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My husband has just split a large bedroom into two smaller bedrooms. We noticed there was small amount of cracking in paint on ceiling and you can see screws in ceiling in some areas. He took the old ceiling tapes down and some paint flaked away, so we could see the ceiling is hardboard not plasterboard. He did know there was a few different ceilings in the bedroom so someone must've just nailed up hardboard instead of plasterboard. Reboarding the ceiling isn't really an option because not much room, because it would cover newly built glass block fanlights. He is trying to get off as much old paint as possible then he wondered could he just retape the joints and then paint over the whole ceiling. The trouble is we think we need paper tape because we've been told can't skim onto hardboard. What tape do we need, is there any self-adhesive paper tapes that would be ok, then would it be ok just to paint over?

Your description is very vague, I would use fibre/scrim tape unless its an internal corner. 2/3 coats of filler sanding in between coats when dry.

Thanks, the tape we need to replace is not internal corners just the joins between the hardboard on the ceiling. We didn't really want to use the scrim tape technique as we are worried how it would marry in smoothly with the hardboard, and we've been told we can't get the whole ceiling skimmed after because of it being hardboard. We wanted to use original paper tape, so we could just re-tape over the joins then paint the whole ceiling, we do understand that we will be able to see the paper tape when finished, but we don't mind as long as it is neat. We are just wondering where we could get the original paper tape, or something similar. Thanks

Have you got any pics of this ceiling?

Hi, I would just use the paper tape, as you say you don't mind seeing the tape after painting ideally it should be baorded over and skimmed as a hard board ceiling is on major fire risk, is it a prefab-house ?

No it's an older terraced house. Can we use any paper tape or do we have to use a certain type? I'm just looking into trying to get some pictures on so you can see, but not sure if i'll be successfull! thanks

Hope the photos help, as you can see hardboard ceiling, we have removed the old paper tapes (the kind that had a few ridges down the middle). The paint has come off in places where there has been some water damage in the past we think. The third photo shows there is 3" from the ceiling to the top of the white sleeve of the glass blocks. We will be edging around the glass blocks with wood (architrave) to finish it off. So we were hoping we could just retape over the joins on hardboard with paper tape, them probably undercoat the patches where paint come off then just re-paint over the full ceiling. My husband can't seem to find the paper tape that they used to use with the ridges down, i think he would prefer that type, or could we use any paper tape that we can just stick up and not have to use filler over the top of it, where do we get it from?Thanks again.

are you absolutely certain that it's hardboard? it seems highly unlikely to me. it's probably the old fibreboard that was used for a time after lath and plaster went out of fashion.

There is a firm on the net that doe's the reinforced pape tape, Rajar, still looks like a prefab style ceiling to me they did build prefab houses and terraces...I live in one built in the 60's but have replaced all my ceilings, as I said hard borad a major fire risk

Yes, it's definately hardboard. We've come across a lot of bodged jobs in the past in this house!

I have came accross this loads of times. Even my own house. I re-taped with fiber tape and applied the 3 coat system, turned out a treat. Easily painted over. It similar to gyproc. Defiantly nothing to worry about. If you really think you wont manage to make it look good do the 3 coat tape system and line the ceiling. But i have done this loads of times and even my own house.

trand wrote:There is a firm on the net that doe's the reinforced pape tape, Rajar, still looks like a prefab style ceiling to me they did build prefab houses and terraces...I live in one built in the 60's but have replaced all my ceilings, as I said hard borad a major fire risk

Definately not a prefab house, my husband used to live in one when he was young in the 60's. Our house was built in the early1900's, it's quite a large terraced. The pictures i have posted are not the original ceiling of the house. Someone way back in the past has reboarded it with the hardboard, my husband says if we realised and took it down before split the room we would've had to take down maybe another two more ceilings after that to get to the original ceiling! He knows this because he made a much larger loft hatch and had to go through a number of ceilings. We'll have a search on the net for the Rajar tape, thanks.

trand wrote:There is a firm on the net that doe's the reinforced pape tape, Rajar, still looks like a prefab style ceiling to me they did build prefab houses and terraces...I live in one built in the 60's but have replaced all my ceilings, as I said hard borad a major fire risk

I've had a search on net and can't find anything under Rajar reinforced tape. Do you have the website name or anymore information, many thanks.

Look for knouf (spelling) they do good tapes but as i said fiber should be more than enough.

Above is the actual tape we have been looking for to replace the tape we took off, it has three ridges down middle. Can't seem to find it anywhere! Does anyone know where we can find the above tape that we can just put on joints then paint over ideally.Many thanks.