Drywall lining my Porch

[meddyuk]

Hi there.

I currently have an entrance porch which gets very cold. Its made of a single course of brick, it also has a vent in the corner. I would like to errect some kind of plasterboard so that it not only tidies up the brickwork, but offers some kind of insulation.

I think that the best way to do this is to attach wooden batons to the wall 400mm apart, including top and bottom. My only gripe with this is that the uPVC door might be hindered, as it opens on the the wall (the hinges are 20mm away from the wall.

As i have no experience of drywall lining, i wondered if this could be something i can undertake myself.

I look forward to your replies.

Meddy.

 

[stuart45]

It should be easy enough to do. Unless the porch is heated, you might not notice much improvement. Generally the main benefit of having a porch is to offer shelter eg. to someone at the door so you don't have to invite them in. The extra work, expense and loss of space might not be worth it.
It really depends on what you use the porch for.

 

[Richard C]

Any dampness in the porch makes it feel very cold & it’s always going to be a problem if single skin walls are involved. My porch was formed between a single skin, garage brick wall & a brick pillar supporting an existing pitch roof on the other side. I had a similar problem with lack of space between the wall & front window to allow the use of battens but the brick face was nice & flat so I lined the wall, the pillar & the remaining part of the house wall next to the front door using 12mm Duplex plasterboard (foil backed), screwed directly to the brick face using through screw fixings, I then plaster skimmed the face. It’s cured the damp feeling out there & looks so much better but I also have the benefit of cavity dwarf walls on the other 2 sides (plastered) & a damp membrane in the new screed floor which has been fully tiled.

Don’t be tempted to heat the porch from your heating system; not only will it cost you a fortune but you will breach current Building Regulations & your porch won’t be classed as a porch any longer!

 

[meddyuk]

Is it advisable to lay plasterboard on to single skin brick wall? if so would the dot and dab method be any good?

The porch will remain an entrance porch, we hang coats etc in there, but just want it to look nice when people visit.

meddy.

 

[Richard C]

Is it advisable to lay plasterboard on to single skin brick wall?

I would only advise using Duplex board as the foil layer is there to prevent damp penetration; any dampness present will just pass straight into ordinary wall board which doesn't do it a lot of good! The single skin wall on my porch also forms the attached garage wall & so is not directly exposed to the elements. If yours are, sealing the outside brick face with SBR or another proprietary sealer/water proofing agent should give you some insurance. Because of the unevenness of the bricks, there will still be a slight gap behind the board allowing some air in there &, providing you don’t heat the porch, its unlikely condensation will form behind. I wouldn’t recommend you try it on single skin/damp walls inside the house but, like yourself, fixing battens was not an option for me so I thought I would give it a try; it’s only a porch after all & not subject to Building Regs. Mine has already been through 1 winter, a very wet summer & is now well into it’s second winter; I’ve not had any problems, no trace of any dampness & it still looks as good as the day it went up.

if so would the dot and dab method be any good?

Unfortunately you can’t dot & dab Duplex board as the adhesive doesn’t stick to the foil coating too well or may pull the foil off the board; the PB may well end up falling off the wall! You must use screws & although thro fixings are quiet a bit more expensive than conventional plugs/screws, it’s simply a case of drilling through & fixing with the boards in place!

 

[meddyuk]

Richard,

Would you recommend them thro fixings instead of screws and plugs? If so which ones would you get and do you have a link?

Also, the porch has quite a big square window in there. would you plasterboard flush up to the window?

 

[Richard C]

Richard,

Would you recommend them thro fixings instead of screws and plugs? If so which ones would you get and do you have a link?

Also, the porch has quite a big square window in there. would you plasterboard flush up to the window?

Yes, with plugs you can’t drill through; thro fixings are much easier to use & I just got mine from the pre-packed screw section in B&Q. I used “multi purpose plug & screw 8mm x 50mm”.
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/n...=multi+purpose+plug+&+screw&selected=products

You could probably get away with 45mm or even 40mm long but the nearest B&Q alternative is only 35mm long which may be a bit on the short side. You could almost certainly get them on line but by time you add on P&P, what you will save is probably not worth it.

Not sure exactly what you mean by “plasterboard flush up to the window” is it in an adjacent wall or the wall your boarding? I PB’d up to the frame of the window in the adjacent front wall of my porch which reduced the visible frame down to about 15mm inside excluding the glazing bead; it looks fine.

 

[Markymilarky]

Hi Chaps,
What i did was painted the wall with 3 coats of bitumin, painted the boards with 1 coat of the same and stuck them to the wall, then mechanicly fixed each sheet with 9 fixings.
Drilled a 6mm hole through the board and into the wall, hammered in a standard 6mm wide plastic wall plug. then screwed in a 2" no 12 screw which was plenty bigger than the plug. this has held the board nicely and when the adhesive went off its stuck like the proverbial to a blanket. I don't know how anybody else would do it but this has worked great for meeeeeee. cheers Chaps.. mark ps the wall was well damp. not any moreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!