Hello! batten and plasterboard

[pjim]

Hello all, I was directed to this forum as I heard you might be able to help me.

I removed some old 70s plywood boards from my kitchen walls and would like to fix plasterboard up for tiling and painting. There are existing battens but they are only 20mm thick, from the wall. Would these battens be sufficient or do I need to replace them with thicker CLS. The spacing is more or less correct on these so it would be easier to leave them in place.

Can sockets just be fixed to the battens so they'll come out of the plasterboard, without having to use a plasterboard pattress?

One wall is an external wall, there's no problems with damp at all, but do I need to use plasterboard with a vapour barrier?

Thanks for any help

 

[roy c]

I personally would rip all the old battens off the wall (they are over forty years old if they have been on since the 70's). I would get some 2"x1" (25mmx50mm) tanalised treated roof battens and space them out for your boards. But i would put some 4 or 6 inch d.p.c. behind them (just a bit belt and braces).When you put your plaster board on, make sure it is 12.5mm

(half inch) board. You can run your wires to where you are putting the sockets and make a hole in your board to feed the wires through.After you have boarded it, get your metal socket boxes and poke the wire through and mark round it on your board and cut it out. You then can screw it to the wall and when you have tiled it you can put your sockets on top of your tiles and there should be enough depth for your sockets to fit in the boxes...If you wanted after you have all your battens on the wall you could get yourself some sheets of 25mm polystyrene and put them between your battens before you plasterboard. You may have to just cut a little channel in the boards to put the wires in first..Hope this helps.... Remember you will need longer screws for you sockets after tiling !! Also remember you have to run your wires either underneath your battens or cut out a section of batten. and make sure when you board it draw on the boards where your wires are running so you don't screw through them!

 

[pjim]

Cheers, really helpful! the reason I wanted to fit the sockets first to the battens was I want a new CU as I don't fancy putting my new induction cooker on my elderly fusebox with no RCD protection. I'm going to arrange a spark soon so I hoped I could get the wiring done at the same time. Whilst I could install the sockets myself, he's going to want to finish and test the installation I'm sure.