Installing Plasterboard

Installing Plasterboard – How is it done?

The majority of residential and commercial properties / homes use plasterboard as a lining for interior walls and ceilings. Why? Because its lightweight, easy to work with, clean, it looks good, its easily painted – and some have high performances for different purposes i.e. preventing sound transfer, absorb impact to the wall and some waterproof – to name a few. Plasterboard is also manufactured in different thicknesses and in sheets. In residential construction, the standard thickness is 10mm, which suits standard sized door jambs and window reveals. In large commercial buildings, 13mm is the norm for standard walls with 16mm used for specific needs. The sheets are usually either 1200mm or 1350mm high – depending how high your ceiling is. But when it comes to installing plasterboard how is it done?

How plasterboard is put up on walls?

• Sheets are first carefully cut to size, then they’re adhered to the wall using a ‘stud adhesive’. Once in place they are either nailed or screwed to the wall studs.
• If there is a brick wall the plasterboard process is called dry wall. The key to success with this project is properly preparing the brick wall to accept the drywall. You will need to attach wood furring strips to the brick wall, which will act like building studs in a wood-frame structure. The drywall will never come in contact with the brick. The gap between the walls will come in handy if you choose to hang pictures or other decorations on the wall.
• Once you have finished installing the plasterboard the joints between each boards are filled with a plaster-based cement base coat and covered over with a piece of paper tape to cover the joint.
• Once dry, this is sanded smooth and covered over again with a plaster-based cement topping coat which is also sanded smooth once it dries to create a nice seamless finish.
• Internal corners where walls meet (e.g. the corner of a room) are finished with the same method using a folded piece of paper tape.
• External corners, on the other hand, are finished with an ‘external corner bead’, which is typically an L-shaped bit of aluminium that’s used to create the corner. Once in place, this is carefully plastered over to create a nice straight corner.
• It is less common for plasterboards to be fixed directly to the ceiling joints as most new homes have either ceiling battens or furring channels which are attached to the undersides of the ceiling joints to make it easier to attach the plasterboard.
• A steel furring channel is much stronger, and is normally used in commercial construction. As well as ceilings, furring channels can also be used to attach plasterboard to walls. Ceiling battens, on the other hand, are normally only used for ceilings, and only in residential construction. Ceiling battens can be made of either steel or timber – but steel’s normally preferred because it’s straighter.
• The furring channels or ceiling battens are attached to the underside of the ceiling joists (using fixing clips in the case of furring channels), so that they run at right angles to the joists. Once the battens or furring channels are up, the plasterboard is hoisted using a special ‘sheet lift’ (or by hand using scaffolding) and screwed or nailed directly into the channels at set spaces so that the fixings are flush with the surface of the plasterboard.
• When that’s done, the edges are finished with paper tape and plaster cement base and topping coats as they were for the corners of the walls.
• If cornices are going up, these need to be carefully cut to size and cut at the correct angle using what’s known as a mitre – which is a tool to guide a saw through an exact angle.
• The pieces of cornice are then ‘buttered’ using a small layer of plaster cement, and carefully fixed into place (sometimes with nails to hold them in place). Joins between lengths of cornice are then carefully finished at the joins with plaster cement for a sharp, clean edge.

Information accredited to: http://www.build.com.au/installing-plasterboard-walls-and-insulation

Here are some guides to DIY installation of plasterboard:http://www.gyprock.com.au/Pages/Resources/DIY-Guides.aspx