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I have a double detached timberframe garage. It is clad externally with breather membrane, battens and larch cladding, roofed with concrete tiles. Inside it is the bare timber frame racked with OSB. It is dry and well ventilated, but depending on the time of year and ambient conditions, have relatively high levels of humidity. Whilst a useable and practical space, it really could do with brightening up. I am therefore thinking of lining the walls. The ceiling / trusses would probably remain open as this space is used for storage. The space doesn't need to be insulated, although if covering the ceiling may be worth doing. The question is what should I use to line the walls. Plasterboard would no doubt be the cheapest, but given its an unheated space, and RH levels at certain times of the year, may not be a good choice (albeit I would be delighted if the collective view was that it would be okay). I then move up to MDF or PLY, but this seriously pushes the cost up. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I need about 19x boards of 3m acoustic plasterboard (3m x 1.2m x 15mm), e.g. Gyproc Soundbloc, Duraline, Knauf Soundshield Plus, or Siniat dB board, etc. Any will do. Of course, all the suppliers near me (Cambridge) only want to sell me a full pallet of 36 boards. Does anyone know of a supplier anywhere who will split a pallet of 3m acoustic boards?

I am planning to do a lot of studwork this year with fresh Gyproc sheets. Since I am in a remote location, its been hard to get a Plasterer to commit to a few weeks to skim the rooms. Is there any alternatives I can employ to get some nice paintable walls? Any suggestions, or tricks welcome.

Hi all, I'm looking around for ideas regarding the internal treatment/finishing of my kitchen extension. It's a conventional block/insulation/block construction, and I need to know my internal dimensions after finishing so the kitchen design can be finalized. I know traditionally dot n dab is favoured for speed, however I'd like to look at alternatives as there will be kitchen units hung on one side (and a utility/WC on the other end) - Ideally I'd like to maximize internal space, yet ensure the wall is suitable for hanging. Would a layer of OSB under the plasterboard pass muster for increased strength for fixing? Can I fix the OSB direct to the blockwork (assuming it's plumb)? Or would a bond and skim approach be suitable? Would this be likely to be more labour intensive? One side is obviously existing structure, so I imagine I'll be having to hack the old render off to get a decent base, then make it plumb (it kicks out a bit at the bottom). I could do this with battens behind the OSB (if I use that route).. Are there any other approaches I could consider?

Hi, My plasterboarding guy has recommended I use something to seal by new boards prior to painting. He recommended gyproc drywall sealer - which seems to be discontinued in Ireland. He said if you don't seal them there is a risk the tapes/joints will show through- we aren't skimming. Anybody any recommendations for a product for sealing and or priming new boards? I will probably get it sprayed on prior to final two costs of paint. Thanks

Hi all, I'm trying to work out how to plasterboard the inside of my Fakro roof windows. There is a groove around the inside of the window frame which I believe the plasterboard sits in, but that would leave a gap of around 25mm behind the plasterboard, between the plasterboard and the timber rafter. Also, the plasterboard coming out from the window would be at an angle meeting the ceiling plasterboard, unless I maintain the gap. How is this usually done? Do I need to batten out the gap between the plasterboard and timber rafter? This seems like a very fiddle job if so, as the gap in not consistent along the length of the window... Any help would be much appreciated! Cheers

The job I have been putting off! Dropped all the old lath ceilings in our house reno last year. Nows the time to think about putting them back up. Problem is the floor and ceiling joists are all over the place. A builder recomended battening the ceiling perpendicular to the joists and packing them out to get them level but I am not sure what size of batten to use and if rough sawn would be acceptable. Would be looking at 12.5mm plasterboard at a minimum. Any advice much appreciated.

Hi Guys, I'm about to plasterboard my utility room, and need some help choosing the correct plasterboard type. The drawing call for fireline plasterboard throughout, but do you think moisture resistant plasterboard would be better for a utility room? Thanks!

So I need to batten over our inner insulation layer on the slopes. External walls are already done as part of the TF contract. The ceilings won't be battened, we're using 1/2"TE, and all studwork and the roof are at 400ctrs. Do I need to batten horizontally top and bottom? If so i guess we'd be about 100mm in from the insulation edge to screw firnly through, yes? Or at 400ctrs is battening on the rafters enough? ta.

I live in Cumbria but nearest recycling is in Lancashire 3 miles away as opposed to 10 miles. Problem being Lancs do not take P/B without charging and one of my aims during our self-build journey is not to use a skip so decided to take a load of P/B off cuts and clean the house up a bit and not pay at my local recycle centre!!. The layout at the Cumbrian recycle centre is absolutely awful and you seem to have to go round twice to visit the various areas. I offloaded the car of P/B and then needed to go round again to go up the ramp (one car width so once on it you have to wait till the car in front has finished and then you all move on till you get to the end of the line) to go past the appropriate skips containing cardboard etc. So as I near the exit to go round again one of the workmen was just shutting the gates, saw me and opened them again and let me out. Now with hindsight I should have realised something was going to happen but no I turned to go back round again and pulled up at the IN gate(approx 100 metres away) to find the gate closed with cars pulling up behind me. What I then realised was the workmen began changing over full skips for empty ones and due to the small layout of the site no one is allowed in while they do this and thus we all waited outside. Now I do not know what people feel is an acceptable amount of time to wait but 55 minutes passed before the gate was opened again and by this time I really needed the toilet as I am a man of a certain age! SO be careful out there with the recycling issue as it can hit you in other areas!

OK, @lizzie , @Hecateh , @newhome , @Pete and a few others yer just going to say MTFU. Now that you've got that off your chests, I need to tell you that I have a vaulted ceiling to do : top is 4m off the deck, bottom about 2m. I don't mind heights - I respect them, and it's nowhere near as bad as some of the tricks I've pulled before now. But lifting boards into place when already on an internal scaffolder tower? I was wondering what you thought of one of these? Worth it?

Small job to do, repairing a hole in plasterboard, the size of a 50p piece. @Crofter mentioned in one of his posts how easy he had found it repairing a skimmed plaster wall to a seamless finish, something he had never been able to achieve when repairing painted plasterboard because of the paper finish. And that's the issue I have, in a taped and filled rather than skimmed house (how I wish there were plasterers up here!) achieving a repair to plasterboard that doesn't stand out like a sore thumb is a challenge. Any suggestions from type make of filler, grit of sandpaper or any other trick or tip to get a finish that has the plasterboard paper like texture, which I would then paint?

Getting prices for boarding and skimming. Eye watering prices but I should be getting used to that Guy that came Saturday said I had to have pink boards for all the ceilings to meet fire regs but I can't find reference to that anywhere - either in my architects notes or building regs. The only thing in the architects ontes is 30min resistance which AFAICS ordinary plaster board gives.

Following a comment from @Nickfromwales about once being asked by a QS to fill stud voids with plasterboard offcuts to reduce waste disposal costs, thought it would be interesting to discuss the pros and cons of doing so. What are everyone's thoughts? I can see the rationale for doing this on cost grounds, and the possible sound deadening benefits if using whole pieces well fitted into the void.

So after filling a few skips so far and being told "no plasterboard", the penny only dropped that this might be difficult stuff to get rid of at the plastering stage. We have quite a large house so generated quite a bit of scrap, especially the rooms in roof where there are lots of triangular sections. Turns out that the local skip firm will do a plasterboard only skip but at an increased cost to normal to cover the additional landfill cost. I got a 4.5 yd for £265 inc VAT (Berkshire) and it was just big enough (note to self, always get a skip one size larger than you think you need). Quite tricky to fill it efficiency too, I ended up stacking larger bits up the sides and kept the middle for small bits, which I regularly compacted with a sledge. I did call a few of the industry recycling schemes but they're only geared up for big sites. A few skip companies go by weight but the challenge of keeping a skip of board dry put me off, not paying to dispose of rain water Note that there's no issue in disposing of plaster itself in a normal skip, we've accumulated quite a few bags of scraps and will have quite a few more before we're done.

I'm getting prices in at the moment for plaster-boarding/skimming the house but would like to get some prices for the board in advance to see if I'm potentially being ripped off - we need about 900m2 of the stuff. Are there 'best' places for this or is any local builders' merchant as good as anywhere? Same question applies for the sound insulation for the stud walls.