advice wanted re ceiling work

[east-of-the-Rye]

Our kitchen ceiling has some fairly scarey cracks across it. I've had 3 quotes but for different things - one would cut the cracks out and refill them (we had that done before to the original big crack, it has reopened though took a couple of years to do so,) one would reboard the whole ceiling and the other replace just part of the ceiling. My husband isn't keen on reboarding as the ceiling in that room is already lower than in the other rooms and although the reboarding only lowers it an inch, he's tall and feels it will make it feel cramped. All 3 builders warned of how disruptive taking down a whole ceiling is: what have been your experience? can you get away with just covering things or do you need to remove the cooker and fridge? is it possible to prevent dust getting into the rest of the house, and if so, how?

[copleston_charlie]

I had a ceiling taken down and reboarded, and it is normally a very messy mob, with a large amount of dust going into the air. I'd advocate clearing the room as much as you can, perhaps sealing any objects you don't want to move in a couple of layers of thick polythene, gaffer taped. Hanging dust sheets etc over the doors to try to minimise the dirt getting elsewhere, but you'll have to face it, it's going to get messy as the builders will be pulling the ceiling down and keeping your house clean won't always be their first priority. so you can expect to get a thin layer of dust throughout the same floor, and to consider the room it's happening in as a bit of a bomb site. (Unless you're in a new build, in which case you won't have 100 years plus dust and god knows what else waiting for you on top of your ceiling!)