Are you selling the bat cave? Killer Ceilings

There was an era when plasterers were hired during house construction to finish off the lath and plaster walls and to do decorative swirls and curls and strange designs on the ceilings. If I had to guess the time frame, it would be around 1920 - 1970. Do you know what I mean?

You can see some these designs in older homes in Sandy Hill, the Glebe, Ottawa South, etc. Some of them are beautiful and reflect real craftsmanship. Others - well - not so much. I was out with a buyer looking at homes built in the 1950s. In the basement of one home the ceiling had been plastered - BUT - it was as though they had paid for the plaster by the truckload and were moved to use it all. The ceilings were low, especially where the heating pipes had been encased. The plaster, dried and hardened after many decades, dripped from the ceiling in long upside down peaks. It was as though we were in a cave with decades of stalactite growth. My client was over 6′ tall so there was a clear and present danger in that basement.

The photo that I have included is so close to what that ceiling looked like that I have to share it with you.

This plaster time seemed to be followed by the stippled ceiling time. Here, the drywall guys or painter guys would be hired to tape off the drywalled ceiling and then, rather than do the fine sanding and make the joins invisible, stippling was added. This covered any and all imperfections. Once up, they are a real bugger to remove. Times change and now we seem to hate stippled ceilings. Some people call these popcorn ceilings (and I for one wonder what their popcorn looks like). Removing stippled ceilings is not for the faint of heart. You need a shower cap and cape, you need a lot of water to loosen the stippling and you need plastic covering everything in the room including you. Wet - scrape - wet - scrape - wet - scrape. This is followed by: drywall - tape - sand - mud - sand, -mud - paint. Now you know why those stippled ceilings are still around. You may want to consider removing the stippling as it dates the house BUT also consider it worth the cost to have someone come in and do the ceilings professionally.

Whatever your decision on your ceilings, minimize the odd and bizarre. At least touch up the paint smears from painting the walls and, if you are a smoker, you might want to paint the ceiling (plastered, stippled or drywalled) as the yellow from the smoke is not a selling feature.

Don't inflict and artificial ceiling on your price.

Photo credit: stalactites @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/hodgers/117656517/