Half my kitchen ceiling came down at 11pm, patched it with drywall scraps

Rent house I bought in Tacoma had a leak I never caught behind the fridge line. At 11pm I heard this wet crunch and walked into the kitchen with a flashlight, and about a 4x3 foot chunk of plaster and lathe just dropped onto the stove and floor. Water was still dripping from the joists. Turned off the main, spent 2 hours with a bucket and a shop vac. Next morning I tore out the loose stuff, found the copper pipe had a pinhole right at a joint. Fixed that with a compression fitting. Then I had this ugly hole and no budget. My buddy had some 1/2 drywall off a job, so I cut a patch, screwed it into the joists, and mudded it with a bag of hot mud. It's not flat, no joke you can see the seam under the light. But it's been 6 weeks and nothing's sagged or cracked. Has anyone here dealt with plaster and lathe ceilings? I keep hearing I should just fur it out and cover everything, but that sounds like a big project I'm not ready for.

1 comments

1 Comment

reese_perry61mo ago

Mudding over old plaster is tricky but your patch will hold fine, just keep an eye on that seam.