Partition wall with no battens

[brianj42]

I thought I'd seen it all in house building but today has opened my eyes. I have to fit kitchen wall cabinets to a partition wall. As they are heavy I thought it best to cut away the plasterboard and put in plywood across the battens for extra strength.

1.6 metres later and not a single batten to be seen. There are plenty of places where there is double skinned plasterboard for some reason, but NO battens.....

Now what. How the hell can I hang kitchen wall units when there is no battens and now a large srip of board missing.......Bizzare

B

 

[joinerjohn]

Sounds like a paramount partition wall. Does it have , what looks like an eggbox/ honeycomb structure between the two plasterboard sides?. The way I have done these in the past is to knock a few holes in the plasterboard and feed a length of 3x2 batten through at the height I need for the wall unit fixings, Screwing through the plasterboard so it stays at the correct height then screwing the fixings for the wall units through the plasterboard on to the batten. If your lucky, you can work the battens, either way, from the middle of a run, so the holes are covered by the wall units.

 

[brianj42]

Hi John

Its a 25mm gap in between but no honeycomb, just air and the odd second sheet of plasterboard. Its the weirdest setup I have seen.

But upon further punching of holes in the beast I may have a solution. Which I would really appreciate thoughts on, as this one is hacking me orf.

Its to hang one side of a corner unit and a 400mm unit (both 900 deep) so not a great deal of weight. The other side of the corner unit will be plugged into a solid block wall.

There's a 2" batten at the top and one down the right side.

What if I get a sheet of ply the size of the unit backs (1m sq). Screw it to the batten at the top and the one on the right, then glue the rest of the ply to the plasterboard.

Thoughts ?

Thanks

B

 

[brianj42]

Found more info on it from this forum:

Its called laminating partition wall:

http://www.diybanter.com/uk-diy/281502-stud-partition-how-thin-can.html

This was called laminating - I had to do a few houses some 15 years back and
found it horrible.
Reasonably solid once completed but a pig of a job to carry out.
You had to put up ceiling and floor battens first, followed by 20mm square
uprights and then try to nail a layer of 12.5mm plasterboard to one side.
Next was a layer of plank (19mm plasterboard) laminated to the inner face
with a sloppy mix of drywall adhesive and providing cutouts for services
(cables, pipes etc) followed by the final layer of 12.5mm plasterboard being
both stuck and nailed.

God I hate crap shoddy building standards

 

[Harbourwoodwork]

a couple of ideas come to mind trash the wall and start again with a stud wall ,or cover wall with 18mm ply fix where you can use mastic/glue then plasterboard or batten out fix with no nails type product or glue depending on condition of back ground plaster board over

 

[brianj42]

Cheers Harbour.

I eventually went for a middle of the road solution. I got a full sheet of 18mm ply and screwed it to the "only" battens at the top/bottom and right hand side. Adding to this I screwed the ply randomly into the existing plasterboard monstrosity, and finally, I glued it with a full tube of Heavy Duty plasterboard/wood glue. I reckon this would now be strong enough to hang a baby elephant on (If that floats your boat).

To the left of the ply is a floor to ceiling kitchen unit anyway so it hides the edge nicely and the rest will be tiled.

Time and cost restraints dictated that I had to go quickest and cheapest route otherwise I would have ripped out the carbunkle and built a new stud wall.

Next time. I will check before I start rather than after I had fitted all the lower kitchen first.....