Bathroom Wall Cavity?!?

[bchaz]

Hi, I'm currently re doing my bathroom, as the tiles are coming off so are lumps of plaster board which means I'll need to put up new board up which is fine, however in certain internal wall sections there seems to be a cube cardboard backing to the plater board. Can anyone advise why and what this is? Will it need replaced as is?

Cheers

 

[dextrous]

This type of wall is referred to as honeycombe, and consists of two sheets of plasterboard stuck to a cardboard honeycombe centre. They are occasionally, but rarely, used in fairly new domestic buildings and are more likely to be used in commercial premises as a quick way to erect a stud wall (the studs can be either metal or timber).

Repairing this type of panel is a bit harder, but involves pretty much the same principle as any repair to plasterboard holes. Details can be found by searching the forum - one example of repair to plasterboard can be found by clicking here

If you intend to replace the plasterboard, this will not be so easy and your best bet will be to dot and dab Moisture Resistant (MR) board over the whole surface, which will need to be tanked for wet areas above the bath, and sealed with an appropriate primer if you intend to have the wall skim plastered elsewhere. If you are tiling throughout, the board need not be (and shouldn't be) plastered first, but again it must be tanked within any wet areas..