Dry lining and new ceiling...

[mrbriggs]

Hi all, I am going to attempt to dryline my garage and put a ceiling up. I need some advice...

First of all, the garage is just brick inside with the rafters showing etc, and I would like to have a gym in there eventually. I guess I put plaster boards up first on ceiling, then dry line the walls?

As there is no insualtion in the garage, should I use these plasterboards with foil backing? Can you still use plasterboard adhesive with them?

Also, one wall has electric cables in trunking coming down to the light switch. How do I dry line that wall as the trunking is obviously raised from the wall? Would I have to put battons up on the wall and screw the plasterboard into that?

I'm also not planning to plaster, I was just going to joint tape it and paint it with plasterboard sealer then a couple of coats of emulsion (I know, lazy, but I can't plaster and it's only for the garage!) How do you joint the seal between the ceiling and walls?

I've never done walls before, but have put a few ceilings up, so please forgive me for sounding useless!

Thanks

 

[GJS]

I would consider putting some insulation between the rafters before putting up the ceiling, otherwise it will probably be forever cold and you might have condensation problems on the new ceiling. Celotex or Kingspan wedged in between the rafters would be ideal.

Yes, do the ceiling first and then butt the wall boards up to it. I don't know about the foil backed boards as I've never used them but I would definately say you should have some kind of insulation they're outside walls and just a single skin or bricks. If it was me, I would probably batten the walls and put in Celeotex or Rockwool. Knauf have a good DIY site that explains about all the different types of plaster board.

To go over the cable you should remove the light switch and trunking (HAVING TURNED OFF THE SUPPLY FIRST), then clip the cables to the brickwork. Sink a metal backbox into the wall for the lightswitch and put the cables into it. Make a hole where the back box is in the plasterboard, fit the plasterbord then enlarge the whole to allow the light switch to be fitted to the backbox. It's a simple job but if you've never done any electrics before I would get some help with this.

There's nothing lazy about not skimming the plasterboard! The three stage tape and fill method is perfectly good and invariably ends up with a flatter finish than skimming that won't crack (what is it that makes us addicted to wet plaster in this country? Don't get me started....) There's a video tutorial on the Knauf site if you've not done it before.

Traditionally the joint between the walls and ceiling is covered by coving but I don't expect you will want to put that up in your garage. I would butt them as closely as possible then fill any gap with caulk (flexible decorators filler as it is known in B&Q) then paint over. Or, if you want to be really flash, you could make a shadow line!

'Hope that helps.

 

[toptec]

And now the dozy question GJS. -

What's a shadowline?

 

[GJS]

Ah ha! The infamous shadow line! No, seriously it's just a recess at the joint between a wall and ceiling that hides the joint from view to some extent but gives the impression of the wall "floating". I've only seen it done on really flash modern properties, I don't think it would look good on anything else. Plus, I don't know how it's actually done! For your garage I would butt and fill as above. If your painting the walls and celing different colours try to get as sharp a joint as possible rather than a radius in the corner otherwise you'll have no clear line to paint to.

Cheers.