In retirement it's always a challenge to find something to do, so building a extra bedroom in my loft has kept me busy for a few hours each day for the last month.
I would have liked to raise the roof a metre before I started , but the neighbour next door complained, so am stuck with a 2 m high ceiling
I had a builder help me do the brickwork, plastering and tiling in the toilet, but had had enough of his shoddy workmanship, so when it came to him cutting off the 90 mm pvc pipe that the toilet bowl sits on, at floor level,, I told him to fuck off and I would finish the rest.

Another builder helped with the ceiling , but did not want to put in extra steel bracing that was needed, so again , ended up buying a welder and doing it myself.

Having worked with standed 4x2 pine timber and jib board in most of my past building jobs it's a challenge to now use thin gauge box section steel and smarboard instead. . Even the different types of paint are a bit of a challenge here. The U90 , plasticised paint just would not '' stick '' to the plaster filler, so ended up peeling it all off , and putting a coat of sealer on then two coats of the good old Dulux paint.

I am now in the process of finding a short bargirl to rent the room to.

What flushing compound did you use? It would have been good to sand it smooth before painting, I suspect that it was just too hard to sand. That U90 usually works OK, I hope you got the free T shirt as well.

willyhilly wrote:What flushing compound did you use? It would have been good to sand it smooth before painting, I suspect that it was just too hard to sand. That U90 usually works OK, I hope you got the free T shirt as well.

You don't think I am that stupid ,, do you ? Of course I sanded it smooth .

The smart board never looks good. They usually plaster where they connect of used outside, but even that doesn't look so nice. Nothing sticks to it that well either. Why did you use smartboard vs drywall/jib board? Worried about water from a leaking roof?

Oh its smart board, did you use the square edged or recessed edge. Really your sanding looks terrible, you can see the edges and some gouges. I think you used the exterior flushing compound that is really hard to sand. The topcoat for plasterboard is really soft and sanding produces dust like talcum powder.
I think under a leaky khmer roof smart board is a good idea, I would use the square edge stuff and express the joints not hide them. A little bit of no more gaps in the joints is all that is required. I have done a lot of ceilings like that in the Australian tropics and they look fine.

Good project. Yes, you are right, its a challenge to find interesting things to do in retirement. (setting drinking beer all day is attractive, but not healthy nor stimulating.) By the pictures, good job and keep up the good work. So far I've done a two year kayak/sailboat/fishingboat cat. project, a complete hopup/rebuild motorcycle project and am getting set up to do a guitar project. (If I time it right it will take me into the rainy season.) Also making my own beer which is a good retirement diversion. ( as the beer here is crap.) Any building I've done here such as plumbing/construction I've learned a lot of the materials are second rate and/or crap. (I rebuilt a water line and put on a connecting piece on the plastic pipe only to find the connector had a hole in it from the factory.) I'd kill for a Home Depot like store, instead of the crappy hardwear stores here. I wish Thailand wasn't so far as they have nice building supply stores like Home Depot. (The ups/downs of living in Cambodia.)

willyhilly wrote:Oh its smart board, did you use the square edged or recessed edge

. Really your sanding looks terrible, you can see the edges and some gouges.

I think you used the exterior flushing compound that is really hard to sand. The topcoat for plasterboard is really soft and sanding produces dust like talcum powder.
I think under a leaky khmer roof smart board is a good idea, I would use the square edge stuff and express the joints not hide them. A little bit of no more gaps in the joints is all that is required. I have done a lot of ceilings like that in the Australian tropics and they look fine.

Yea, looking at that photo I think some of those gouges were from the screwdriver and trowel I used to get under the paintwork to lift it off. After stripping off all the lose paint I sanded again with 280 grit and then 600 grit . Replastered, with a different plaster compound, as that is where the problem was, and resanded and painted with a Dulux paint. The finished job was still better than your average moto-dop could do .

I would have liked to use a pvc joint strips instead of plaster, as this would allow movement from the heat, but most places I tried don't even know what your talking about.

The joint strips are easy but square edged sheet butt jointed with no flushing is best I believe. That paint looks like crap latex not acrylic but I thought that all paint was acrylic nowadays. I hope that you find a short tenant.