You have been looking at a property in Portugal for a while, you know ALL the internet sites, magazines and watch property programs on the TV.
You have made a couple of viewing trips and have now found your very own little piece of Portuguese paradise. Lets say its a stone house with that beautiful golden brown schist stone. You not sure how old it is but it needs some TLC to make it comfortable enough to live in for holidays.
If any of this sounds familiar you are not alone. This was just how my wife and I felt twenty years ago when we first found our home in Portugal.
Any stone house unless recently renovated will have some “ characteristics “ that you would like to change. Typically a sagging or cracked boarded ceiling like this one.
Boarded ceilings were a fairly recent thing. They kept the drafts out more that the open roof that you see in older houses and were a place to store produce and dry out hay. You also often find old iron bedsteads up there precariously supported on the joists by pieces of timber.
You can see therefore that people walking about, piles of drying crops, stored potatoes will take their toll in making the ceiling sag. Put this with the cheep nails rusting through and add a little wood worm there is only one solution. The ceiling will have to come down. Its a filthy job all our staff wear masks and goggles because you will certainly come across rat droppings, ticks and fleas to name but a few of the goodies that cascade onto you when you remove these old sagging or cracked boarded ceilings.
You can replace them with a new boarded ceiling or plasterboard with dry lining joints.
Two recommendations – install insulation while you are doing the work and if you are using plasterboard only use the humidity resistant type.
