What is the best approach (financially viable) to tackle hairline cracks to the ceiling?

It depends how much you are looking to spend, if absolutely minimal then simply filling and re painting, although this may not last particularly long. A more expensive option is to check the ceiling boards are secure, perhaps re fix the ceiling to be certain using 32 - 38 mm plasterboards screws, tape over all the cracks with scrim, PVA the whole ceiling and then have it re plastered. This will solve it if done correctly

overboard,sounds like old lathe and lace system.cost effective.

hi ..if there is not to many ...open each crack up with a stanley knife{ about 8th of an inch } and fill with a flexible filler..but i would recommend getting in a plasterer ..he would open up the cracks and fill with a backing plaster and a finish plaster this way you should not see where cracks were when painted and a local plasterer should do this for a small amount of money ..if you have lots of cracks it might be worth boarding over the top and skimming ..a local plasterer should be able to give you the best advise ..all the best

Hi When you say financially viable, this could suppose a range of budgets. If a ceiling is let's assume, 40% past it's life span ie lath and plaster it would require a reasonable ammount of work to re instate or patch the affected area. Generally speaking the cheapest option is to buy some new stanley knife blades. Use one per crack (or there abouts to maintain sharpness) and "rake out" the cracks. This involves cutting in by 1-2mm and forming a "V" trench in the cracks. When you are addressing a crack, to stem it's onward movement it's best to cut a "stop" at either end of the area forming the crack into the letter i. Fill with a good easy sand filler, sand and paint. Ultimately though, you may need to think about re plastering the ceiling. 99.9% of tradesman these days will be more inclined to over board the entire ceiling encapsulating the old work and leaving you a brand new ceiling and the least ammount of mess. i'm sure if you bought the right materials and emptied out the room, you would easily obtain a sub £200 quote for this.

It depends on what you mean by finacially viable? Your cheapest option is to rake out the joints, cover with scrim tape, then two coats of 'Gyproc Easyfill', rub down and paint over, rough guess half a days labour for one man Next would be scrim tape, followed by replastering of the entire ceiling, approx full day If your cracks are really bad, such as a older house with plaster and lath ceiling, your best choice is to overboard the ceiling with new boards, scrim the joints and replaster, probably two days labour, depending on the size of your ceiling Hope this helps

It should only take 1 day to overboard and skim a ceiling , we completed a 18 square metre one not long ago , got finished for half 4 , 2 man team , hope this helps .