If the ceiling in one of the rooms of your home has deteriorated or sustained damage and you are on a tight budget, you may feel tempted to simply ignore the problem, rather than incur the cost of having it repaired. Here are two reasons why this could be a mistake:
It could compromise your family's safety
A ceiling which has been damaged as a result of a water leak, or which has deteriorated as a result of age or exposure to temperature fluctuations, could potentially endanger you and your family.
This is because damage or deterioration of any kind can affect a ceiling's structural integrity and make it more prone to collapsing, if or when any excess strain is placed on it (by, for example, moving a heavy wardrobe into the room directly above it).
If the ceiling collapses while you or your family members are in the room, you could sustain head injuries from the falling ceiling materials and cuts from the shards of broken plaster. Additionally, you could end up inhaling the silica dust released from the plaster; this is a toxic substance which can cause a disease called silicosis if it is inhaled.
As such, if you or other household members routinely use the room in which the damaged ceiling is located, it is essential to have it repaired, as failing to do so could lead to serious injuries.
It could cost you more money in the long run
If you choose to not to hire a specialist to repair the ceiling and to determine and address the cause of the damage, there is a very good chance that the condition of your ceiling will continue to deteriorate.
For example, if the ceiling has developed a water stain, there is probably a leaking water pipe located nearby. If you fail to have this leak and the damaged ceiling repaired, two serious problems could occur.
Firstly, the ceiling plaster may eventually become so saturated that it starts to break apart. This could lead to the ceiling collapsing which, in addition to potentially harming your family (as mentioned above), could also result in you having to replace the entire ceiling. Ceiling repairs of this kind can cost thousands of dollars.
Secondly, the unrepaired leak in the water pipe could continue to inflict damage on your home. In addition to destroying the ceiling, it could also make your home's structural framework damp. This could lead to the timber rotting, which could, in turn, lead to major structural problems that could be extremely expensive to fix.
In short, failing to repair a relatively minor form of ceiling damage in a bid to save some money could be a false economy that could cost you a lot more in the long run.
Share28 November 2017
I really want a cool old fixie like some of the people at my university have, but they are actually more expensive than I had first thought. Then I was going through the shed at home, and I found a really old rusted bike my dad used to use. The bike needed a lot of work, so it's been a project for the last few months to get it working properly and get it looking great again. This blog has all of the repair and restoration steps that I have used, and pictures of my progress as the project progressed.
