DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi there, [first post, please be gentle!]

We're renovating an old cottage in Norfolk. The kitchen ceiling is very low, so we've taken the existing ceiling out to expose the joists. Plan is to put a fire retardant treatment on the joists, put some insulation/soundproofing + plasterboard between them so we get about 10cm of exposed joist left.

The joists are nothing fancy, just un-planed timber, not oak or anything, but we want to make them as nice as possible. Has anyone else done this and made it look good? Did you sand the joists or leave them rough? And did you use a clear fire treatment, or a coloured paint?

Also the plumber insisted that we couldn't install underfloor piping to the first floor from below, now the floorboards are exposed. I guess he's right, but it would be good to have that confirmed.


Any suggestions much appreciated
Cheers
Robin

Difficult to do from below (because that's not how it's usually done), but not impossible. Your biggest problem is that you'd need to thread the pipe many times, which will take an age unless it's a fairly small area, or put joints in, which is generally bad practice. Then you've to work out some scheme for holding the pipe in place. The normal options for upstairs with timber joists are 1) sand/cement pug on battens and insulation 2) aluminium spreader plates, 3) pre-formed insulation boards. As '1' won't stay up, and you can't get 2 in without removing floorboards, I think you'll have to try 3, or think up some new scheme, but it's still going to be very awkward.

Thanks Wookey,
It sounds like it will be too much hassle. I'm tempted to experiment with the bathroom (only small area), but with everything else we've got to do, its probably going to end up with rads instead.
Cheers
R