Plasterboard walls disbonded!

Jamie_2-2

Hi, on one side of my house the plasterboard panels have disbonded from the breeze blocks in each room. In the pics below this is the worse room and you can push the whole wall in by about 1". Has anyone experienced this before or know if it is dangerous? The house was built in 1991.

cargo

Well I guess this happens some times.
You will be best fixing these boards back with the correct fixings for thermal boards http://www.british-gypsum.com/products/plasterboard___accessories/gyproc_fixings/gyproc_nailable_plugs.aspx
These should be used as well as ahdesive on insulation boards.
You can get bigger plugs which are sort of mushroomed shaped but you would have to re skim the walls to cover the heads up.

weekendwarrior

I have never seen anything like that before.

I have had a few houses dry lined with thermal board and never had any problems so far. The last one was done in 2000.

owls

Its bad practice to use drywall adhesive just too fix any type of thermal plasterboard to a breeze wall as eventualy the bond will break as looks to have happened here,as cargo said it will require a mechanical fixing to fix it to the wall[that should have been done originally].

Jamie_2-2

Interesting comments.. either poor workmanship, poor concept on the whole or the builders wee'd in the water used to make the dot n dab - yes somebody has suggested this could be a possibility!!

Should this be covered by my buildings insurance?

allan673

it may be covered on your buildings insurance, personally i would rip it all off and recover with new thermal board, plasterboard then get it skimmed.

if you start putting new anchors in now it will probably be uneven when you re fix it, it could crack and need skimming anyway.
for cost though just have a go at re fixing it to the wall securely first, just do one wall and see how you get on.if you put say 20 anchors in then fasten them all down a bit at a time individually untill they are all tight to prevent cracking.then fill the holes with polyfilla and sand flush to the wall.

27col

Nice to see some decent pictures for a change! Others please take note. allan673 seems to have the right idea.

DW123_2

I'd like to think that I know what I am talking about, I do this sort of work for a living. Generally dot and dab will adhere to this type of board but treating the foam first is better. You can use what is called Knauf "bettakontakt" or British Gypsum "GypBond". They are paints with a sand like additive that gives a rough grainy finish. This will provide a good enough key for the dabs to adequately bond to the polystyrene.

It is unusual though, if correctly fixed, for the bond to come away after any length of time. Generally during the drying process the bond is weak on untreated boards and can come away completely within a few days whereby the board would then simply fall off the wall. This has happened to me before but due to the dabs freezing and then thawing out. If they have been on for a long time something has caused the dabs to come away from the ploystyrene...perhaps vibration or moisture. Perhaps however they have debonded consecutively, that is most of the bond went some time ago and as more bonds were broken more stress was placed on the surrounding bonds until they too broke...and so on...eventually only the skirting board and the ceiling line abutment will be holding the board on the wall!!

See this link....http://www.british-gypsum.com/pdf/wb_drilyner_08_06.pdf

If you can locate the dabs behind the board you may be able to screw directly though the board, dab and block but that would be a long job. I would prefer this option it's cheaper and less messy.
You could remove the board and start again. These boards aren't cheap though, about £25 each (2.40m x 1.20m).
Let me know what others are charging you and I'll tell you if it seems reasonable.

cargo

As I said above and everyone else whom is in the trade agree,s they should have a fixing (I was told this was in case of fire)
Needless to say I have not seen many jobs at all where these thermal boards have been fixed with screws/plastic nail plugs.
If you pop into your builders store to buy some thermal board you will not see the fixings around you would have to ask "I guess you would have to order them to"
In all honesty they seldom come away when they are just dabbed on I have not seen it before yet I have seen many normal boards come away.
my guess is as mentioned above they were probably installed on frosty day.

"a guy on our street had is paving layed and pointed up on New years eve the frost never cleared all day and I swear it was minus 5 when we went out in the car" it will be intresting to see if it is effected in some way.

MX5huggy

Who built the house? did it come with an NHBC Warranty?

Jamie_2-2

I'm not sure which company built the house but the NHBC warranty expired about 7 years ago. The house is 25% owned by a housing association and in with the monthly rent I pay them for their quarter share, they provide the building insurance. We're having a bit of a barny with them at the moment because they havent supplied us with a policy document for the last few years, whereas they used to. So basically if my house was to fall down (not that it will) i'd have to wait for the people at the housing association to get into work to contact them to contact the insurance company.

My wife did contact the housing accocation about the walls and they said ok we'll send out one of their maintenance team. After letting us down 3 days in a row the guy arrived he was really nice and said it's not dangerous but that he must cut a hole out to say whats going on behind the wall. He did that and left after reporting his findings on his mobile to the housing association. He then left. My wife spoke to ha later on and they said its not something that they will repair, nor will the insurance company pay out for that as it's not structural.

My wife asked them for the insurance details so she could find out for herself and they refused to give them!! haha dont you just love it!! Got them in the end after being told 1 wrong company (who were actually a broker).

She asked if they were going to at least come out and fix the hole, for which she received the reply 'oh I'll have to check that out for you and get back to you', which she never did. This was all just before xmas (24th in the morning to be exact).

Got fed up in the end so contacted CA who put us onto the Financial Ombudsman who are looking into it now!!

Just want them to fix my walls for peats sake, or put me out of my misery so I can fix them myself lol. But they will be made to replace the wall they cut a hole in at least will make sure of that.

Sorry for the ramble, things are never straight forward are they?