Overboarding ceiling – battens?

I’ve got an old lath and plaster ceiling which is artexed. Due to the age of the property it’s highly likely the ceiling contains asbestos in the Artex, so I plan on overboarding it for minimal disturbance It’s not particularly level, and had a section of slipped ceiling as well
Is the best approach to batten and pack out to make as level as possible? And if so, do I run the battens perpendicular to the joists?
I’ve got 12.5mm MR board to fix to it, as it’s going to be a bathroom.

The internet is full of conflicting info!

its a messy job, but personally I’d have the ceiling out, unless you have really high ceilings

if you think it has asbestos get it tested. Its just as likely to be fine, unless you already had a section of the house test positive

batons wise, when I overbattoned a ceiling, to add insulation, I did it parallel to the joists. It doesn’t really matter in my view, its not structural and just needs to hold the weight of the board

If you are putting in downlighters, unless you get super low profile ones you will have to cut holes in the existing ceiling even if you overbatton

The few times I’ve had ceilings overboarded my trusted plasterers just fitted straight to the old joists – I didn’t have wonky ceilings though, but even if I did it wouldn’t bother me.

If you are putting in downlighters, unless you get super low profile ones you will have to cut holes in the existing ceiling even if you overbatton

I didn’t need to, lots of downlighters can be fitted to double thickness PB (sometimes you need to move the ‘holders’ to another point in the frame), just check before buying.

I would overboard personally, use an undercoat to even out if needed.
I would also try to sneak in an insulated plasterboard, or woodfibre and plaster, in light of current energy bills.

It depends what’s causing the saggy ceiling. Rusted nails that have let the laths drop will be replaced by the overboard fastenings. Give the saggy sections a push and see if there’s movement
Battens IME are better along a joist, thinner packers will need to be fixed through by the plasterboard fasteners. Mark the batten/packer position on the walls for ease later

If you’ve got lath and plaster ceilings I’d check the size of the ceiling joists.
I renovated a house once where the joists were undersized and wouldn’t hold the extra weight of the new plasterboard without reinforcement.
😬

About 6 months ago I had the workshop ceiling overclad with the noise reduction type gyproc, the blue sheets,(to cut down on any machinery noise annoying the neighbours)

Company came in and basically screwed straight through the new boards and previous plaster ceiling into the joists, then taped the joins/edges and plaster coat skimmed the whole thing.

Wasnt so much a messy job as a full day affair and i had to move most of the workshop out so they could put up things to stand on.

No battens or anything were needed, it was just straight over the top.

Cheers all. For various reasons it’s really not practical to pull the ceiling unfortunately.(least of all that my sun needs to sleep in there as long as possible!) I’ve got access to the loft space above, so isolation is going to be taken care of up there.
Good point on the lights. No downlighters though, just pendants.
The roof is a real mish mash! House is likely late 18th century but roof had obviously been redone at various be points with multiple bodges, but the rafters are pretty sturdy.
I don’t think the ceiling is so much sagging bas a bit uneven. The low points aren’t squishy or fragile, probably at most 15/20mm variation in height.

Said ceiling, in all it’s glory. Circa 2m x 2.5m

View post on imgur.com

Overboarded one of our ceilings as the lath was failing, didn’t worry about unevenness as nothing is straight or flat in an old house 😄

Had floor up in rooms above so could see joists. Drilled either side of each joist and at both ends so I could locate them from the under side. Did lines by eye with level between the pilot holes until my builder mate turned up with his laser.

Said ceiling, in all it’s glory

That’s just character 🙂
Small ceiling so +/-20mm might be annoying, pack it or just board depending on your tolerance levels.
Find out what the plasterer intends to do with the artex, if they want to scrape the rougher texture back and you suspect asbestos get it checked first
The collared ceiling angle changes will draw the eye more and need to be as straight as poss. That might involve some holes to find the roof joist as opposed to the ceiling joist, again consider possible asbestos and the mess above the ceiling

when I took our bathroom ceiling out turned out there was 3 layers of plasterboard attached to the original ceiling, all screwed straight through. May be worth a test hole just to check the depth. and then you will have to use your judgement on joist size and weight. we have parts of our house that needed beefing up. “held up by twigs” was the builders comment….

no idea why it was like that. but removing it all gave us enough headroom for me to fit 25mm Kingspan. was needed as it was a 50s flat roof extension with zero insulation.

No real need to counter batten it does make it easier for fixing as you can set your Battons to suit your board centres. If your gonna screw straight to existing ceiling joist find the centre of the joist at either end of room and ping a chalk line to indicate centres along the run. I much prefer 6×3’ for ceilings but I’m not sure you will get MR in 6×3

“held up by twigs” was the builders comment….

no idea why it was like that. …………. it was a 50s flat roof extension

Answered your own question there!