Drywall and fill finish or Drywall and skim?

[Paul_Thomas]

We are just getting prices for our extension.

A local Drywall firm is putting a quote together to cover all of the walls and ceilings for us. They have suggested that just applying drywall (plasterboard) and taping/filling the joints is becoming an increasingly popular and costs effective way of doing it. We can apply a paint type stuff afterwards that will help harden the paper if we are concerned about durability.

Can anyone give me the advantages/disadvantages or any other comments on whether we should just leave it drywalled or have a 3mm skim over the top after?

NB - We will be using moisture resistant board in the shower room and foil backed in the loft and external solid wall.

 

[Richard C]

Personally I wouldn’t have drywall unless there were specific reasons for doing it; I would always go with a traditional base coat & finish. Builders like drywall as its quick & requires less skill from the plasterer so he probably won’t be paying them top rates. Done correctly it should be more or rless flush with the wall behind but if the wall is very uneven or they use too much adhesive, it ends up spaced off too far off & sounds very hollow just like studwork; it can also be easily damaged if you accidentally knock it or push furniture into it. They have suggested just taping the joints so you wouldn’t have plaster at all but I think this looks cheap & nasty & would always have it skimmed. Also (& others may correct me!) I don’t think you can dot & dab foil backed board as it may not stay there so I would clarify how they are going to fix it to the solid wall. It's good stuff to use for the loft ceiling though & has made quiet a difference to the thermal insulation in an old flat roof extension I renovated this year.

We had a large conservatory built last year & an almighty row erupted when I refused to let them dry wall it as I’d specified I wanted a ‘proper’ plaster job when they quoted; they did it properly in the end though! It does have advantages in some situations if the old wall is a real mess & can be used over timber battens to create a void so you can bury all the cables for a wall mounted A/V system.

 

[Tozzy]

I would always go with a traditional base coat & finish.

I agree with you because plasterboard in my opinion does sound very cheap and lightweight when tapped with knuckles. I don't believe that a pro plasterer should use these unless it's unavoidable. Even the stud walls, I would use bricks and plaster, not plasterboard with a hollow cavity.

We had a large conservatory built last year & an almighty row erupted when I refused to let them dry wall it as I’d specified I wanted a ‘proper’ plaster job when they quoted

Richard C, hope you don't mind me asking how much they quoted you for the plaster work. The reason I ask is that we had plasterboard fitted because it was cheaper, but just wondered how much a traditional plaster finish would cost? Don't know about dimensions, but I'd imagine my conservatory is probably no smaller than yours.

 

[Richard C]

Tozzy
At the risk of incurring moderator wrath; the plasterer my builder used charged £130 a day & took 2 full days to do our conservatory (22 sq metres, 3 dwarf walls - I had to do the large gable wall myself!) & an external porch we also had built (8s sq metres with 3 full height walls). He was very good but had been at for less than a year & so was a bit cheaper than most charge around here (usually around £150/day). If the walls are large he may need a labourer to knock up, maybe another £100/day.

I was going to use this guy myself but practically all the plaster in my house is shot & faced with such a massive bill on top of all the other work going on I had no choice but to learn to plaster myself; but it’s a bit of a black art & one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to learn. You can get some good plastering videos which will teach you the basic techniques but you will find you can either do it or you can’t; if you can’t, best get someone in or it will look awful!

 

[Paul_Thomas]

I don’t think you can dot & dab foil backed board as it may not stay there so I would clarify how they are going to fix it to the solid wall. It's good stuff to use for the loft ceiling though & has made quiet a difference to the thermal insulation in an old flat roof extension I renovated this year.

The walls where foil backed will be installed will be external with a DPM follwed by battens with insulation in between. Therefore the panels will be scewed onto the battens.

 

[Paul_Thomas]

Is it not fair to say that lots of new houses are just drywalled instead of rendering and plastering over the top?
(I know that lots of local houses to us are timber frame so it is probably the only sensible option)

 

[Richard C]

Is it not fair to say that lots of new houses are just drywalled instead of rendering and plastering over the top?

In my view, only the ones built on the cheap; they are usually found in the large estate builds put up by the large national developers who also mainly use studwork for internal walls. I've had 2 new houses in the past & personally wouldn't touch such a build with a barge pole!

 

[noseall]

i recently added an extension to a timber frame building and was astonished at how difficult it was to demolish the timber frame wall that was to be the knock through.

the ply sheathing had been gun nailed every 75-100mm to the studs. i'd never seen so many fixings! there were dozens of stainless anchors linking the outer masonry to the internal timber frame. noggings were everywhere, and the uprights had hydro' clench fixings.

never again will i underestimate the strength of a timber frame build. i would sooner demolish a block wall any day!!

 

[Paul_Thomas]

Is it not fair to say that lots of new houses are just drywalled instead of rendering and plastering over the top?

In my view, only the ones built on the cheap; they are usually found in the large estate builds put up by the large national developers who also mainly use studwork for internal walls. I've had 2 new houses in the past & personally wouldn't touch such a build with a barge pole!

All existing partitions upstairs are studwork, downstairs they are concrete block.
At the end of the day cost is a big issue, we have had to borrow heavily for the extension and depending upon the quote we get back for drywalling will depend on what we do. I was planning on drywalling all of it myself and just getting a plasterer to skim it.
However my Builder suggested a local drywall firm that he said 'Can supply and install drywall for not much more than it would cost me to buy it'. We'll have to wait and see.

I don't have any particular issues with my existing stud walls with plasterboard and a 3mm skim, but was a bit more concerned about just plasterboard on it's own as a final finish (Especially with kids!)

 

[Belle427]

if done properly you cannot tell if its been skimmed or not but i emphasize the word properly,worked in a few commercial buildings and seen it done and it does look good

 

[Nige F]

Richard C ....I think you`re a bit high on the labourer`s £££...and skim only the spread can knock it up with a powered paddle nowadays ....but would stick a few £££ on for the graft so say £175 instead of £150 and a tad slower Labourer might be 80-90...unless you wanted sand/cement render first ...bonding /browning /hardwall is no sweat to mix.....P.S. WTF am I on about ..you`re in Cheap-as-chips Norfolk and this is Rogue Trader County

 

[Thermo]

Is it not fair to say that lots of new houses are just drywalled instead of rendering and plastering over the top?

In my view, only the ones built on the cheap; they are usually found in the large estate builds put up by the large national developers who also mainly use studwork for internal walls. I've had 2 new houses in the past & personally wouldn't touch such a build with a barge pole!

its also done to save on drying out time for the houses so the following trades can get in a lot quicker to keep the programme rolling. personally i dont like it, but each to their own!

 

[Richard C]

WTF am I on about ..you`re in Cheap-as-chips Norfolk and this is Rogue Trader County

Good info for the black book Nige. I'm not in the trade as such but am doing a lot of work here & also have a local developer for a friend (he wont help me though!). Norfolk is not as "Cheap-as-chips" as you might think for trades, it certainly surprised me after I moved here & started things rolling on this renovation last September. There seems to be so much work of one sort or another going on in parts of this county at the moment that ‘decent’ trades are not hungry & can pick & choose; this gives the Rogue Traders a free reign to operate on the gullible & trusting folk!

Decent trades are not hungry for work here at the minute & anyone with experience & half a skill wants £150 a day, sometimes up to £200! Even my developer friend has trouble keeping his gang together as they keep getting poached by rivals who will pay just that little bit more; trouble is you end up in an upward spiral if you’re not careful. Good for trades but not so good for punters but what goes around comes around!

 

[diyisfree]

Bwoody Drylining

Get it done by a real plasterer with browning/bonding... As all ahve stated there are 2 reasons why drylining is used,
1, Its cheaper
2, its quicker and dries faster.

Sorry thought of another, 3, plasterer cant realy plaster... You need a good spread mate to do the job right...

 

[^woody^]

The only disadvantage of taped and jointed boards over plaster skim, is if it will be wall papered - care should be taken as the boards tend to be gouged and torn easily with the scraper when you come to redecorate.

If you are just painting, then there is no significant difference between the two.

A plaster skim will take knocks and dents just the same as plain board and a few coats of paint.