Restoring An Adams Style Ceiling
Following water damage we were appointed to reinstate this Adams style plaster ceiling.
Client: Private Client
Category: Projects
Location: Glasgow
We carefully recorded all dimensions and patterns before removing sections of the ornate panels and motifs to our workshop for replication.
Our craftsmen then stripped the existing ceiling; the ceiling was clad with plasterboard then plastered down to the original ceiling lines.
We then fitted all plaster mouldings to match the original ceiling in every detail. read more
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The highly acclaimed Scottish architect Robert Adams was renowned for his Neo Classical style.
He used his wonderful talents as an architectural decorator to design ornate ceilings and walls, fire surrounds and furniture during the 18th century.
Adams was highly skilled in the design of ornamentation and use of colours; he favoured simple motifs, ribbons, swags and tails combining details influenced by ancient Rome and the Renaissance period. He did this to great effect in many of the UK’s finest buildings including the ceiling we restored above.
Our remit on this job was to remove all of the sand and lime plaster from the existing wooden lath ceiling, reinstate the entire ceiling including all ribbons, motifs, swags, tails, roundels and plaster mouldings as original.
Firstly we erected a safe working platform we then recorded the dimensions of each and every element of the Adams style plaster mouldings, we removed sections of all mouldings to our workshop for replication.
On site we applied a fungicidal solution to all of the exposed timber substrate.
The ceiling was boarded with 12mm plasterboard and all joints were taped using scrim, the ceiling was completely plastered adding approximately 12 mm of plaster to the thickness to bring the ceiling back down to the original level.
Our craftsmen then precisely lined the new plastered ceiling out to the original pattern and layout.
In our workshop we cleaned the various paints and lime wash from the samples we had and then formed moulds from all of the enriched sections and profiles of the straight and circular plaster mouldings.
Cleaning the mould gives us a chance to see how these plaster mouldings looked when they were made circa 175 years ago, using similar methods and materials as used then we replicated all of the plaster details exactly.
On site our famous Glasgow plasterers used their excellent skills to fit all of the mouldings produced in our workshop to the new ceiling, jointing and filling all the mouldings by hand.
Our painters and decorators then applied emulsion paint to the entire room and finished all the woodwork with a satin egg shell finish.
The room was then cleared and vacuumed. Another job completed on time and within our quoted price. This work was carried out in June 2014.
