Textured ceilings dropped, over-boarded and re-skimmed to a smooth, paint-ready finish. No scraping, no asbestos disturbance, no dust bombs — just flat ceilings, dust-sheeted from wall to wall.
A plain-English overview of what the DAB team delivers, who it's for and when it matters. No marketing filler.
Ceiling work covers artex and textured-ceiling removal, over-boarding onto joists, taping and skimming to a flat finish, ceiling repairs after leaks or subsidence, and new ceilings hung on MF (metal-frame) suspended systems for extensions, garage conversions and open-plan reconfigurations.
Homeowners who have finally had enough of swirled 1970s ceilings, buyers of period properties inheriting textured artex, landlords preparing a property for higher rent, and renovation clients wanting the whole house on one flat plane.
When your ceiling is textured, cracked, stained, sagging, has been leaked on, or when a new stud wall or partition removal means the ceiling needs to be tied back to a single flat plane. Also when you're upgrading recessed lighting and want fewer plaster patches around the fittings.
Artex applied before 2000 may contain chrysotile asbestos. Scraping or sanding it disturbs fibres — over-boarding is the safer, cleaner, faster method HSE guidance recognises. Beyond safety, a properly over-boarded ceiling gives you a genuinely flat surface, not a 'painted-over-lumpy' compromise.
The specific ways this job goes bad when it's ignored, DIY'd, or handed to the cheapest quote in the WhatsApp group.
Scraping pre-2000 textured coatings can release fibres — a genuine health risk and a legal issue if you're a landlord. Over-boarding encapsulates the coating without disturbing it.
Old lath-and-plaster ceilings sag when the nibs holding them to the joists eventually let go. Ignore it and you get a partial collapse — usually onto furniture, at 3am.
A ceiling that's been leaked on carries brown tannin stains, weakened plaster and, often, hidden mould. Painting over it never lasts — the stain bleeds through in weeks.
Some plasterers will PVA and skim straight over artex peaks. The result is a wavy ceiling with the texture still visible under raking light. Once painted, the only fix is a full over-board — twice the cost.
The exact system our team runs on every job — from your first message to the certificate in your handover pack.
We inspect ceilings, check the age of the property, note the coating type, and specify over-boarding as the default method. Where asbestos analysis is needed for peace of mind, we recommend an accredited testing lab first.
Furniture cleared or centralised and sheeted; floor covered wall-to-wall with heavy-duty polythene and cotton sheets; doorways taped with dust-barriers; light fittings and smoke alarms isolated.
9.5mm plasterboard fixed with drywall screws into the existing joists at 200–300mm centres. Joints staggered; cut-outs formed neatly around downlights, extract fans, alarms and roses.
Joints taped with self-adhesive scrim, corners taped and beaded where a ceiling meets a wall, then two coats of Multi-Finish laid on and polished flat with clean water.
Site swept, dust-sheets rolled away, hoovered. Ceiling left ready for mist-coat and full decoration in 5–7 days. Any snag, we come back.
What you actually get when you hire us for this job — measurable, provable, and reflected in every one of our verified reviews.
Over-boarding encapsulates existing coatings without disturbing them — the method HSE guidance recognises for suspect textured finishes.
A new sheet of plasterboard skimmed to Multi-Finish reads dead flat under raking light — the point of the exercise.
Because the ceiling is new, we can position downlights, pendant boxes, extract fans and smoke alarms exactly where they should be, not where they were.
Most single-room ceilings are dropped, boarded and skimmed inside two working days.
Fixed price for board, skim, protection and rubbish removal — no day-rate surprises.
£10M public liability covers the property throughout the works.
The specification-level answers the internet usually skips.
Standard rooms: 9.5mm British Gypsum wallboard. Bathrooms and utility rooms: 12.5mm moisture-resistant board. Ceilings under an unheated loft or a garage: 12.5mm thermal-laminate (PIR-backed) board where a thermal upgrade is worthwhile. Fire compartment ceilings (e.g. integral garages): 15mm Fireline as regs require.
Where an existing ceiling is too far out of level to over-board, or a new open-plan area needs a fresh datum, we install a metal-frame (MF) grid off the joists at a controlled height, tape and skim from there. Perfect for downlight-heavy media rooms and open-plan kitchen-diners.
Cracked lath-and-plaster in period properties: we chop out failed sections, tie back to sound plaster with scrim tape and re-skim. Sagging areas: we over-board across the affected span. Water damage: strip the affected board, treat any timber, board, tape and skim.
We can preserve original plaster cornices and ceiling roses by cutting boards accurately to the coving line and skimming up to it. Where original coving is beyond repair, our team supplies and fits new lightweight plaster coving to match the property's era.
Residential ceilings are worked around household life, room by room. Commercial ceilings (offices, retail, salons) usually run to a tighter programme, often at evenings or weekends to protect trading hours.
The questions we're asked at almost every survey. Not on the list? Call 07834 974462 — the DAB team is happy to talk it through.
A single-room ceiling (up to about 15m²) over-boarded and skimmed typically runs £550–£850 fixed price, materials and rubbish removal included. Larger and multi-room jobs quoted after a site visit.
Over-board as our default. It's safer with pre-2000 artex, dust is far lower, the finished ceiling is flatter, and the total job is usually faster than scraping and re-skimming.
Over-boarding drops the ceiling by around 15–18mm (board plus skim). In rooms with tight headroom we can fix directly to joists without a batten to minimise loss.
Not necessarily — but pre-2000 textured coatings may contain chrysotile. We recommend a sample test through an accredited lab if you want certainty. Over-boarding is safe regardless of the result.
Yes — our NICEIC-registered electrician can first-fix downlights, extract fans and speaker cabling before we board, so the finished ceiling has no chase-and-fill patches around fittings.
5–7 days for full drying in normal conditions, then a watered-down mist coat before your top coats.
Every day and again at handover. Reviews on Yell repeatedly call our sites the tidiest they've seen.
Yes — ceiling and artex removal is one of our most-requested services right across the Staines, Egham, Ashford, Chertsey and Sunbury corridor.
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Free on-site survey. Fixed written quote in 2–3 working days. No pressure, no hidden costs, no unknown extras. The DAB team replies personally.
07834 974462