Ceiling Repair near you

A ceiling that droops, bellies or bulges is more than a cosmetic problem. Soaked drywall loses its strength and can tear free of its fasteners, water can pool above it, and old plaster that has let go of the lath can fall in heavy slabs. None of these give much warning, so treat a sag as urgent even if it has looked the same for a few days.

Timing is the best clue to where the water comes from. A stain that grows after rain or during a thaw points to the roof, its flashing or an ice dam. One that appears when the shower or toilet upstairs is used points to plumbing. Rings that show up in cold weather on a top-floor ceiling can come from condensation or frost in the attic, where warm, humid air from the house meets the cold underside of the roof.

Overhead, cracks and popped fasteners follow the framing, so a pro reads the pattern before choosing a repair.

Ceilings are lit at a low angle by windows and by fixtures just below them, so a patch that would vanish on a wall can stand out overhead. On a smooth ceiling, the repair is feathered out well beyond the damage, and a skim coat over a larger area often hides the edges better than a small, thick patch.

Textured ceilings are harder. Knockdown, orange peel, swirl and sprayed stipple each call for their own material, tool and technique, and a good finisher tests the result on a scrap of board before touching the ceiling. When a large section has been replaced, the cleanest result sometimes comes from re-texturing the whole ceiling out to a natural break such as a wall, beam or bulkhead. In an older home, the existing texture should be tested before anyone scrapes a sample to match it.

Overhead work is slower than wall work. Compound goes on against gravity, sanding dust falls straight down and every repair is done from a ladder, a platform or scaffolding. Cathedral ceilings, open stairwells and double-height entrances usually call for scaffolding or a rolling platform that the contractor supplies, sets up and secures. A stepladder balanced on stairs is not a substitute.

A repair cuts, sands and scrapes, which is exactly what releases fibres if asbestos is present. The Quebec government lists wall and ceiling coatings such as stucco, acoustic tiles and soundproof ceilings, and patching compound among the materials that may contain asbestos, and says such products were used in Quebec construction mainly between 1930 and 1990. In a home built or renovated in that period, have a professional sample the ceiling before work starts, and keep in mind that a leak can loosen a textured coating that was stable before.

If the result is positive, the repair goes to a qualified asbestos removal contractor, not to a patching crew. The popcorn ceiling removal page covers testing and the choice between removing, skimming or covering a textured ceiling.

A patch painted on its own nearly always shows, because fresh paint over new compound differs in colour and sheen from a ceiling that has aged for years. The usual approach is to prime the repair and then repaint the whole ceiling from wall to wall.