Plasterboarding brick walls

[JohnW2]

Hi folks,

I want to ‘sanitise’ the walls of an ancient (and neglected for decades) rear extension to a house (used as a utility room/’scullery’ and a toilet. The walls (‘dry’and fairly flat) are currently simply painted (probably umpteen generations of coats!) brickwork. There clearly are many possible options, which include:

1… Plastering all the walls​

2… Install plasterboard by:​

. 2a…fixing to battens​

. 2b…’dot and dab’​

. 2c… adhesive foam, or even some sort of grab adhesive​

My plastering skills, although ‘not too bad’, are limited, so I think that (1) is probably a non-starter and, of the rest, 2(a) would probably involve the most work/time.

What would you suggest as the most ‘painless’ approach for a non-professional? Are there any other approaches I’ve overlooked? I imagine that most of them would probably need the walls to be PVAd or suchlike.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Wayners]

Single skin brick?

 

[JohnW2]

Single skin brick?

Most is a 'double-brick' (9") party wall and 'double-brick' wall of the main house.. Most of the rest is single brick separating ihe room from an 'outside cupboard', which has substantial insulation on the other (cupboard) side. There is only one very small bit which is a single-brick outside wall, and I'm planning to put insulation under the plasterboard for that.

 

[Notch7]

tapered edge plasterboard fixing to battens, then joint fill

or square edge board and roll on pre mixed plaster and get a speedskim to flatten and trowel

dot dab is ok but getting joints dead flat is difficult and hiding not dead flat joints needs proper plastering skills

 

[JohnW2]

tapered edge plasterboard fixing to battens, then joint fi .... or square edge board and roll on pre mixed plaster and get a speedskim to flatten and trowel

Thanks for your input. For whatever reason (maybe I didn't initially even know that tapered-edge existed!) , I've personally nearly always used square-edged boards, and I'm not too bad at filling/smoothing the joints.

dot dab is ok but getting joints dead flat is difficult and hiding not dead flat joints needs proper plastering skills

That makes sense, but I suppose is one of the issues I was wondering about. I've hardly ever used dot and dab.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Wayners]

Dot and dab with foam.
Few hammer through fixings designed for the job.
Nice and tight to wall.
You might decide to use insulated plasterboard fixed with foam over the lot.
It's a whatever you fancy.
Any of the advice here will work.

 

[JohnW2]

Dot and dab with foam.
Few hammer through fixings designed for the job.
Nice and tight to wall.
You might decide to use insulated plasterboard fixed with foam over the lot.
It's a whatever you fancy.
Any of the advice here will work.

Thanks. I suppose it's inevitable if one gets advice from N different people, one will get N different suggestions - but I guess the reassuring thing is that, even if that does not help decision-making a lot, it implies that any of the approaches would be OK

Which foam would you suggest/advise?

Kind Regards, John

 

[Wayners]

Buy a foam gun.
Use plasterboard foam as very little expansion.
Make sure you go around all 4 edges of board to seal off.
Blast foam gun with cleaner every time you swap foam can.
Always keep foam in gun.

 

[JohnW2]

Buy a foam gun. Use plasterboard foam as very little expansion. Make sure you go around all 4 edges of board to seal off. Blast foam gun with cleaner every time you swap foam can. Always keep foam in gun.

Do you mean something like this? Roughly how much board does one of those 750mL cartridges do?

 

[Wayners]

Depends.
About 2 and a bit boards per can.

I prefer a metal foam gun however. Some are happy with the all in one cans

 

[JohnW2]

Depends. About 2 and a bit boards per can.

Thanks That gives me some idea.

I prefer a metal foam gun however. Some are happy with the all in one cans

OK - I'll look into that. I tend to avoid such things, since it can sometimes be a nightmare trying to keep them clean!

 

[Wayners]

Masking tape along gun nozzle will keep that tidy.
Foam cleaner only works on wet foam.
I just like the control of the gun but if you're just boarding then maybe a can is better.
If pipe clogs just get another can I guess

 

[foxhole]

When I used a foam gun I only cleaned when storing for a while , otherwise I just added another can , up to around 20 without any problem .
Lighter fuel is a cheap way to clean wet foam off your hands .

 

[Deluks]

Lighter fuel is a cheap way to clean wet foam off your hands .

Whilst having a well earned fag after all that hard work!

 

[JohnW2]

Returning to my question ....
Above, I've had one vote for battens and one for foam adhesive, and I've also had an off-list vote for traditional dot and dab - so there is a 'three-way-tie', which doesn't help me all that much in my decision-making

Battens probably represent the most work/time, but certainly would guarantee that the joints between boards were pretty flat. Of the other two, I have no experience of using foam adhesives, only of traditional ('plaster'-based) dot and dab - and it looks as if the cost of the 'adhesive' (and the amount of time/effort) is probably fairly similar for those two approaches.

So, I wonder if anyone else can 'cast a vote' or, probably even better, help me understand the pros and cons of the various alternatives?

Thanks in advance for any wisdom!

Kind Regards, John