Building and finishing my first partition wall.. any advice?

[Whitling2k]

Hello!

I have just finished my first ever partition wall (well a trial as I've not used all the techniques in one job before) and a few things popped up that I can't find definitive guides for...

My plan is to finish with tape and joint - as I only plan to paint the finished wall.

1. To countersink screws or not? I did in my test piece - but when sanding the filled screws, ended up with loads of loose paper fibres. Should I CS the screws or drive them into the board slightly?

2. Joint tape! I ended up sanding through my plaster down to the joint tape - which I figure will be visible when painting... any advice on how to avoid this? Is it as simple as buying the boards with tapered edges?

3. Leave joints hanging or not? I'm building my stud from 63*36mm kiln dried, treated & planed softwood (replacing a wall affected by woodworm ). Advice I have seen is to not screw closer than 15mm from the end of the board - this leaves a 3mm width of stud to hold the screw each side of the board. Is this enough? would it be better to leave the joints floating between studs, but supported by noggings?

4. sanding the joints and in-filled screws - which grade of sandpaper? 100 quickly appeared to scratch & damage the paper surface, but 200 will take forever and a day to sand all joints... any advice here?

5. how wide a gap should I leave between boards? Some guides suggest up to 10mm, other suggest butting (but never forced!)

Think thats all!

Thanks in advance,

Whitling2k

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

1. To countersink screws or not? I did in my test piece - but when sanding the filled screws, ended up with loads of loose paper fibres. Should I CS the screws or drive them into the board slightly?

Yes but you don't want to be breaking the skin of the board, so only slightly.

2. Joint tape! I ended up sanding through my plaster down to the joint tape - which I figure will be visible when painting... any advice on how to avoid this? Is it as simple as buying the boards with tapered edges?

Joint taping methods is best done using tapered boards, that is why they are manufactured. On squared boards you will need to apply a greater area of compound to feather the joint out and sand the joint down knowing you have an high spot where the tape is.

3. Leave joints hanging or not? I'm building my stud from 63*36mm kiln dried, treated & planed softwood (replacing a wall affected by woodworm ). Advice I have seen is to not screw closer than 15mm from the end of the board - this leaves a 3mm width of stud to hold the screw each side of the board. Is this enough? would it be better to leave the joints floating between studs, but supported by noggings?

I would ignore the 15mm advice and reduce that to about 10mm, do not leave joints insecure or you will end up with it cracking.

4. sanding the joints and in-filled screws - which grade of sandpaper? 100 quickly appeared to scratch & damage the paper surface, but 200 will take forever and a day to sand all joints... any advice here?

120-140 grit

5. how wide a gap should I leave between boards? Some guides suggest up to 10mm, other suggest butting (but never forced!)

Not 10mm, back in the day it was a couple of mm, used to tap a nail in at edge of board to make the gap, but I have never experienced any problems when butting them up.
So I would just but them up.

Hope this information is of use and good luck with the project, Happy New Year & Happy DIYing

 

[Whitling2k]

Thank you very much and happy new year to you too!

Really looking forwards to starting the year with a good bit of construction!

Whitling2k