Advice for lining plant room

[Omnibuswoman]

Our plant area for DHW tank and MVHR currently only has Pro-passiv OSB and airtightness tape on the walls. Before the plumber arrives next week to begin installing the hot water tank and pipe work, should we put up a wall lining to make it look a bit neater? The plant area will become a cupboard eventually.

We’ve not yet battened out these walls, but can do so if necessary. 
Thanks!

[Kelvin]

Well it’s harder to do after. I boarded mine with 12mm plywood that I painted white. The mistake I made was not putting in a self-levelling floor screed to bring it up to the same eventual height as the floor tiles from the hallway so we now have a step. I will still put in a self-levelling screed but I’ve made things harder for myself now everything is in the plant room as always. 

[nod]

I buttoned and fixed a membrane Then used a 12 mill faced ply 

[Russell griffiths]

I used 18mm osb, then sheets of fermacel then a couple of coats of eggshell paint so any dirty fingerprints wash off. 
 

as has been said, bring your floor level up either level or higher than ffl in the house, you don’t want a drop down in there when the main house is done. 
 

nice ply would work just as well, I just wanted something with a fire resistant rating in case bc becomes a plonker. 

[Dave Jones]

used 18mm mdf for ours. gives really solid fixing for all the kit.

[markharro]

We've gone for "nice" ply (great BandQ find) and fermacell for ours.....

[Omnibuswoman]

Amazing! Thank you all. I wouldn’t have thought about floor levels! I’ve already got the tiles for the utility room where the plant cupboard is situated so I will get those down and will order some OSB. Will get it painted before the DHW tank gets sited next week. 

[Omnibuswoman]

Is there any benefit to me using fermacell rather than OSB? The walls are already insulated and air tight (it’s a timber frame design with blown cellulose inside the external walls).

[Redbeard]

Given the kit you are likely to have in a plant room I imagine there's no real need for fire-resistance, but if there were any risk I'd rate Fermacell over OSB. Have BC made any stipulations?

[Omnibuswoman]

Hmmm good question. No, I’ve not had any specific requests. The ceiling will be plasterboarded and plastered, which is the fire resistance strategy throughout the house, alongside our mister system. 

[Russell griffiths]

10 hours ago, Omnibuswoman said:

Amazing! Thank you all. I wouldn’t have thought about floor levels! I’ve already got the tiles for the utility room where the plant cupboard is situated so I will get those down and will order some OSB. Will get it painted before the DHW tank gets sited next week. 

Osb is horrible to paint, use ply if only using wood, I used fermacel on top of osb as it has a fire rating. 
if you don’t think you need a fire rating then just ply, don’t paint with standard emulsion it will have every single workman’s handprint on it, use a gloss or I used eggshell as it’s not shiny. 
not particularly cheap though compared to a 10 litre tin of white Matt. 

Edited March 22 by Russell griffiths

[saveasteading]

47 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

Osb is horrible to paint,

An aside to the main post. Yes osb flakes come loose and irregular with most paint. I used external masonry paint once though and it works. Don't ask why.

 

There's no real fire risk in that toom is there?  A motor might burn I suppose. Plasterboard is fine but osb could burn severely. 

[Omnibuswoman]

The plant cupboard has the MHVR and the DHW tank. So yes, some risk of electrical or mechanical fire, but probably a low risk. There’s no mister head inside the cupboard, only outside of it, so I would be wise to line the cupboard with a more fire resistant material. 

[SteamyTea]

10 hours ago, Omnibuswoman said:

The ceiling will be plasterboarded and plastered

Maybe 2 layers of plasterboard, cheap and easy to do at this stage.

[JohnMo]

28 minutes ago, Omnibuswoman said:

There’s no mister head inside the cupboard, only outside of it, so I would be wise to line the cupboard with a more fire resistant material. 

Are you just making issues to fix. Ply gives a good surface to mount things to.  Your fire risk is way lower than a kitchen or utility (clothes dryer) for example, or your phone on charge overnight.

[Conor]

I feel like a plant room is one of the most likely sources of a fire in a house (we have solar inverter, all networking gear, CCTV, MVHR, solar diverter etc) after kitchen and tumble dryer... We had all our walls ply lined, ceiling boarded with fire board and standard board on the walls. Fitted fire door as well and smoke detector. Only piece of exposed wood (consumer unit board) was painted in intumescent paint.

[Omnibuswoman]

We don't have any other equipment going in there other than the MVHR and DHW tank, so the risk is def lower than areas such as kitchen and laundry, but at this point the extra cost of lining with something more fire retardant than osb is so small as to be insignificant.

 

We will definitely put a smoke/ heat detector in there too, and put intumescent strips around the cupboard doors (which will be fire door rated), and fire rated plasterboard on the ceiling. At least then I won’t have to worry about a hidden fire going undetected ( I can focus on the myriad of other things that I have to worry about!)