Levelling Plasterboard

[MikeFleming]

Hi

The project is a conversion of agricultural building. The external walls are not plumb. External walls have battens then 62.5 mm Kingspan insulated plasterboard, and 3 mm skim coat.

The walls are not plumb and no allowance has been made to correct this by spacers on the battens,

I sh*t you not!

The builder initially claimed the Architect instructed him to ignore the level of the walls. He is now offering to straighten with a base coat.

The above example in the picture is extreme. Some of the other walls are only 20-25 mm out over the height of the wall.

I know that on masonry you can have very thick base coats, but what is the situation with plasterboard? I looked on British Gypsum website and could not see a product relevant to plasterboard.

Thanks

Mike

 

[stevethespreader]

That's farcical the whole lot should be taken off 3in Base coat on board? I reckon he's spinning you a you a yarn about the architect tell him you want a word with the architect see what he says ,what kind of wall is it ? Stone brick? Is there or was there render on it On the inside? What was the building a barn?

 

[MikeFleming]

Yes. Definitely BS about the architect.

The building was a tractor shed. Double brick wall. No cavity.

He is now saying that he will correct the worst bits. The bits on the picture. Other walls are out by between 25 and 55 mm . His plasterer told him the base coat would be too thick do he is now saying he will put another plaster board on and taper and skim over that. Would that be acceptable?

He intends to leave the other walls as he says nothing in specification that the walls would be straightened. I would have thought that that was a given and they it would be very easy to put spacers behind the battens.

Also all the door reveals are not square. The worst one is out of square by 10 mm over 200 mm reveals but even the ones 5 mm out look really bad.

 

[MikeFleming]

Ps. There was no render previously. It was the battens straight onto brick.

 

[stevethespreader]

Must have been a really bad bricky that built the building either that or they just dident care because it's a shed, we had to float and set a new build on a Travis perkins new office the walls were just as bad and even the window fitters had a job fitting the windows because all the walls were leaning , I would say in your case it's not acceptable sounds like he may want to dot and dab another board or 2 on to the existing board this means huge gaps between the boards and you won't able to fix anything, the builders made a Cxck up, I've been on a job where they got it wrong and had to rip everything out and even then they dident get it right when they redone it the walls were well out of whack still and the plastering firms and partition firms and contractors were going bust trying to put things right at least 2 firms pulled out because they run out of money new people coming in to put things right costing fortunes from my own personal experience on a similar job but way more bigger, I would say rip it out your never going to be happy with it the British standard for a wall use to be out of whack was only about 3mm over so many ft

 

[stevethespreader]

Yes. Definitely BS about the architect.

The building was a tractor shed. Double brick wall. No cavity.

He is now saying that he will correct the worst bits. The bits on the picture. Other walls are out by between 25 and 55 mm . His plasterer told him the base coat would be too thick do he is now saying he will put another plaster board on and taper and skim over that. Would that be acceptable?

He intends to leave the other walls as he says nothing in specification that the walls would be straightened. I would have thought that that was a given and they it would be very easy to put spacers behind the battens.

Also all the door reveals are not square. The worst one is out of square by 10 mm over 200 mm reveals but even the ones 5 mm out look really bad.

Had a think about your situation I'm not sure the architect will specify to straighten the walls I may be wrong but as you say it is a given what's the money situation has he been paid?

 

[stevethespreader]

Had a think about your situation I'm not sure the architect will specify to straighten the walls I may be wrong but as you say it is a given what's the money situation has he been paid?

Just to add if we dident go round straightening walls out there would be an awful lot of wonky rooms

 

[MikeFleming]

Hi Steve

Arc has said that the walls be corrected.

What is being considered now is how.

The builder is proposing building out with layers of plasterboard. He has not yet said how these will be fixed to the walls.

Would there be any satisfactory way of doing this?

 

[Notch7]

Given the c*ck up so far, I would be asking how the damp arrangement has been dealt with.

You dont want to find damp patches appearing later.

Id guess the buildef left labourers on site to do the walls and didnt instruct them properly........

 

[stevethespreader]

Hi Steve

Arc has said that the walls be corrected.

What is being considered now is how.

The builder is proposing building out with layers of plasterboard. He has not yet said how these will be fixed to the walls.

Would there be any satisfactory way of doing this?

Not really I think any corrections will be a botch job there's only a couple of ways to do it and not ideal they could fit battens on the battens or cross batttens with the spacers you mentioned attempt to dot and dab, floating is a no, build a stud wall in front of it? Has it got windows? your within your rights to refuse

 

[Notch7]

A carpenter could do it well by screwing battens in line and over the top of the existing battens, in wich case the new battens will need to packed out and or cut like firrings.

Or a carpenter with a site bench saw could counterbatten horizintally ripping down battens to thickness required.

Since the walls are plastered, Im presuming the 1st fix electics is already in place? If not then that should be done next before battening.

If the walls are all battened out properly, I csnt see a problem with leaving whats there in place. If its removed, a carpenter will have to level up the studwork anyway and the sheets would break up as they are taken off. If its left in place, you get another small cavity and an extra sheet of plasterboard.

Very basic error by the builder, he needs to get you nice plumb walls.

You could argue that a plasterer coming in to replaster walls of a house that are out of plumb, would follow the existing, not try and kevel.

Conversion of an agricultural building and studding out internals is a structural element. Plumb walls must be a given.

 

[stevethespreader]

Or a carpenter with a site bench saw could counterbatten horizintally ripping down

I hadn't thought of customising the battens good thought it would work vertically as well maybe, but there's still the extra gap betweren boards and nothing solid to fix anything to to think about and I would want all walls sorting not just the 1. be interesting to see what their going to do

 

[MikeFleming]

I think I like that idea best. I even have a bench saw he could use.

Actually, I think I would be more comfortable with the whole lot being ripped off but I think I would have trouble convincing the architect.

What the Arc said is that he will specify a limit over which the wall will need to be corrected. He has suggested 20 mm which I think is very generous to the builder but actually I don't care as there is no wall which is under 20 mm. I cant find any reference to the BS standard you mentioned above about 3 mm over so many meters. The only standard I can find is from NHBC, and I think that would apply to only new builds which provides for 8 mm over the whole wall. The best wall is 25 mm out, and that is over 2 m, as I had a 2M spirit level. The walls are actually a little higher than that.

Many thanks for your advice chaps. I am now going to refuse anything being placed over the existing walls, as it sounds like that will be a bodge.

 

[stevethespreader]

https://www.citb.co.uk/documents/nations/scotland/plastering-guidance-booklet.pdf download the pdf and look at page 9 it's the tolerances for the svq test Its the first thing I found on Google search I'm sure I could find more

 

[stevethespreader]

Just got this info for new builds not sure what country though your builder and arc are having a laugh INTERNAL WALLS AND CEILINGS
1.2.1 Walls and ceilings
(plastered and dry lined)
There should be no sharp differences of more
than 4mm in any 300mm flatness of wall;
maximum deviation +/- 5mm from 2m straight
edge with equal offsets, horizontally and vertically
with regards to all wall and ceiling surfaces