Plasterboard orientation

[Barnboy]

I'm just counter battening my walls ready for boarding and skimming and wondered if there's any reason that I can't board the walls horizontally. My 1st floor walls are only 1.8mtrs to the eaves so it would save alot of wastage as I'd be using 1½ boards  in height as opposed to loosing 600 from the end of a board.

I've searched and see that the Americans go horizontally whilst we seem to go vertically .

Also from another post recently am I right that my external corners should be made with the tapered edge of the board rather than a cut edge ?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Thorfun]

I was told that running horizontally isn't a bad thing, in fact it can be advantageous. if your board horizontally starting at the bottom you have the bottom board to 'rest' the top board on when you get to it. also when cutting for the bit at the end of a run it's easier to cut a horizontal board as you're only cutting 4' instead of 8'.

 

it made sense to me! but @nod is the plasterboard/plastering guru around here so maybe wait for someone who actually knows what they're talking about to respond! 😉 

[Marvin]

29 minutes ago, Barnboy said:

Also from another post recently am I right that my external corners should be made with the tapered edge of the board rather than a cut edge ?

Think this depends if you are skimming or drylining...

[Marvin]

31 minutes ago, Barnboy said:

if there's any reason that I can't board the walls horizontally.

Years ago I read in the BG white book that the way the board was made meant that there was more rigidity one way then the other, and also to ensure each edge of a board is supported you will need all the noggin centers at about  1210mm from the floor. Doing it this way you will have ends of boards butting together which again I think if your skimming would make no difference as long as you stagger the joints.

 

Howerver someone else may be more updated.

M

[nod]

23 minutes ago, Thorfun said:

I was told that running horizontally isn't a bad thing, in fact it can be advantageous. if your board horizontally starting at the bottom you have the bottom board to 'rest' the top board on when you get to it. also when cutting for the bit at the end of a run it's easier to cut a horizontal board as you're only cutting 4' instead of 8'.

 

it made sense to me! but @nod is the plasterboard/plastering guru around here so maybe wait for someone who actually knows what they're talking about to respond! 😉 

45 minutes ago, Thorfun said:

I was told that running horizontally isn't a bad thing, in fact it can be advantageous. if your board horizontally starting at the bottom you have the bottom board to 'rest' the top board on when you get to it. also when cutting for the bit at the end of a run it's easier to cut a horizontal board as you're only cutting 4' instead of 8'.

 

it made sense to me! but @nod is the plasterboard/plastering guru around here so maybe wait for someone who actually knows what they're talking about to respond! 😉 

 

 

Boarding horizontal is fine as long as there is a row of nogs across the middle If you start from the bottom It would leave you a nasty it as floors and ceilings are rarely level 

Better to cut them 15 mil short and lift with a toe lift 

 

 

[Barnboy]

As it's into the pitched ceiling, I thought that I could set the laser level up to find how far out the level is and then run from the lowest point of the pitch,  router out the coj ter battens to run a piece of ply as a noggin, fix a batten as a base to pack from.amd start with the top board.

[nod]

8 hours ago, Barnboy said:

As it's into the pitched ceiling, I thought that I could set the laser level up to find how far out the level is and then run from the lowest point of the pitch,  router out the coj ter battens to run a piece of ply as a noggin, fix a batten as a base to pack from.amd start with the top board.

If that’s the case board the walls before the the ceiling It will give you more tolerance 

[jayc89]

I have vertical battens at 600 centres (screwed through insulation into brick) and have been fitting my PB horizontally so the boards cross as many battens as possible - lets me get plenty of screws in and less flex across the board. Only place so far I've fitted them vertically is a couple of walls in the downstairs w/c that I purposefully made 1200 wide.

[MortarThePoint]

You could consider 1800x900 boards. Saw them in the BM the other day and they look so tiny. Easy to handle though.

[MortarThePoint]

I have an 1800mm section at 45 degrees and wondered about 1800mm boards for it, but decided against because I was worried it could need to be just over 1800mm. That's not a problem for you if you're coming down to skirting level.

 

I decided 600mm bits wouldn't be too bad. You end up with

 - 1800

 - 600 + 1200

 - 1200 + 600

 - 1800

If counter battened at 600mm spacing then the butt joint is supported. The above list covers 4.8m length with 2.4m of butt joint and 7.2m of taper to taper joint (if continuing).

 

1800x900 would have no but joints, but 9.6m of taper to taper joint per 4.8m length. Same total length of joint, but arguably a better type of joint.

 

Laid horizontally, 2400x1200 sheets would give you 3.6m of butt joints and 4.8m of taper to taper joint per 4.8m length. That's actually more butt joint and they wouldn't be batten supported.

 

What's wrong with a 600mm bit of plasterboard? You've consigned that to waste.

Edited May 4, 2023 by MortarThePoint

[Barnboy]

13 hours ago, MortarThePoint said:

 

What's wrong with a 600mm bit of plasterboard? You've consigned that to waste.

I hadn't thought about the

1800,

600+1200,

1200+600

sequence, I was just thinking as few joints as possible and horizontally as jayc89 says, to tie my 400c vertical counter battens together a bit more. 

If I stood and worked each room out then I don't think that it would be too much work to put in extra supports in the right places for the 600/1200 butt joints.

 

[MortarThePoint]

14 hours ago, Barnboy said:

I hadn't thought about the

1800,

600+1200,

1200+600

sequence, I was just thinking as few joints as possible and horizontally as jayc89 says, to tie my 400c vertical counter battens together a bit more. 

If I stood and worked each room out then I don't think that it would be too much work to put in extra supports in the right places for the 600/1200 butt joints.

 

 

If you are counter battening at 400mm spacings the 1200mm joint is already sorted. You could then repeat the following pattern:

• 1800
• 1200 + 600
• 1800
• 1200 + 600

Numbers coloured to indicate which boards the sections come from. That way you don't need any extra counter battens and you don't have any neighbouring joints in a line either.