Plasterboarding ceiling - Tips?

DVardysShadow

Procrastinator333 wrote: »

3) What is the best way to cut plasterboard?

As already mentioned, cut through the paper on 1 side and fold back to open the cut.

A good way is to lay the sheet flat on the floor and make cuts both sides using a straight edge. Lift the sheet and place a piece of 2*1 timber accurately under the whole length of the cut on the retained material side with the edge aligned with the cut. Lift the board an drop it onto this edge. It breaks itself across the edge quite neatly.

If the waste piece is small, there won't be enough weight to do this, so use another piece of timber to apply force along the length of the cut with a sharp tap..

Fred_Bear_2

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the problem of uneven joists. My Victorian ceiling joists were very uneven, mostly bowed down but some up. To level them up I fixed two 100mm x 50mm pieces of timber in the loft at right angles on top of the joists and using bolts pulled up the joists which were bowed down. This also strengthened the whole ceiling. I have no idea how a professional plasterer would deal with it though.

Leif

I had a couple of ceilings overboarded recently. The plasterer put up the boards (huge 12.5mm thick ones) without any supports. I think he had a mate to help, but as far as I know his mate simply passed him the drill and screws while he held a board in place with one hand, and drilled and screwed with the other. I was astonished at how much he had done in part of a morning. Very neat plastering too.

BlueC

andrew-b wrote: »

Out of interest, is there any advantage of drywall screws over galvanised nails other than price when your going to plaster over the board after?
When we did some boxing in with plasterboard we used nails.

On a renovation screws are better as they won't disturb whatever else is attached to the joists. Banging nails into joists that have floorboards above them or other plasterwork attached to them could cause a big mess.

ormus

a drywall bit is very useful if you are doing a lot of PB ing.
otherwise take care with a normal driver. low torque setting.