I hate plasterboard!

Tancred

Why do all new houses have plasterboard for internal walls? I hate the stuff. It's flimsy and you could destroy it with your fist, let alone a sledgehammer. :mad:

It seems that any house built after 1980 uses this material. You can even see the nails popping out of the stuff. Obviously it's a lot cheaper than bricks and mortar, but surely they could have used something stronger? Even UPVC would be better, surely. I've just shelled out £300k on a house made of cardboard! :mad::mad::mad:

DaftyDuck

Maybe you should have taken more than 10 minutes to look round it before buying.....

Tancred wrote: »

Clipboard and pen? Are you a surveyor?

10-15 minutes is all you need to decide whether a property is right - unless you want to do your own survey.

Tancred wrote: »

A house is a house. You can spend ages checking all this but the key things are:

1) You like it
2) It's big enough for your furniture
3) It's in a safe and convenient area
4) It's in an acceptable state of decoration etc.
5) The price is right

Everything else is superficial. If you're too fastidious you'll never find anything.

Tancred wrote: »

What do you mean by 'an informed buyer'? When you view the property you inform yourself without having to look at every nook and cranny. As for being spooked by surveys, this is mainly spotty twentysomethings who need daddy to cough up the deposit.

Tancred wrote: »

It's truth, not rubbish. I am assuming quite reasonably that you are looking at a standard modern property (1980 onwards). If you are looking at 'period' properties, thatched cottages and the like then you will certainly spend more time looking at things, but unless you are surveyor or at the very least a builder you are basically just being an anally retentive pain the backside to any vendor.

..... ad nauseum...


However, I do have sympathy. They don't build them like they used to....

Lord_Baltimore

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Maybe you should have taken more than 10 minutes to look round it before buying.....
..... ad nauseum...

However, I do have sympathy. They don't build them like they used to....

Ouch, bit cruel with the quotes, after all, if you want a new house you are going to get plasterboard whether you like it or not.

I agree it's rubbish but time is money and all that. Tancred still has a lovely, new, under guarantee, warm, efficient home

sham63

The architect on the "£100k House" programme on BBC2 at the moment (Piers?) hates the stuff as well and is always looking at alternatives.

He has used OSB board and sheet metal in recent episodes.

[Deleted User]

I have a 1950s-built house. Every damn wall is made of kryptonite. If I want to hang anything on the walls, i need to get a hammer drill out. It's a fricking nightmare

Don't be too upset about your 'easy to drill into and hang stuff off' walls

Dimey

I hate the stuff too

After about 5 years you start to see the join lines and the screw heads.

Its hard to hang TV or pictures as you need to line up with something more stable behind the plasterboard that can take the weight.

It dents so easily, you can mark it, evenjust by pushing in with a fingernail. If you have to make a hole for some reason the repair shows through the paintwork.

I could have gone for traditional plasterwork but I made the big mistake of listening to the builder who told me "all houses use plasterboard these days" Grrr.

ACG

I think hes more concerned that if you want to hang a heavy mirror for example your going to need about 10 screws to hold it but then because its been drilled so much the plasterboard just crumbles.

Its funny, i had some friends over from australia and EVERY house there has plasterboard, he couldnt understand why we had plaster.

If i was spending £300k on a house i think i would build my own.

Contessa

Tancred, I share your opinion on this.
My house has "proper" walls and I've never lived in a house with plasterboard walls. I'm trying to sell and move and I have viewed some houses with plasterboard walls. It does put me off and I hope to be able to buy one with "proper" walls. However two friends and I looked around a showhome. Two of us went upstairs and asked the third to wait downstairs and tell us me if he could hear us walking about, talking or shutting doors. He couldn't.

I also looked at a house that was about 10 years old that was on a big estate. My comment to the EA was that it was nicer than I had expected but a pity about the PB walls. He told me that this house was much better built than the ones currently being built on the same estate by the same builder.

Again, when looking at a showhome I asked about storage space in the loft and was told not to put anything heavy up there.

I'll still try to find a house without plasterboard walls but I may have to compromise (especially when cost is a factor)

Davesnave

Tancred wrote: »

It seems that any house built after 1980 uses this material.

Not so. The vendors who had our bungalow for 10 years moved many walls and re-built in block. The extension, done previously, in 1992, is also all blockwork.

All that would be understandable if they were load-bearing walls, but it needs none of them for structural integrity.

We shall be knocking most of the previous owner's walls down next year and re-building in timber, but there are various techniques that may be used to reduce noise transmission, so I'm reasonably happy with it. Those are often skimped in budget builds.

I'm just glad I have places where we can send 'their' walls without using skips, but I'd have preferred it if they'd used timber & plasterboard!

Davesnave

ringo_24601 wrote: »

I have a 1950s-built house. Every damn wall is made of kryptonite. If I want to hang anything on the walls, i need to get a hammer drill out. It's a fricking nightmare

Yes, my first place was a War Damage house, completely re-built on the same footprint in 1948.

They had to use any materials they could get at that time, but whatever it was, it broke quite a number of tools! :rotfl:

moneyistooshorttomention

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Maybe you should have taken more than 10 minutes to look round it before buying.....












..... ad nauseum...


However, I do have sympathy. They don't build them like they used to....

Try for one a little bit older than that and the phrase "modernising" comes up. Thankfully, mine has nice sturdy walls (not that it matters SO much...as its detached). I'm just going (even more) white-haired thinking:
- modernise central heating system
- modernise electrics (you know you need it when you realise the place could have caused you a fire:eek:)
- new bathroom
- new kitchen

etc
etc
etc

A nice new perfect sturdy house in the right location...and detached of course and a decent-size garden (is that an oxymoron? new house and decent-size garden in the same sentence that is?).

Don't think there is any such creature as The Perfect House somehows and certainly not on a restricted budget I'm afraid...

Right now...am trying to remind myself to be thankful that I haven't got walls that need replastering any longer or floors that would be all the better for being ripped out and changed...

My cynics take on standards expected by a home-owner boil down to "Will possibly put up with the level of amenities new houses had as the norm when they reached house-owning age....and certainly WONT put up with worse standards that even newer ones have". .....if that makes sense...