There’s a hole in the ceiling, dear Liza, dear Liza

Well fix it, dear Henry! Fix it!

Do-it-yourselfers, when faced by weak or broken ceilings, have a myriad of things to consider before dear Liza* will be satisfied.

Much of the repair decisions will be based on the original ceiling material and whether replacement sheets are available or not. If the building is dated, the exact product could no longer be on the market. Here comes the tricky part: to replace with some other material and hope the paint can camouflage the difference? Re-do the whole ceiling in that particular room with a new option? Will Liza be satisfied?



Advice can be gained from your favourite DIY shop, your uncle in the building business or the netizens lurking on the how-to internet pages.

Before asking, consider these hints:

If water caused the stain on your ceiling, it is important to remember that you need to fix the leak in the roof first.

The stains can also come from bats (or geckoes!) in the roof space as their droppings can damage the ceiling boards. Left too long, bat droppings build up and create serious breathing problems in humans. Always check around the building at the points where the roof meets the walls, there should be no large holes and the air vents should have wire mesh over them or at least very small holes to keep bats from coming inside to nest.

Depending on your ceiling material, be prepared to pay anything from N$50 to N$500 per square meter. Polystyrene is the cheapest, followed by Rhino board, PVC panels and Rhinolite. Knotty pine planks create an ambiance all of their own, or consider the pricier galvanised steel or fibre cement options that are also fire-proof.

Know your ceiling’s inside. Carefully stepping on the sturdy parts only, check where the planks (called joists) are into which you want to knock nails. How far are they apart? Are these joists wood or steel and how best to attach the new section? Will you be using rivets or perhaps self-tapping screws?

Replacing a section of your ceiling means carefully removing the damaged part, leaving a clean cut around it. The new section must match the existing ceiling in thickness and texture. Finish by taping, mudding, and blending it into the surrounding area. You don’t want Liza to see the repair.

Don’t forget the cornices. Cornices are those strips in between the wall and the ceiling, that connect the two together neatly. Buy them from your favourite DIY hangout such as Pupkewitz Megabuild or Timbercity/Buco, together with 90mm wire nails. These are hammered through the cornice and all the way to the wall plate. Always fasten cornices that start to hang down before they become a total mess.

So dear Henry, fix that stain on the ceiling.