Telly progs and materials like plasterboard

[rjm2k]

Quite frequently on The house built for £100k the architect bloke goes on about the cost of plasterboard being high in comparison with say OSB or ply so these people end up with these alternatives as wall coverings.

I always thought plasterboard was relatively cheap and saw in B&Q that roughly similar ply cost £28 compared to £7 for the equivalent ply. Even taking into account trade prices and finishing (which you may not need to do if you are happy to have ply nailed to your walls instead), is there really a huge difference in the cost of plaster vs ply? No idea how much OSB costs but I suspect it's cheaper than ply/more than plaster?

I would expect that if someone lined a property themselves with PB then got someone to skim it wouldn't cost more than ply everywhere?

Is the architect talking out of his *rse?

 

[TheVictorian]

I thought exactly the same thing, especially the other week when the guy was foraging around for scrap metal to line his walls with! Surely a £5 sheet of plasterboard is much much cheaper especially when you consider time.

 

[rjm2k]

I thought exactly the same thing, especially the other week when the guy was foraging around for scrap metal to line his walls with! Surely a £5 sheet of plasterboard is much much cheaper especially when you consider time.

Yeah, not everyone is able to walk upto the BBC world service and get sheets of metal for free like that either, probably worth a bit if weighed in!

 

[jay679]

The program is interesting to see what you can get for under £100k, and where the best places are to save money. But TBH, I think it is just vehicle for pretentious architects and designers to try out stupid ideas.

The £50k house was quite a bargain, and would have looked half decent if it had been plasterboarded inside IMO

 

[geraldthehamster]

The £50k house was quite a bargain, and would have looked half decent if it had been plasterboarded inside IMO

As well as costing less. Never trust a presenter who speaks off to an imaginary friend to the side of the camera, rather than looking at the bloody audience he's supposed to be talking to.

Cheers
Richard

 

[jay679]

Glad I'm not the only one who gets bl00dy annoyed at that!!!!!

 

[tony1851]

A house with internal walls lined with plywood would contravene Building Regs.
Plywood has Class 3 Surface Spread of Flame designation and that is not acceptabe in rooms with a floor area greater than 4 sq m.
It would have to be coated with a retardant solution to comply.

 

[rjm2k]

It would have to be coated with a retardant solution to comply.

A fact they never mention, and I bet the solution isn't cheap, making it even less likely to be cheaper than plasterboard?

 

[geraldthehamster]

It would have to be coated with a retardant solution to comply.

A fact they never mention, and I bet the solution isn't cheap, making it even less likely to be cheaper than plasterboard?

They used OSB in the programme, rather than plywood. I assume OSB has greater fire retardance? Still looked crap though.

Sarah Beeny's "Double Your House for Half the Money" is as bad, for increasing costs to plug gimmicks. Last night's couple wanted to extend a bungalow, so Ms Beeny had them get a vast loft prefabricated in Scotland, driven down and craned into place, at a cost of 100k. I guess to some extent TV must have been paying ...

Cheers
Richard

 

[diyer56]

A fact they never mention, and I bet the solution isn't cheap, making it even less likely to be cheaper than plasterboard?

In the £50k house episode where the walls were lined with OSB they did mention that the surface had to be coated with a fire retardant solution. They discussed it when they went to the 'show house' where it had already been installed.

I agree though, could have used plasterboard and lining paper if the cost of plastering was too great.

 

[tony1851]

They used OSB in the programme, rather than plywood. I assume OSB has greater fire retardance? Still looked crap though.

OSB doesn't have any particular treatment for reducing surface spread of flame (same with normal chipboard, and any other wood-based product) - they probably used it because it is cheaper than plywood.

And yes, it looks even crappier than ply.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I agree though, could have used plasterboard and lining paper if the cost of plastering was too great.

Or a textured/embossed paper. If competently applied and then painted you won't see the joins.

 

[rjm2k]

so Ms Beeny had them get a vast loft prefabricated in Scotland, driven down and craned into place, at a cost of 100k. I guess to some extent TV must have been paying ...

I had wondered what that would have cost if built on site, no crane hire, no hire of 4 or 5 lorries for transport etc. 100k is a lot of money for a loft, though I think it was fully boarded and tiled for that.

It also appeared that they had been unable to do any work on the property whilst the loft was being manufactured, so they didn't even get a time saving over building on site.

 

[geraldthehamster]

I had wondered what that would have cost if built on site, no crane hire, no hire of 4 or 5 lorries for transport etc. 100k is a lot of money for a loft, though I think it was fully boarded and tiled for that.

It also appeared that they had been unable to do any work on the property whilst the loft was being manufactured, so they didn't even get a time saving over building on site.

I wondered what it would have cost if they'd simply knocked the bungalow down and started again.

Cheers
Richard

 

[rjm2k]

They were at it again on the latest episode (where a couple built a Barratts house on a Barratts estate).

Kept going on about ply and osb and how ply can cost as little as £5 per sqm, went on to shown them "hidden house" with its white washed ply walls and generally naff cheap looking interior. Next thing, he's showing them metal cladding for the internal walls, which he states is cheap at around £17 per sqm one minute and then around £50 per sqm the next minute! They were supposed to be doing it on a budget!

Thankfully the guy seemed to ignore most of what was said apart from some partition changes which worked and a few bits of wallpaper, the walls seemed to be plastered and the house seemed much bigger than it actually was (partly due to no loft, wonder where they will store their junk)