Batten the wall, then plasterboard if u r worried about the boards cuming away.

 

Thanks.

I'll take some pictures tomorrow to show the condition of the plaster so that the experts can confirm their
advice.

My regular builder says he needs to take it back to brick to get that perfect finish. He might be trying to do right by me because he knows the level of finish I like. However he might be trying to increase the work to line his pockets.


Edited to say I can't really use battens on all the walls. It's quite a narrow Victorian property and I can't afford to lose that much space.

 

I don't need to see pictures as I know what a house looks like in rebuild stage. Hacking to the brick is really unnecessary when you're dabbing over the walls as all it will need is more dab on the bits where there is brickwork to bring to the level of the plaster.


Why not dab boards on one wall which you think is bad then you can see that I'm right

It may be the skills of your builder as most people in his situation tend to use the lads whom he employs to do the boarding and from what I have seen in the past they generally make a mess of the boarding.

 

What ever you do, do it right, do it once.

If alot of the house is in this condition. Do a room at a time to minimise the upheaval/mess, then the job won't seem too daunting. As with any job expect to find other jobs when you start this one eg wiring and plumbing.

 

Steve, so are you saying that plaster can never be in such bad condition that it all needs to be hacked off?

 

Hi Andy

It's a refurb project so not daunted and all the wiring and plumbing needs to be replaced anyway.

 

Ive also been plastering for a few years, But I would never stick / dab a board to a solid 9" wall, meaming no cavity, damp may creep through, Ive seen some bad results of this sort of work, >>> dot & dabbing in the newer houses great /fast and it works, Myself I do lots of old houses from start to finish, I always use sand/cement/lime render and skim. good luck with what ever way you go.

 

Plaster that is obviously going to fall off would need to come off but there is no reason why the rest can't stay on, in old houses if you start pulling the plaster off you can go on forever as it will all hack off quite easily due to being old.


My bathroom has boards dabbed over in the same way I told you to do, I even dabbed onto old tiles as I didn't want to hack those off either.

14 years later the walls are still the same

 

I had to do a farm house for my construction director and the walls were 2ft thick solid stone walls, we scratch coat rendered with waterproofer over every wall then I dabbed the boards on top of that. No damp came thru and they had bad damp before we started

 

With manky old tiles behind them

 

Good lad

 

thats ok for a fast fix / short term, but I would not put my name to some thing like that,

 

They might as well have bought a modern hardboard semi detached though Steve?

Clearly it'll be easier to keep but even so

 

That would be my thoughts too...

I know plasterboard is a quick fix and is probably acceptable in houses from 1960's onward?

Our house is over 200 years old and i would never think of having it dry lined... To me its just a **** up,and an old house doesnt deserve it..

Bit like throwing bog in the wing of a classic car..

 

Just to clarify nobody ever uses hammer fixings on plaster board ever for any reason it is the most rediculous thing I've heard regarding plasterboarding , and to suggest that using 2x1 battons and screwing the sheets is a bad idea is also ridiculous , plaster board is screw fixed in every new build house up and down the country , being a joiner for the last 20 years I know enough about plasterboarding a house ,

Not sure if you thought I suggested foam backed plaster board it's not nessecary but on external walls would help insulate the property

 

My tuppence....

In a period house I'd be replacing like for like - as Alan says above.
Yes, perhaps it's cheaper / quicker / warmer to batten or dot n dab, but it'll never feel like a period house when you tap all the hollow walls...

 

Agree with that ,

My work has recently started renovating a couple of hundred year old house in st Andrews , an American couple have bought it , the whole house is getting stripped back to the stone ,roof coming of as well. they are spending literally millions of pounds ,

My only shock is there are no plans for a garage

 

Yeah i can appreciate keeping with the period of the house.

I personally feel that dabbing the outside walls with jablite boards would still be the way forward for insulation values and they prevent damp coming through, for me the pro's out whey the cons.

 

In every house I've done over the last few years, if the plasters been unskimmable in a room it's gone back to brick, bonded then skimmed.

The only time I'll have any walls boarded before plastering in my house is in the bedrooms, as its solid brick construction and could do with the extra insulation.

Not saying mine's the right way, just how I prefer it to be done.

 

This is what I have done on my farm house that has 50cm thick stone walls, **** loads of work, doing it alone too, this way also pulls any moisture left in the walls out as the lime drinks the water as they say out here, so you won't get any damp back.

 

Its the exact same principle as yours just a different method. If damp came through this way it would be worse on a solid rendered wall.

 

Not trying to tell the pro's how to suck eggs, BUT they use a lime mix out here in Croatia for pointing as well and I have been assured by the local builders that as long as you make sure the pointing is good too there will be no more damp because as above the lime sucks the moisture up too, not sure how or why, the mix out here is 1 lime to 3 cement. some of the first bits I did are showing no signs of damp after 7yrs so seems to be fine, and the walls are in filled with soil.

 

i have had to do it on a few revite jobs for the council espcially when foam backed boardw where involved. It was in spec for a complete estate that all boards had to have nailable fixings in them after they were dabbed.

Just cause you don't know about it doesnt mean its not acceptable. Also if you read what I said about 2x1 you will see my reasons.

again I have been a comercial platerer for 35 years and have done new build houses for 18 years. I know all that is involved in doing new and old houses up to a grade a spec. Joiners saying what should be done in plastering is more ridiculous. Maybe I should tell you how to 1st fix as I rarely see a joiner who can do one properly these days

 

i cant imagine using hammer fixings on plaster board or see what good it does , are they ordinary hammer fixings like would be used for fixing timber to concrete , how many per sheet ,

you mentioned screws popping on 2x1 i can see that is a posability with foam backed or polastyrene backed boards because they can be spongy but not with ordinary 12.5mm sheets , in fact i will be doing this tomorrow , done it many times and never had a problem .maybe its more of a problem if the boards are skimmed , certainly not had an issue when ames taped,

do you think there is a differance screwing sheets to metal framing or 3x2 or 2x1 ?you would use a 38mm screw on each

had a look on brittish gypsum site found the hamerfixings you mentioned, i have learned something 2 ixings mid hight on insulation backed boards should be used as a secondary fixing its not as rediculous as i had imagined

 

, 2x1 is too springy and causes lots of problems hence why we now have 4x2 studs in the show garages.

As for the popping it make no difference if it's taped or plastered as we all use the same Hilti guns, more popping happens with cheap guns such as Makita or Senco. I have been told many a time there are less cracks on the houses I board and plaster compared to a taped house.

As for metal stud I like the stuff but unless it's double boarded the wall doesn't have much strength. I have saw some of the flats we do done in metal stud and it's not as strong as a stud wall.

 

Metal stud partitions do feel less solid the strength isn't a an issue .

Regarding the op gypliner is another option much the same as 2x1 but quicker and easier to install

I Did 2 10 m x 3 metre ceilings 15mm fireline on Metal top hat , 2 weeks ago all taped and painted now with a Makita gun , no screws popped so far , did a small section of 2x1 which met into 2x2 to make the wall straight , used a cordless drill 12mm grey sheets , I can guarantee there want be any popped screws, there is also 70mm mf at 600cntr with 12 mm grey board on , done this many times with no issue, I think the problems you see a lot are due to screws being put in to deep breaking the paper or some other poor workmanship the methods I mention are standard because they work

 

What does dab mean? Daughter has mouldy plaster on her Edwardian small cloakroom. Builder said to overboard it, but how does that deal with the mould? And what do we overboard it with? Then can you tile over the boards?

 

you have to find the cause of the mould first, and repair it, that could be any number of things.

 

It most likely is caused by old Victorian/Edwardian houses don't have cavity wall insulation. The walls will be cold and the air in the cloakroom will not be circulated very often. This promotes mold from the warmer air in the house condensing on the cold walls.
Remedy, strip plaster from walls, re board with insulation board or vapour barrier and battens. Increase air circulation to room to prevent stale air stalling in the room.

Dab means literally just that. Blobs of adhesive to bond plasterboard to wall. Either applied to wall every 12" or plasterboard. Best practice is to ensure all edges have continuous adhesive to reduce airflow behind boarding.


Modern houses suffer from mold due to lots of insulation, but not enough airflow, whether passive or mechanical ventilation. New houses are tested for air tightness, by pressurising the whole house and checking the leakage (see comment above re adhesive)

This goes to calculate the EPC energy report

Problem is there isnt enough airflow unlike in the Edwardian times, where draughty windows, doors, and open
​fires places removed stale warm air

Im, doing a new build, Ive fitted MVHR to all rooms to keep the house ventilated with filtered warm dry air. Building is insulated to death to meet current regulations