How to board underside of loft stairs?

[Ian H]

I've started to board the underside of our loft stairs but not sure how to board under the 2 angled steps. Could anyone give me a tip? Thanks

 

[John D v2.0]

Depends how tight you need it to be. If not you can batten so that you would cover some of that vertical large sheet of plasterboard, maybe down to the second row of screws. Then board one sheet (steeply) over the battens and the next one above at the same pitch as the stairs.
If you don't have much headroom you'll need to cut one bit for each step which I imagine wouldn't look great.
PS I'm not a pro!

 

[Tigercubrider]

Could you get a curve in there?

Either dampening plasterboard so it becomes bendy, or dampening some and leaving it to bend on it's own against a wall may work.

You can get bendy mdf- possibly even a load of plunge saw cuts in some PB might be possible? You'd be relying on the outside paper to hold it all together

A template from cardboard would help shape wise.

 

[nuzuki]

Ive not done it myself but ive heard chicken mesh can be used to get the shape then plaster over the top. The more ridgid the mesh the better it can be shaped I guess.

 

[bobsuerita]

you can elephant ar.se it with batterns and mesh to create a curve then bonding and plaster

 

[noseall]

Just come down vertically from the third visible step up and come out horizontally from the lowest kite tread visible. Dunner bother with fiddly curves. Pain to skim up too. Always end up with brush strokes in the finish.

 

[Ian H]

I've made a start coming from the top down. I put some wood in the centre of the steps:

Then stuck a board on with some odd triangle cuts:

My missus (the boss) was wondering if we could fill and paint the underside of those 2 steps after it plastered?

 

[Tigercubrider]

That looks far better than I imagined it would- I thought a bigger area would be in the "curved" section

Rather than painting the wood I'd add more pb to the understairs to even it up

 

[John D v2.0]

Nice job! Agreed with better to plasterboard directly on the underside of the steps and tape the joints, you can't really fill wood directly as it would crack as it moves. We had that with a lintel and had to screw plasterboard on.

 

[Ian H]

Thanks, I was expecting a good 1/2 step to be showing but that bit doesn't seem too bad.

I'll have a mess with it after work and see if it can look better boarded.

Auto correct on this phone must translate from a foreign language and back!!

 

[Doggit]

Interesting job Ian, no dout about that. Personally, I'd have squared it off at the bottom step, and then battened out the wall and the newl post to hold a vertical piece. Mesh can be effective in a static position, but as stairs vibrate when walked on, you'd end up getting cracks at the side, but these could be fixed with flexible sealant.

 

[Ian H]

So put those 2 visible steps in a single box that goes all the way to the opposite wall? I guess that would keep the angles neater.

 

[Doggit]

And you could then sweep the plaster from the upper part of the plasterboard, down on to the vertical part, and then use angle bead on the bottom corner, and you should have a very neat job.

 

[chappers]

Dunner bother with fiddly curves. Pain to skim up too. Always end up with brush strokes in the finish.

Always found it best to finish with a sponge. Met my mate on his site a while ago and the spreads there were doing under the stairs with those rubber edged trowels and it looked pretty good. Didn't see the dried finish though